the urgency of not-now

Had an interesting exchange with someone at an audition this weekend; he expressed disbelief that we were prepping All's Fair (Six Western) this far in advance of its Fall bow. But I am disbelieving of that belief. I fully understand that in the rough-and-tumble world of off(x19)-Broadway, we improvise to the very edge of chaos because we must: we have no money, no permanent space, no guarantee that anyone will come see the work once it's open to public consumption.

But is that an excuse to get sloppy? Shouldn't all work be given as much preparation as possible? And if that means just one person hunched over a script months in advance of opening to get it right, so be it. We shouldn't use the lack of a solid or well-known platform as an excuse not to take the work seriously until the final six weeks. Just as performers get better with more rehearsal, scripts get better through re-writing, and overall production concepts get more refined the earlier you start thinking about them.