Hard Graft.

After a week playing with actors and a trip to London to see the excellent Jerusalem - go see - hard graft set in as Matt and I took apart the first act of Buckland and looked for where the music would push the action on. Now we have a rough second draft and Matt is about to beaver away at the music while I set out on the relatively uncharted waters of the second act. He played me some of the stuff he's been working on this week and it was a real buzz hearing words that I'd had something to do with put to music and sung!
The end of next week has a particularly excellent jolly - sorry I meant three days of hard work - as I'm off to Newquay to a splendid hotel to work with other writers and teachers and theatre people on the plays that are going to be put on in schools as part of this year's Playhouse project. I was on it a couple of years ago and so I know what I'm looking forward to - it'll be fun.
And there was fun last night too when the wonderful Cosmic American Music brought Carlene Carter to the Maze in Nottingham. Very strange to hear her tales of being on the road with the Carter Family as a small child and realise that you're listening to someone who connects directly with a world that has vanished. A good night.