Forbidden Phoenix
Just came out of a meeting with the Citadel artistic director and had some very good notes about the script. I'm always amazed at how a writer and director can get so close to a script that they can't see the forest for the trees. It was nice to have someone come at the script who didn't see the workshop and could look at the whole thing as a first time audience member.
Some of the notes were about the nature of the Iron Dragon and what it represented. Also, there was confusion about what kind of villain was Horne and what he would do once he had the Iron Dragon. I think the fixes are pretty simple... well, relatively speaking. I have to cycle through the entire script and flag any lines that may generalize too much, and make sure that everything is specific and clear. It's the second hardest part of the job (creating the first draft is the hardest part), but I have to think very logically and distance myself from the script and look at it as if I were a first-time audience member.
Anyway, the notes were great to kick my butt into the final stretch. I'm getting together with my composer and director on Monday to cycle through the script and just kick the crap out of it, so that I can go away and fix all the holes that we created. It's going to be hard work, but it's better to get kicked around now than after the show has opened and I can't do anything to fix the story.