 Hi. Hi. It's five o'clock. Lovely to see you guys. You peoples. Laura and mercy. Okay. I'm not going to tell you what I'm agreeing to do. Um, yes. Okay. So for those of you who. Don't know what we're doing. This is watch me work. Well, thank you. For the meaning of the title is you and it's all about you and your work and your creative process of Susan L. Parks. We're giving a big thank you to the public theater. And a big thank you to howl around because they make this incarnation of law spring work possible. We've been doing it for over 10 years. We started in the lobby of the public theater. And we've been chugging along ever since. is we work together for 20 minutes, and then we spend the rest of the hour talking with you about your work and your creative process. And that's basically what we do. So if you have questions for me about your work and your creative process, please Audrey's gonna tell you how to get in touch. Thanks, SLP, glad to be here. So if you have a question on your inside of the Zoom, all you need to do is click on the raise your hand which is in the reactions tab, likely on the bottom of your screen on a laptop or the top if you're on an iPad or a tablet. And you can also tweet at us at watch me work SLP with the hashtag howlround, H-O-W-L-R-O-U-N-D, or you can tweet at the public theater or write to our Instagram. And I think that those are the ways, and SLP my phone is in the other room so I'm gonna do our timer on my laptop today. Ooh, just so you know. Oh, you're muted. I'm having a glorious day right here. Yeah, so here we go. Hello. Hey. Hey, so, so. So, oh, we've got a question. Hi. Go for it, Alexis. Alexa, so sorry. Can you unmute? There you go. Is it happening? Okay, sorry. It's happening. It's happening, Alexa. Hi, it is so incredible to meet you. I was actually at Joe's Pub last week. I've been more honored and grateful and just inspired by your work. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. We're so happy to be here. That's, you know, we're bringing the love. I feel it so much. So about me, I'm currently working on my most ambitious script yet. It's my like fourth full length. I'm really excited. It's about discovery, transformation, connecting with yourself. And so it's pretty personal and experimental. I'm excited to bring in different, you know, dance and music like you do and some magical realism and really exciting. And I know that it's going to involve other collaborators. So I'm excited to finish my draft and show it to other people and audiences. But I'm also kind of enjoying having this little world to myself because I'm sure you can relate to and like I want to share it, but I don't want to share it. So I'm kind of curious how you decide when to share your work with other people. And if there are certain questions you ask yourself or things you consider or kind of sending it into the world. Great question, Alexa. Fantastic question. Yeah, it's really good because the thing is, things I ask myself are, maybe not so much as am I ready, right? But is it ready? I get a certain point. The child is, you know, whatever, it's five years old. I mean, unless you, you know, want to have that, you know, homeschool or whatever, he got to go to school, right? He's ready. He's ready. He needs to be an interactor. They need to be interacting, you know, on that other level, you know, they need to go next level. So is the work ready? Now how you answer that question is how, and then it's about you. Is the work ready? Answer, have I done everything I can? You know what I mean? Or is it kind of like one of those drafts and we've all been there like, oh man, I'm kind of like, I don't feel like doing a rewrite. I don't know, I like that. I need some help to do my job. Now, if you're in that place and you're not, but if one finds themselves in that place of, I need another, do another draft, but I work better when I'm around people, you know, sit your, you know, behind down or stand at your desk and do your work. So if you've done everything that you need to do, then the work is ready. Yeah. Then you were ready to open the door and even though it might be a little scary on look, the door just opened and in comes the pumpkin pie festival. Hold on just a sec, I have to chastise. My kid walks in the door, he says, I'm not late. You said 415. I feel like, in what universe do you live in? Anyway, so, okay, but you're quiet now. So the question is, have you done everything that you need to do, that you can do? Have you done that draft that might be kind of hard, but you got to do it anyway. And then, and then, and then you were ready. So it's not about external deadlines so much, you know? Well, that producer said they needed it by Tuesday to consider it for their festival or whatever. Who cares? Because you need to do your work. So you need to find out some kind of way to get, what you need to get done, done by a certain deadline. Okay? Yeah, awesome. Yeah, so just, I mean, and I really, I don't let it out the door until I've done the work that I need to do on it. Yeah. And can I ask, and I want to ask you questions, are there people in your inner circle who you'll share those earlier drafts with or do you really not let it out until you've done all the work that you think you can do? Sure, inner circles right here. So last week or the week before last, and you will test for this child. So my husband was away visiting his parents in Germany and I had to work on the songs, not last week, whenever it was three weeks ago. And I just played him in a living room to the 10-year-old. I figured the 10-year-old likes him, we got that going. So it's just family, you know? Right, yeah. Or friends or you're close, sure. Sure, the plays, you read them to the spouse or the emotional support creature or, yeah, yeah, I mean, we're not talking like, oh, you must not talk to anybody before, you know, it's not that weird. Yeah, thank you so much. Sure, but sure, definitely. And you want to, again, Alexa, because I don't think we've had this conversation before, you want to ask the opinion in that close inner circle and then widen it at all. So you want to ask the opinions of people who care more about you than they care about seeing their ideas in your work. Yeah, yeah. Okay, absolutely. I just want to be mindful of that. Absolutely. Okay. Thank you again. Good seeing you, yeah, sure. Thank you. Thanks, Alexa. All right, let's go to Larry. Go for it, Larry. Good to see you, man. Good to see you. Good to see you again, yeah, hi. So you were just doing that, I don't want a voice. So I'll skip the part, but I've been having a lot of it and I want it. So I appreciate you calling that out. I am still working in Sisyphean fashion on my Sisyphean display. And I think I've said here before that I tried to work it collaboratively and it's sort of devised and all this stuff. And I have just this ridiculous Sisyphean mountain of material. And through working it with other people, I've been kind of gone through phases of collaborating with different people on it. And it just keeps sending me, I guess, the wrong way. And so I had a mentor who just basically forbid me. He says, you're basically hoarding. He says, what do they do on hoarders? They take out the blue tarp. You can only keep what fits on the blue tarp. Very good. And he sort of forbid me, he forbid me from writing anymore. He says, you have enough material. You're a director. You're a dramaturge. He says, you have to make this play work with what you have. And so I've just started tearing down this mountain of material to try to just like, all right, what if it's just all there and I have to keep and give away? So I guess I'm just curious if you have any experience with overwriting and particularly, I have a feeling like, maybe this is just not even all for one play. Maybe I'm trying to fit many plays in one play. So yeah, I'm in an extreme place of, I don't wanna, and overwhelmed, overwhelmedness and I need to edit. I need to give up my hoarding and let go of some darlings. So just wonder what comes to mind in your experience. Sure, sure, that's a great question, Larry. It's, no, I mean, first you have to know like, where does it go when you throw it away? You know what I mean? And maybe we imagine it goes into the land the time forgot through the valley of the shadow of death and it dies a lonely death like a worm on a sidewalk after it rains. If SLP doesn't come pick them up, I pick up worms off sidewalks and throw them back in the dirt. I hope it helps, I'm hoping. But where does your work go? You wrote a beautiful monologue or gorgeous, right? I mean, I think we're slow to cut or prune sometimes because you think it's just gonna go like somewhere awful, right? Give me, is that a concern? Yeah, I mean, not a huge concern because I know like the writing doesn't go anywhere. It's on my computer, I can pick it up anytime. Sort of reminds me of, you know, I am, I got this whole idea and this whole cluttering thing that's in the script because I am one and my dad is like a real super, super hoarder. And so, you know, it's like, take a picture of it, throw it out and you have the picture of it. All you need is the picture of it to remember it, but you don't need it in your house. So there are things like that, you know, where... That's interesting, you didn't tell me that part. So you actually, so it's not just overwriting, it's actual, your father's an actual hoarder, did you just say that or did I do that? Yeah. That's very interesting. Okay, well, this is in the writing world, when you cut, you throw something, you can imagine you're cutting something and you're throwing it on the ground and you're throwing it on fertile ground. So it's not just about having it on your computer, it's better than that actually. You're pruning and you're throwing it on fertile ground that that action allows it to grow, grow somewhere in a good place. It's not just about like, it's all in there in my chest of drawers or in my hope chest or whatever, you know, in my cabinet, you know? It's not like that, it's much better than that. Yeah. And you're throwing it onto some very fertile ground where it can bloom and blossom and grow and have a wonderful life and also be available to you should you want to pick from it and incorporate it into something else or use it as the basis of something else. Okay, so that's where work goes when we cut. So we cut with, we cut joyously. I overwrite but, you know, so, I mean, I have, I mean, drafts and drafts and drafts, you know what I mean? Of things and, I mean, those of you who saw play for the play gears, you know what I mean? That was a lot of material, you know? We had to prune down to make it digestible. We had whatever 20 hours of material, what more? We had to prune down to Audrey's shaking her head, prune it down to like two hours or three hours or something, you know? So we just know that when we discard something, it's being set up for a nicer incarnation. I think a lot of it, first of all, that is so beautiful and I'm probably going to steal what you just said many times. You don't have to steal it. I'm giving it to you, Lauren. Thank you. Thank you, thank you. Even better, even better. But that's just beautifully said and very much a metaphor for what's in the play. The other, I think part of it, I think I'm realizing as you talk is that a lot of, I think the clutter is trying to make sense and trying to be linear. And one of my friends gave me some very good feedback because she was there sort of at the beginning that I was trying to work on this. And she said, when she read the draft, she's like, it looks like you're trying to write a play. I thought you were just doing like some sort of theatrical event on a theme. I thought it was just like, you know, she's like, why are you trying to make so much sense and connect all, why are you trying to connect so much? And so I think there's a lot of connective tissue that I think I need to do, frankly, what I tell my students and trust that it's theater and I can just jump from thing to thing rather than having them, I don't know, explaining why they go together, you know? So that just came to mind. Could be, that sounds like it would be also helpful. Yeah, all right, well, thank you. I just appreciate you getting some new language around it. Thank you, good question. Thanks, Larry. All right, Erica, it's all you. In your car. Hello, I'm so excited. I saw you at Signature Theater where you were playing the piano with your husband and such a good experience. And I always go there to do work because it's quiet and awesome. All right, thank you. But I had questions about, I am venturing into this playwriting sphere. I finished my first pilot a couple of months back. And I'm curious, what advice do you have for newer playwrights, one so that you, because it's just like submitting my work, even the pilots that I'm writing now, submitting them to festivals, it's a lot of rejection, you know, it's hard not to be discouraged. The other part of that is like, what programs are you aware of for like newer playwrights? And then going off with some of the feedback that you've gotten that was talked about earlier, and sending your work out to be reviewed by other people. Do you always copyright your stuff before you send it to anyone in case someone tries? Yeah. Yeah, need some ideas. Or try to come up with their own. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. All good questions, Erica. So for, I suggest, send your work out, because you got to get in the habit of sending your work out to people you don't know, you know, sometimes, right? And you got to work that muscle. That's a muscle that needs to be worked interaction with strangers who are going to perhaps hire you, perhaps put your work in their festivals. Perhaps not. That's a muscle that we got to work as creative people. Definitely copyright your material. Definitely. It'll give you peace of mind. It'll give you just a feeling of, yes, I am taking myself seriously, you know? You can, I don't know, you know, there are many ways to do it. You send it to the copyright office. You can look that up online, right? But definitely copyright your own material. That's a way to just respect yourself and respect your wonderful things that you're writing. Okay. I would suggest also, in addition to interacting with strangers, sending your work out there and getting your work copy, send it to the copyright office. I would also suggest, hold on, quiet, please, Durham. Lower your voice, sir, thank you. I would suggest that you also develop and continue to develop a close-knit circle of folk, you know, you can join writing groups. And again, you're copyrighting your material before you read it in the writing group, you know what I mean? But you're joining writing groups so that you can have really good interaction with people who are also writers and other creative types. Here's a good writing group. We don't read our work here, but we do sort of support each other. But there are other groups that would, you actually will read from your work. That's super helpful. And then there are, you know, graduate programs and things like that that are good. They're also writing retreats, you know? You can do like weekend writing retreats with mentors that are taught. And there are oodles and oodles of them. You look at catalogs like Omega, which I don't know where you live, I'm looking at that sunset going, where do you live, America? Where do you live? Oh, hold on. There you go. I'm actually in between Virginia and New York. I'm a photographer too. So this is from a protest. And I do sunfets a lot of sunfets. Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous. But you can look online and look for cool writing workshops that are like give you a week away with a mentor writer or like Omega and Reinebeck New York if you're, you know, up here, they have great writing teachers just if you want a sort of a short thing. Natalie Goldberg teacher, it was a wonderful writing teacher, teachers online. That's a really wonderful way to get to know people. And I guess the last part of that question was like programs. I mean, because when you're a writing writer, I look at all, I go back and I read some of the profiles that people have had. They submitted it to, it used to be the Lark where you- The Lark. And then all of their programs got transferred to various theaters around New York City. So sad, I was so sad. But like now- Crystal's given some information in the chat. Crystal's from Adam's family. She says what rattles, well, I was trying to read your, what did you say, Crystal? Rattlestick and Naked Angels. Is that what you were saying, Crystal? She's nodding her head, you see her? Could you unmute, Crystal, please? Got it. Go for it. Crystal, could you give us, yeah. Yeah, they have like different forms. The rattlestick does this thing that I believe Keith Randolph Smith is also a part of. I don't know if they opened it up due to COVID and everything, but I think if they haven't yet, they will. And Naked Angels is a program that a friend of mine, he goes and you can bring, I think five or 10 minutes of your work and have that seen by other people. So it's just like a place to just share work and like share whatever process that you're in, wherever you're at in your process, you can share that. Those are great, great ideas, yeah. Those are two really good places they've been around for a while. And they'll also, Erica, they'll also get you in community, you know what I mean? You'll get you into the community, which is really an essential part of, as you know, your photographer, you know, you're in the visual arts community. You got to jump into the theater and performing arts community too. That makes sense? Yeah, I'm also taking, I'm in the Global Virtuous Conservatory at Atlantic, doing acting thing. But, okay, there you go. But it's just the, I'm very, it's just hard cause like you have the copyright and the copyrighting thing just to make sure people don't just run away with an idea. If you, even if you don't- Just copy, just copy, it's just you go online and send it in to the copyright office. Ain't no big deal, is that it's nothing? Yeah. It's not a big deal, you just do, it's just something you got to do. Like, shoot, I got to, gee, I got to, you know, I don't know what, open my mail. I got to pay my bills. I may as well- It's part of what we do. It's just along the, I got to type. I got to make sure there are no typos in the script. I mean, it is just one, it's just another thing we do. It's not that, it ain't deep. That part of it ain't deep. No. Gotcha. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Good question. Thanks, Erica. All right, we've got about 15 minutes left and we're going to go to, I think this is Erin. Erin, are you there? Hi, you know. Hi. Hey. Hey. Hey, hey everybody. Hello, hello, wow. This is such a wonderful opportunity. Thank you so much. So I am in the throes of writing my second full-length piece. And right now I'm sort of in the mid, I'm kind of like that mid-slump part of writing. And I've been here before and used to finding different ways and different methods of bringing out my characters throughout this sort of mid-range slump of where we go now. I have an idea for the ending and how I want to move my characters to the end. And I've been kind of trucking along, making great progress. Now I'm sort of like, all right, where do they go now? So my question to you is how do you sort of move your characters sort of mid-show to get to your ending? Or is there any sort of method or tactic that you use or inspiration that you sort of gather the sort of the energy to move them or the inspiration to move them to your ending? That's great, man. So you're finishing your second full-length piece and you're in that middle of that dip. Yeah, it's like if you're hanging laundry on a line and the other sheet goes like that a little bit, right? Yeah, it's like a little bit. And it's great, man. You've been there before. You know it's something you're gonna come out of. You have tools and tactics to add a few more to your arsenal of tools and tactics. I believe in, especially if you know where you wanna end, right? So I believe in like just running as fast as you can, screaming, that's good. Like, because when you're screaming, what are you doing? I'm letting go of the need to be good. As fast as you can, right? Right, as fast as you can. Like, how many pages you think you gotta go to the end? 10, 30, what? I'd say about maybe 10. Only 10 pages, that's fantastic. So you can like write like, I don't know what, like I don't know, two pages a day maybe? I mean, what do you think? Does that do it? Is that like cool? Yeah, yeah. Where the hell are you? My thing about two, maybe one and a half pages a day. Okay, okay. So let's do one page a day, right? Okay, this is the thing. One page a day, how long is it gonna take you? Like, what are you saying? Page is gonna take you how long a day to write? About a half hour. Half hour, great. Okay, so you set your timer, right? What's your favorite part of the day to work? It's morning, morning. Fantastic, okay. So you set your timer, right? Your timer, 30 minutes, right? There you are, right? What do you do? You type? Or you write long hand, what do you do? Computer. Fantastic, okay. Okay, so here you are, right? Okay, 30 minutes. You're gonna write a page. Whoa, okay, 30 minutes. Okay, great. So I'm done for today. I'll show up tomorrow. You're back at it tomorrow, 30 minutes. I mean, of course you're not typing like that. You're typing much more elegantly than that, right? And you just keep hitting it. You can make yourself a calendar. Oh, look, you know what I love? I love paper calendars. I happen to have one right here. See this the month of April, okay? And you can like make yourself a paper calendar or like print one out. That's because somebody already made it for you, right? And you can just X off the days and you can be like, huh? After the end of each day or each writing period, where you've written a page, and then by day 10, you can have a party. COVID safe, you know, party. You know what I'm saying, right? Okay, you give yourself a reward. It doesn't have to be, you know, we don't want you to spend money that we don't have. You know, we don't do that. We spend money, buy things, something you can afford and just hit it every day. 30 minutes a day, 30 minutes a day in 10 days you're gonna be done. In 10 days it's gonna be what? What is it gonna be? Whatever day it's gonna be. 10 days from now. Can you put in some time today? I can, no, no, yeah, yeah. Hey, okay, great. Just run, run as fast as you can. Right. No, thanks. And by the time you get to the end, it's gonna be like, yeah, right? I love that. That's like my favorite part writing. There you go. Fade out or end of play. That's that. There you go. There you go. Like this huge weight lifts off. So, I mean, I enjoy the writing process, but yeah, no, that helps. That helps to kind of just focus on just the writing part of it and getting through that because I definitely get to that that sort of close wire slump there. And I'm like, well, why would they say that? Or how am I gonna- Who cares? Who cares? There you are. Try to be a good writer. Oh, you stop? Right. Who cares? Why would they say that? Oh my God, that's stupid. Who cares? Who cares? Who cares? Right. Who cares? Right. You gotta let go of the need to be good and embrace the need to be done. You just gotta get it done. You'll be good later. Well, thank you. That helps. You're welcome. It really works. Thank you so much. I definitely- You're welcome so much. Thanks. Great question, man. That's a really good question though. A lot of us are there, right? Yeah. A little bit. Thanks, Erin. Thank you. Thank you. All right, up next is either, is it Theo or Theo? We're gonna find out. Go for it. Theo. Hi. Hi, Theo. Hi. So, oh God. Okay. I'm probably like the youngest here. I'm currently in high school. We were in high school once, weren't we? Everybody. Yeah. So- Welcome. Well, thank you. I wrote this movie, scripting for my theater class, and I was really struggling with the motivation to write it and stuff, and it's completely finished now, but I'm starting to rewrite the rewrite. And I'm just kind of struggling like on how to make characters kind of piggybacking on what Erin said, but trying to really build on some certain scenes and sort of add suspense. It is a horror movie. Yeah, I just, I've never really done anything like this. Most of my work has been mostly like poetry or more on the, yeah, it's, or essays and stuff. So I'm just kind of confused on like where to start and how to gain that motivation to start writing so I can actually progress into, yeah. Cool, cool. Well, look, if you've done poetry and essays, I mean, congratulations for trying something new because it's not easy even when you're a youngster, such as yourself. And it's a good muscle to keep working at folks, those of us who are no longer in high school, to re-brave enough to try something new is always a good thing. Essays, poetry, are there characters in your essays? Are there your poems? Would you say? Yes, I tend to do that. Okay, okay. So in movies and TV shows and theater stuff, our characters are like, it's all about the character, one could say. Just, that's a thought experiment. Okay, it's all about the character. So I would say get really deep into thinking about what does, what do my characters want? What do my characters want? Like, have you heard of like Hamlet, the play? Yeah, great. Okay, this is something we can talk about. So Hamlet, you'd say, well, you can talk, yeah, the plays about this theme and that theme and all this great stuff, right? But really, yeah, sure. But to really write it in a really visceral way, I always suggest to folks, think about your characters. What do they want? What does Hamlet want? Hamlet comes home, well, he comes home for his mom's wedding or is it his dad's funeral, right? And he realizes, oh, shit, someone killed my dad. Oh, shit, I wanna find out who the fuck that was. Excuse me, I'm using that language. But anyway. No, you're good, you're good. But you write, who, who killed dad? And then when I, and what am I gonna do about it? Right? Right? So I realize I have like a sunspot on my forehead. Anyway, so we really get into the characters. There's a, you know, geometry, right? Do you do, have you done geometry yet? Yes, I'm in it now, yeah. Oh, great, okay, well, this is perfect. So in geometry, if I remember correctly, in high school was about 100 years ago for me, there's a, two points make a line. You guys say that, right? In geometry, two points make a line? Yeah. Fantastic, okay. Same as in playwriting. Where your character is now, can you see my finger? And where you want your character to be? These two points, right? Where they are now, where they are by the end of the play, make a line of dialogue, but I'm bummed, okay? So where I am at the beginning of my play and where I wanna go is gonna inform all my lines of dialogue, okay? As in geometry, so in playwriting. That just, I just made it up, but it's true, okay? So you gotta think about what do my characters want and that can really energize your writing. So try that, you know, you can even make a list, like character number one, they want such and such and they're gonna do this and that to get it. Will that help you? Yeah, you did, thank you. And if I didn't, that's okay too, it's free. No, no, it's okay, no, no, you didn't help me. I've been having a really hard time doing this. This is my third rewrite of it, so. Oh, oh good, no, no, no, welcome to the club. We rewrite often. We are, yeah, you know, right? I mean, we are writers, we rewrite. That's the other, like pro tip, get used to it. Thank you. You're welcome. Thanks, Theo. All right, we've got about four minutes left and let's go to Crystal. Go for it, Crystal. Hi. I'm good. Who is this? Who is that? My daughter, Sophia. Hi. Hi. Chris, how are you? I think it's an honor. Yeah, I got a sign up. Trying to, it bouncing off the back of my computer. It's crazy, anyway. So, okay, now I'm a little nervous. It's like looking at you like mom. Yeah, be cool, right? Be cool, right? Your mom is so cool, girl. Obviously so cool, yeah, totally. Okay, go ahead. Okay, so in a couple of weeks or a few weeks, I play the father Chronicles, is gonna be seen at the J-Cal in Jamaica, Queens. Congratulations. Thank you. The first, about a half an hour of it is gonna be presented. And I have not been in the rehearsal room at all. And I kind of preferred that. As I was asked to trim it down a little bit more and I'm like, oh, wow, like I haven't had to touch this. I've just kind of given it and been okay with that because it came straight from inside. And as I'm like trimming and working on it, I was like, I have to watch this as a writer, but also as a person who wrote this and from the place where it came from. And it's also being shown a few days from the second anniversary of my father's death. And so I'm kind of like, I'm kind of not sure how to proceed with going to like the tech, which will be the first time I'll see it done by the actors. And it's the first time that I hear that portion of the play heard out loud, which happens to be the father daughters, not the father sons. And it's like, I almost don't feel like ready to hear it cause like just everything kind of came, and it really, I don't know if she hadn't asked me to trim down some things or like touch it. I probably maybe would have been fine, but now it's like when I looked at the work and was like, oh wow, like I still have to work on this. Like it's any other piece, but like all of those things came to mind where it's like, wow, it's gonna fall on the week. It's gonna fall on that Monday. It's gonna, and all of these swarming thoughts came and I just kind of felt like, how do I approach this as like a professional when it's the most personal thing I've ever written. And I just don't, I don't know how else in this process how to approach it as a writer. I hope I'm making a little bit of sense. A little, no, I agree. I would say that don't approach it as a professional. Approach it as an amateur with love, you know, that's what amateur means, right? Amateurs do it for the love, professionals do it for the money. So approach it like an amateur, approach it with love, I'm sorry, I'm holding my hand. I'm having a lot of bounce back from the sun. That's okay. It's during the, it's close, it's premiering close to your dad's death, your dad's talking to you. Your dad's saying, hey girl, here you go. I'm so proud of you. You know, just be grateful, even if the play, even if the content of the play is, you know, fraught and angry and whatever the content of the play is, it doesn't matter, you know. It doesn't matter, it's lining up so you can be aware of what's going on. And it's good. It's only good. Go and bring loved ones that you can help, will help you process the moment or the moments, you know. Now, if you want, bring some sage or put some a clove of garlic in your pocket just in case there's some people who are less than kind. You know what I mean? Yeah. Carrie, you know, hold something that is dear to you or your daughter's name is Sophia. Yeah. You know, is it appropriate for Sophia to go? She's 16. Why? I'm just asking, I don't know. No, no. I'm just asking, you know what I'm saying? No, she's, yeah. I was like, look at her, look at her. I'm at the high school up ahead now. Hi. Hi. All right, look at Jesus, Lord have mercy. Okay, but, you know, but if it's appropriate, you know, to bring, you know, family, you know, bring people. Tell, talk to the director, tell her, tell them, I don't know what they're gonna tell them that you might only be able to stay for a few minutes or, you know, you might walk out. It's not about them, you know. Yeah. Might be hard for you. Bring some snacks. Okay. Snacks, very important. Snacks. Yeah. Treat yourself like a trailer. Show up like an amateur. Got it. I got it. Yeah, got it. That's what, we're, look at us here. We're not doing this for money up here. I mean, we would not be able to do that, watch me work if it weren't for, you know, the generosity of the public theater and howl around, but we ain't doing this for money. We're showing up like amateurs. Huh. Yeah. I like that a lot. I'm just making this sit up girl, but you know, it's true. I'm so proud of you. You're getting your work, you're getting your work produced, right? Because we know you all these years, you've been working and working and working and just keep getting stuff done and keep getting stuff made and keep making work. You're so brave and strong and awesome and badass adult word children. Hey, good for you though. Good for you. Thanks. Thank you. Thank you. We love you guys. What a nice lovely turnout today. Thank you. What is this? The week before Easter, is it? So, you know, we're all here showing up. We are all here. 603. 603. I have one little thought. It's interesting. I was, yeah, I had an experience, you know, the mountains, you know, we think of mountains. I mean, we have to move mountains and sometimes roll. And Larry was saying roll a stone up a mountain and you know, all this kind of stuff. And there's so many ways to move mountains or to, sometimes you can walk around it, sometimes you can enlist your community to help you move it or dig underneath it. I realized the other day that you, in the tradition of one of our religions, you can go up on the hill and you can die on a hill. And that's not bad. So, if you ever have given everything you can to something, you know, your best work, you've done your best. You've been as kind and loving as you can be. You've worked as hard as you can be. You've done everything right. And it still doesn't work out. You feel like I died on that hill. You're not in bad company. There's a whole tradition of people who die on the hill. And then what do you do next? You go down in the cave and you come back out better. So that's one religious tradition, but it's, you don't have to adhere to that religious tradition for it to work for you because it is a myth. It's also a myth. It's a story. It's a yarn. Okay. So it just occurred to me the other day. Yay. Love you guys. Love you guys. Love this gathering of beautiful people. You're the best SLP. Yeah, now you're the best. We'll see you next week. Okay. Love you. Bye. Thank you. Thank you. Bye-bye. Thanks.