Last night's run-through was a thing of beauty. One of the things that I love about the process is discovering things that I didn't know were there--and you'd think the writer would know what was there. But no, there were several connections, several links from one scene to the next, or moments of change and growth for the main character that just seemed to spring up out of nowhere.

Dan made me cry at several things that have never had an effect on me before; that's high praise. There are a few moments in this script that usually hit me, and I'm not someone who cries easily at books or movies or shows. One or two of them are personal--there's a story, a memory of World War II, that is a true story from my grandfather, and that seriously got to me in the rehearsal.

The undercurrents of humor, of amusement, of coping, all of those are stronger as well. One thing that seems to surprise people is just how much humor there is in the script, considering the subject matter. Dan and Joel have worked to keep that sense, to ground it in reality. Sometimes, you have to laugh just to keep going.

So, there it is. I thought it was a good play before. I had no idea.