Hey, Sean! Why aren’t you sleeping?

Posted July 15th, 2004 by Sean Williams

Thanks for asking! Several reasons, it turns out.

1) The show I’m doing right now is the perfect balancing act for my type of insomnia. The rehearsals are wonderful enough and the rest of the cast is fun enough that I walk out of rehearsal thrilled. However, this isn’t a cast of outrageous talent and we have about three more rehearsals. And we’re not off book. And large stretches of the show haven’t been staged. And we keep cancelling the few rehearsals we have. And it’s a musical. So, y’know, there’s that.

2) My friend Deb is about to make the biggest mistake of her life, but there’s nothing I can do about that. She’s marrying a bad man.

3) The show I’m about to do is running during the week of Steve’s wedding. The only good thing about that is we are starting rehearsals on August 1 and, instead of opening the 13th (which was a possibility), we’re opening the 18th. Again, I’m excited about the play itself, but the producers are first time and are a little shaky. A google search reveals that we are listed on the Fringe site and that’s it, and for a show in the fringe, we are gonna sink without a trace. But I’m excited about all other aspects and since I’m not producing, I’m just gonna focus on acting for once.

4) I have been writing a lot of music lately, my tri-annual musical itch getting scratched, and it’s changing my ears in a painful way. For instance, the song “Crash” by Lisa Germano has a snare sound in it that made me cry on the subway. Seriously, why would I make something like that up, it’s gay as hell, but it happened. “Wicked Little Town” from the soundtrack to Hedwig was making my heart feel like a deployed airbag. And when you are hearing that clearly, when tiny moments are just *fucking* with you, do NOT listen to Revolver.

I mean, how were they that good? For the rest of you, is there someone you turn to that shames you? If you are trying to write a TV drama, do you check in on The West Wing and think you are in the presence of greatness? At the end of “Here, There and Everywhere” there are doubled finger snaps for about 8 measures, which I had heard before, but they start when the vocal line on “love never dies” splinters and they stop when Paul sings the final “here, there, and everywhere” not at the end.

Yep, that’s keeping me up.

5) A new wrinkle, I seem to have hurt my shoulder. It’s actually a fair amount of pain, enough that it wakes me up when I roll over. Of course, I’m an insomniac, so mice next door wake me up, but I’ve still decided to go to a doctor and get my shoulder looked at. I’m hoping I can just get a shot and finish the eighth and ninth, I’m so close to a perfect game…

6) I love the idea of being part of a community of creative people who are developing entertainment for the masses, and sometimes I feel really close to being in that community and other times it feels like I’m just like those guys who smoke pot and sit on a couch and say, “they should make a TV show about skateboarding. Y’know?” Although I don’t smoke pot, and I don’t think they should make a TV show about skateboarding, sometimes I feel like if you’re on the couch, you’re on the couch, the rest are just details.

7) I’d like to have a career as an actor. Right. Now. Anyone with ideas can email me.

8) I’m just kidding about Deb.