Nina is the director in one of the companies I write for – not the one with the Centipede. She called me the other day, and summoned me, because we had things to discuss. Several things.

So I reported to a sort of green-room meeting, and found Nina positively sizzling with ideas – hers and mine.

First of all, could I please prepare an abridged version of my Sonnets play for a staged reading, a sort of hors-d’oeuvre before they stage the whole thing in earnest next year?

And (before I could catch my breath) speaking of Shakespeare, why don’t I open their cycle of Shakespearean readings with… well, not exactly a conference, but a conversation about Shakespeare and Marlowe, with two to four voices to read pieces of my choice, and myself as a narrator?

Oh, and about an Italian Paper Stage – what a marvelous idea! And yes, we are most definitely doing it. Could I please manage the blogging side? And prepare something-something for their website too?

“Only if you feel like it, of course..”

As if I would turn down any of it. As if she thought I would…

It’s quite some work – with a strictish deadline, because roles and readings will have to be handed out before the company disbands for vacations at the beginning of august, and the rest must be ready for the press-conference in which the company will present the season, at the beginning of September. So last night I sat up until four to work on what Nina and I have named the Small Sonnets, to begin with, and I expect a repeat tonight, and then there will be the matter of choosing the readings, and the blog, oh the blog – and let’s not forget two conferences, and the summer course I’m teaching in August…

This is going to be a busy summer.