Our Dogs dance. They dance in lines, in rows, at angles to each other, and (is the world ready for this?) in a kick-line. Our Papillon is a ballet dancer, too. Who knew?

Crissy Quebatay, our choreographer, brings her talents and skills to our hard-working cast. At first, our Dogs watch their own paws as they learn, but soon they are dancing like the best of canines. A delightful sight.

Dogs not only dance, they sing! Hillary Wicht, our vocal coach, is putting in a lot of extra time and effort with our cast. She has a bottomless well of patience and good humor, and is doing wonders with the many catchy and witty songs. We are learning that diction is vital – isn’t it always? – and our Dogs must emphasize their consonants. Imagine defining a “consonant” to a Dog!

It’s like a jigsaw puzzle. We opened the box, spread all the pieces out on the table, and turned them all right-side-up. Now we’re examining each piece, its shape, color, and how it makes sense. The rehearsal schedule is complex, because we are rehearsing each song with Hillary, and then choreographing it with Crissy, plus rehearsing the scenes between the songs, plus accommodating vacations, basketball, and other conflicts. This process is actually working. The inspiring cast is tackling each piece, but I wonder if any of them can imagine the assembled jigsaw puzzle picture.  I can, and I know it will be fabulous.

Suddenly, we were rehearsing in a small room with a table taking up all the space. Another group claimed they had reserved our spacious rehearsal hall, and - because we are Good Dogs - we courteously moved ourselves. Can progress be made in such circumstances? You'd better believe it! We focused on 20 pages and four songs, explored them, played with them, and made them come to life...what a cast!

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How to start? Where to start?

We have a terrific script. We have terrific songs. Rose had written the lyrics and melody lines, Althea is adding accompaniment. Althea’s also adding underscores and additional music, like Vapid Harp music for the beginning of Act One, and Fanfares for Rufahlo’s entrance.

We have a wonderful big room for rehearsals. We have a talented, enthusiastic, and willing cast.

But where to start?

We started with a read-through. Because of introductions and preliminary paper work, we scheduled the read-through over two nights. Then what?

I divided the script into “French scenes”: whenever anyone entered or exited, I drew a red line across the page. Then I gave a brief name to each French scene, trying to use action words.

Some actors are going to be away at some times. Some actors have other commitments at some times.

I realized that, with the time we have, we will only be able to rehearse each scene once before we begin run-throughs in March. Song numbers can have two rehearsals each, one with Hillary, one with our choreographer Crissy and me.

About nine hours of struggle later, I had a rehearsal schedule.

Now we can start.