Rehearsals for Yappie the Musical were supposed to start last week. Then we heard from Johns Hopkins University & Peabody that all performances and events were canceled and that the college and conservatory would be transitioning to online classes until April 12 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. I was trying to finish up the script when we scheduled a late night FaceTime meeting to discuss our options. It took some time to wrap my head around what limiting access to JHU/Peabody might mean for our musical. Knowing that so much was out of our hands, we decided to move forward with the table read but to move it to Sunday. A few days later, we decided to suspend rehearsals until further notice.
I’m not sad or disappointed with where we are with Yappie the Musical. To be sad or mad would be short-sighted on my part. My work will still exist regardless of what happens. If we can’t share this musical with you in May, we are determined to find a way to share it with the world somehow, some time.
That’s not to say it hasn’t been a challenging/difficult/interesting past few days. I promised to send the draft of the script to the cast. I am trying to maintain some kind of momentum. Let me confess now that I haven’t had the head space to finalize the script.
I think about my parents who are in their 60s and 70s, my sister who is alone in another state, my neighbors who have chosen not to practice social distancing, headlines and graphs and data on COVID-19, and my family in the Philippines who are in a lockdown right now. I think about my own privilege: ability to work from home, internet access, a comforting home. I think about how it feels to not be able to breathe when my asthma hits because of cold air, stress, or exercise, and wonder if that’s how it would be without a ventilator. I’ve suppressed these thoughts for days now, choosing instead to focus on finishing the script. But to no avail. So I’m releasing these thoughts, letting them mix with the rest of our anxieties as we reconfigure our lives not just for the temporary, but for the long-run.
I am also trying not to kick myself for not being “productive” during this time. Do I have a whole host of projects/tasks I’ve wanted to work on for a while? Yes, of course I do—filing my taxes being one of them (if I get “nothing done” let my taxes be something I do get done). I am reminding myself that it’s ok to take a few days to process, that there is no requirement to pivot as quickly as others do, and that I will finish this script.
Hopefully we’ll be able to share Yappie the Musical with you in some way this spring. Thank you so much for supporting us thus far. Be well and see you soon.
three generations 