After weeks of frustration at my second rotation blog having been deleted, I am finally getting over myself and returning to the blogging fray once more. This will be a combined look at the middle two rotations of the summer.

I have a confession to make. The first time I saw The Wedge I almost burst into tears. It was the day we arrived in Ithaca and even though we had (many!) official tours scheduled for later in the week, we couldn't wait. So Mikey, who had been an AD here a few years ago, took us right over to see it. Tamara, Kerry and Mikey burst into the room, beaming. As they ran around looking at every nook and cranny of the bizarre space, their eyes glowing with ideas and excitement, I stood in the doorway frozen. I was speechless. Then confused. Then terrified. I mentally crossed two of the plays I'd considered choosing off my list. Then I remembered the fleeting thought I'd had weeks before about Metamorphoses, by Mary Zimmerman - a play I'd adored since seeing it at Second Stage years ago. Suddenly The Wedge became the perfect alternative to the 80-foot swimming pool that the original production required.

Now don't get me wrong, there was still plenty to be terrified about. This was a beast of a play, with significant movement sequences, complex storylines, and heightened, difficult language. I knew I was in for a major challenge. The one great gift was the rotation order - being producer in the first rotation gave me the time I desperately needed to plan and prepare. And in that time I planned and prepared as I'd never done before. Knowing I would have a paltry 50 hours of rehearsal time for a 70 page script, I made sure that by the first rehearsal I had the basic visual structure for every scene, I knew exactly where in the space each scene would take place, and though I relied on the actors for much of the movement ideas, I had a back-up plan for everything. This may not seem all that revolutionary, but for me this was a huge risk. I tend to let the movement of a piece - whether blocking or actual choreography - grow organically from rehearsals, and making any large decisions without experimenting first has always seemed too risky. With this piece and these parameters however, the big decisions were the show's lifeline.

Anne Bogart writes so eloquently about what can be accomplished when an artist faces her own terror. That has always been a challenge for me - as a person and as an artist. This rotation was an unbelievable gift in so many ways, but I think most crucially it blatantly demanded that I face that terror, and didn't give me any alternative. Every day I had to enter the room and try something huge - even if it was terrible - and see what happened. And some days the idea failed miserably, and sometimes it hit spot on...but even when it failed I, and the company, and the show, still survived, and even improved as a result. Terrifying yes, but in the end, as gratifying as any artistic endeavor I've attempted.

Moving to rotation three was a difficult transition for me. With Metamorphoses I felt totally engaged - as if every part of me was working on overdrive to do what felt like the impossible. It was tough for me to get my mind around anything else until Metamorphoses opened, and at that point it was two days before the first rehearsal of Burying Barbie. I did, however, really like the script, and looked forward to collaborating with the playwright - the very talented Chris Dimond - on the world premiere.

Chris Hayes, a wonderful director, once said to me that a director's chief job with a play is to make sure that every actor, on their journey to their peak potential, arrives at the same time - on opening night, so that no one arrives too early, and no one arrives too late. I believe in these words, and I worked really hard to make this happen. This piece had a small cast, but each actor's journey was a totally different speed, and had a diametrically different quality. My regret however, is that I spent so much time focused on this journey, that at times I lost sight of the bigger picture - the places where I add to Chris's statement. I think the director's job chief jobs are also to have a strong point of view, to inspire passion and excitement both in the actors and the audience, and, especially with a new play, to be constantly vigilant about what story is being told, and how it might be told more clearly. With every ounce of my focus on the actors' journeys I think I could have brought more of myself into these other aspects of the work.

At the end of the day I was really pleased with the work the actors did. I was also thrilled by the design. We had a beautiful environment created for the piece by the very talented Aimee Huber, complete with an off-kilter sandbox, and a gorgeous tree branch that aided Masha Tsimring's excellent lighting.

The two plays of rotations 2 and 3 couldn't have been more different, and the lessons I took further from each other...and I couldn't be more grateful.

Until rotation 4...

Kate