Happy Moments and Hate Mail

First off, sorry I haven't kept up the blog AT ALL, but things have been far more hectic this time around than they were for INNOCENT WHEN YOU DREAM - maybe having a cast double the size of Innocent and a variety of replacements and minor fires to put out, combined with the happy problem of sold out houses has had something to do with it - plus (perhaps) being a couple of years older.  I meant to blog last week, since it was our halfway point, but I was behind at work because of a mysterious fainting spell, and before that, I meant to blog after our Opening Night, but I pretty much felt like someone had hit me over the head with an Acme anvil after we opened, so there are my excuses. 

It's also been a roller-coaster ride, with yesterday being the sharpest example:  On the one hand, we've been having great houses and great responses, like yesterday's matinee, in which many of the Okada family came, including John Okada's brother, his sister-in-law, and assorted nieces, nephews, and in-laws.  They were so gracious and amongst the sweetest people one could ever meet, and I'm incredibly grateful that they enjoyed the production.  On the other hand, someone I know from the Bay Area came to see the play, wrote to Frank Chin about it, and I got my first piece of hate mail...from Frank Chin.  It wasn't EXACTLY addressed to me, it was actually an email blast to numerous Asian American academics, activists, journalists, and writers, calling me "a White Racist", "an apologist for the JACL" (which isn't mentioned in either the book or the play), and a "gullible amateur" for having the gall to make changes in the adaptation from the book to the stage. 

We went out to dinner tonight and ran into some neighbors who saw the play and we talked about it; I mentioned the hate mail, and our neighbor cheered me up immensely, saying:  "That's how you know you're on the money - when you piss someone off."