I’ve found myself in a rare quiet spot, an oasis in the sea of creativity and business that is my life. Obviously I’m filling this time with creativity and not simply resting on my laurels, but I’m certainly taking things at a more acceptable pace. Getting up in the morning, strolling into the kitchen, taking time to make percolated coffee instead of instant, maybe even catching an episode of something vapid on the television while I eat my toast.

Alas, I simply can’t stop entirely, however! There’s still masses of work to be done on my play. I’m thinking of having the location shifty midway, from Brisbane to Melbourne. Stump grinding people from both cities coming together to explore their shared culture, understand each other more fully and end with a massive musical number that describes their day jobs in rhyme. I might be overstepping the bounds with my scale, but diversity is always an issue. Why only show the careers of Brisbane professional tree removal and stump grinding people, when Melbourne can do such jobs just as well? In fact, why not have it Australia-wide, incorporating tree removal folks from every state?

Oh. Oh, that’s very good. Obviously the opening to a musical is absolutely vital; it has to be grand, spectacular, set the scene perfectly and also introduce the characters and their motivations. I still want to the focus to be on Brisbane, but I could use a scene of location shifting to introduce the Australian tree removal industry. I could keep it stylistically simple, with simplified versions of major landmarks signalling when we’ve changed location. The Opera House, and then…um…other iconic Australian things, all the way to Federation Square here in Melbourne. Tree pruning and trimming variations as well, showing how the whole country does it. It’s elaborate table-setting, but you can’t fault it in terms of grandiosity!