A coolish Saturday, thank goodness. The weather broke yesterday and the apartment is a much more tolerable place to live. No, the A/C hasn’t been fixed yet, but someone did come by and a new compressor has been ordered. It’s a heat and A/C unit, so I, knowing nothing about these things, wonder if the compressor is needed for the heat as well? If so, I feel that all my nudging on getting this unit fixed will benefit the next occupant of the apartment, most likely someone in the cast of A Christmas Carol.

We’re officially into preview performances now. La Dispute has had two previews with audiences. Tonight, Macbeth begins previews. Previews are performances with an audience that occur before the official opening. I think that each of these plays will get a total of eight previews. While a play is in previews, rehearsals still go on in the afternoons – tweaking of the staging or the lighting or the sound happens, sometimes things are reblocked, actors get notes from the director and me and everything is finely tuned so that by the time the plays officially open, everything is about as perfect as it will ever be considering theater is a live, never-the-same-way-twice, medium.

The Red Sox are playing the Yankees this weekend, and somehow their schedule fits into mine. I caught the beginning of last night’s game and got home in time to see the last three innings. (We won.) Today’s game is in the afternoon. Perfect. Sunday’s game is at 8:00 and since there are two performances of Macbeth tomorrow, I will take notes on the matinee and will be able to see the game. The actors don’t need notes from me twice in one day, believe me. That would be annoying.

I just finished A Rule Against Murder by Louise Penny. I’ve started the next book in the series, The Brutal Telling. I know I have written about these books before on this blog, but I am simply blown away by Penny’s writing. What makes her mysteries different, what sets them apart from many other books in this genre, is her examination of the human heart. The characters in the town of Three Pines are featured in some way or other in every book. They have flaws. Sometimes those flaws are exasperating. But Penny, with true compassion and understanding, takes us on a journey of discovery. She knows that we are all damaged in some way; she uncovers the fears and pain and petty jealousies that we all have deep within us, brings them to the light and by doing so, sets both the characters and us, the readers, free.

Penny slowly and patiently weaves her stories; with intricate plots, with some things revealed and others yet to be revealed in another book. Not only is there the arc of an individual book, but there is an overall arc in the series. She does this so skillfully that I feel like a resident of Three Pines, that little town in Quebec. I care for those characters. I get angry at them. And, because of her key protagonist, Inspector Gamache, I learn to see them with compassion. To stop judging. To understand.

When I finished the book yesterday, I had tears in my eyes. I learned more about myself. I vowed to be a better person.

That’s powerful writing, my friends.

Happy Saturday.