June 9, 1996

I got up early this morning and went out with my mother and our family friend Patti to look for a substitute for the waning Laurel Run mine fire (see the May 19 entry). We drove 45 miles to a godforsaken place called Centralia that was recently evacuated because of a mine fire under the town. But we found only a few wisps of smoke here and there. I'm going to write the mine fire out of the script and try to find a plausible substitute.

I spent the rest of the day nailing down other Pennsylvania locations, and had good luck on the whole. My mother and I also checked out the lodgings for the cast and crew, which are quite resort-like--I expect that everyone will be pleasantly surprised. Caught a late bus back to New York to prepare for what I hope will be the final two days of auditions.

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