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sixty, seventy.” No, we started for one but we got too many. So we decided “We'll have to do two.” Louis said he'd do two. To finalize it I came with the contracts. “We're prepared to pay 1500 dollars to each of the writers, a certain fee for the workshops.” We'll have to get a choreographer, we're going to have to get an arranger, a musical director, a director. All that stuff has got to be done. Ossie said, “I'll direct it.” He didn't -- something happened.

But anyway, we then started the workshops. We must have done like twelve sessions. The workshops were fantastic. They really were great. We videotaped some of the workshops -- some of it is inside the videotape. Then when we got the material, I became very excited about it. You know, every week I would check out what was happening, what were they talking about. I didn't want to go in to the workshops, because we wanted them not to feel that we were watching them, see. But I would talk to Lewis, and Lewis would tell me. I would say, “Oh my God! It's wonderful stuff. Oh, it's fantastic!” He says, “I'd like to be involved in the writing, too.” I said, “Okay, you're involved in the writing too.” So we paid each of them 1500 bucks.

They went through the material. Then when they began to look at the material, they became very excited about it. Micki Grant kept saying -- Micki's a very very talented person. She's written her own musical revues by herself, music, lyrics etcetera. Micki would say, “This is a cinch. They're virtually writing it for me, here.” So then we meet, and they would discuss “Well this is a theme. It should be inside a hospital, workers at lunch time.” From that they began to work. Eve began to develop the whole concept. Ossie said, “There's a number here of the Vietnam vet. I'd like to do a sketch leading in to this.” Micki said, “This material I was reading about the woman getting up in the morning to get to work and get the kids off to school, I can see a song -- “Getting up, getting out.” That kind of thing. Micki even came with a couple songs, right away. She wanted to sing for us. Eve would set up the whole structure. She even said, “I'll get a woman who works with me on music, and we'll call it ‘Take Care.’ There'll be a song, ‘Take Care,’” -- her idea was to use the song to introduce the characters. “Take Care,” the different kinds of workers, what kind of work they do. Like you know “Rosita,” and a different kind of beat to it. So the opening numbers are a long kind of thing.

Then the question of casting, and Howard Roberts was brought in -- the musical director -- to cast the thing. At the last minute we're about to rehearse, going to rehearsal, and Ossie calls me up and says, “I've got to come to see you.” “What is it?” He says, “Look, I have an offer,





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