This is the beginning.

Care of out lastest guest speaker, Graeme Tetley. He's a New Zealand script writer, two of his most well-known works being Ruby and Rata, and Vigil.

This is the beginning.
Almost anything can happen.
This is where you find
the creation of light, a fish wriggling onto land,
the first word of Paradise Lost on an empty page.
Think of an egg, the letter A,
a woman ironing on a bare stage
as the heavy curtain rises.
This is the very beginning.
The first person narrator introduces himself
tells us about his lineage.
The mezzo soprano stands in the wings.
Here the builders are studying a map
or pulling on their long wollen socks.
This is early on, years before the ark, dawn.
The profile of an animal is being smeared
on the wall of a cave,
and you have not yet learned to crawl.
This is the opening, the gambit,
a pawn moving forward an inch.
This is your first night without her.
This is the first part
where the wheels begin to turn,
where the elevator begins its ascent.

From 'Aristotle', by Billy Collins

And it IS the beginning. The skeletal frames of stories - there, but tenuous. If we are to follow Aristotle, the middle will come next. A mad clutter of pitching and pushing and partnering. Hours behind a camera followed by hours in front of the Pro. Chocolate, coffee, late nights, flourescent lights. Nervous, frustrated bodies. And then, the end. A night at the Regent, a heavy curtain rising.

But we're still at the very beginning. Like you, we've not yet learnt to crawl.