The list has got shorter every year. It is now: the book, a folded sheet with the three passages marked, a pencil, and a jumper with sleeves that stay up.
The passages
Three, never four. One that lands in ninety seconds so the room settles, one that does the actual work, and one short enough to stop on. I mark them on a printed sheet rather than in the book, because flicking through a book on stage reads as unpreparedness even when it is not.
The rule about the water glass
Drink from it early, before you need it. If the first time you reach for the glass is the moment your voice goes, everybody watches you reach for the glass.
Everything else is the festival's problem, and festivals are almost always better at their job than writers are at ours.
