Thanks again for the input. I just wanted to let folks know that I gave a draft of my musical to my bf a couple of days ago. I shared a slightly earlier draft with a potential composer, but other than that, my bf is the first reader.
I annotated all the scenes with a summary of their content, so he can avoid scenes that might be upsetting (there's one monologue that refers to a big trigger of his, although it's not based on his life, and I put a note by it, saying that he might not want to read that one). I also put post-its by the couple of things that are either based on his life or very similar to things in his life, and by the beginnings of the scenes that include the one character that is most like him (note, the character is not entirely based on him but is similar to him in a few ways).
I also included an introductory note and a note at the end saying, among other things, that I'll change whatever he would like me to change, and that the most important thing is that he feel safe. I said in the note that I won't proceed with the project unless he is comfortable with it, and I mean that.
When I asked him to read it, it was at a good moment. He seemed pretty open to the idea. He asked if it was about him, and I said, two percent him and 98% other stuff. Upon reflection, maybe it's 5-10% about him.
We had another interaction about creative work not that long ago, coincidentally. He is also dating a woman who is crazier than him -- very paranoid and manipulative. She told him that a guy she used to date, who is a musician, wrote a song about her called "The Queen of Head f*ck." I guess she was kind of proud of it. When he told me about this, I said, that wasn't cool, to write about her and record the song without her permission or even letting her know about it in advance. So I had stated my position about creative work based on other people already.
I'm pretty nervous about his reaction. I'm not just nervous about his sense of safety in having a few things drawn from his life potentially out there, or about his getting triggered as he reads it. There is a lot of technical detail in the script about the psychology and physiology of PTSD, and about coping strategies like grounding (a therapist character takes the audience through a grounding exercise, for example) and substance use and prescription medication and treatments like EMDR and somatic experiencing. Part of my worry is that he'll think it's all an effort on my part to convince him to go to therapy. Which, you know, it is, just a little bit. I do say in my postscript that I don't expect him to change his behavior as a result of reading it. But I do hope he might get a little more good information out of it, just like I hope a whole lot of other people will someday get good information out of it. We'll see how it goes.
