Elyse Ribbons, producer, director and writer of "I Heart Beijing"; creator of Cheeky Monkey Theater, shares the scenes from her day.

Jianwai SOHO Apt.

7:45 a.m. Wake up in the rouge-tinted light filtering through my red velvet curtains to my cat, Mafan, licking my nose and purring for food.

8:00 Stumble to kitchen to boil water for tea. Pull out the bag and add milk. Bring a cup to my boyfriend (who is still asleep).

8:10 Make a bowl of xiaomi zhou (with zao) and sit down to do a Chinese lesson. Write down 40 vocabulary words knowing full well that I will forget half of them by the end of the day.

9:00 Check e-mail. Respond to Mom’s e-mail about remembering some family member's birthday. Don't respond to my friend's e-mail about her bridesmaid dress colors, as I’m planning on showing up in the States with a tacky Cheongsam anyway.

9:40 Read online versions of New York Times and The London Times, as well as my e-mailer from China Digital Times (thank ye gods for proxy servers!).

Starbucks

10:30 Meeting with independent film producer about a project for later this summer involving contemporary Chinese art ... and murder (insert dramatic music here).

11:05 Get call from beer distributor who wants to argue about the delivery time before the show. I do my best too-important-to-argue-and-just-do-what-I-tell-you-to-do Chinese. He agrees to deliver on time.

Hatsune

11:30 Lunch date with a female journalist friend who I am trying to convince to write a story about the play.

Bakery

1:00 p.m. Meet with a Chinese theater directory friend at a French bakery for chocorgasmic éclairs and coffee to bitch about the theater scene in China.

Home

2:00 Make further scene changes to the “girl talk scene” and e-mail them out to the poor actresses who have had to relearn this scene twice this week already.

2:25 Get call from Khaki Design company reminding me to send over high quality versions of the photo that Carl Mclarty took of the cast at the last artWALK.

2:30 After bumbling through the mess of documents on my Mac’s desktop, find the correct photo and e-mail it on to Nod and MCK.

2:35 Take a break and play with Mafan, am again amazed at how high this cat can jump and flip, contemplate taping it and posting it onto YouTube.

3:00 Meet with European chocolate distributor to discuss prices and chocolates for the next ChocoJing (Beijing’s Chocolate Appreciation Society) meet up.

4:00 Go to the gym and work out on the elliptical while watching “The Colbert Report” and “The Daily Show” on my video iPod.

4:45 Shower and dress up in something fun, yet attractive (hello, photo shoot!).

5:15 Pick up photographer and take him to the theater.

Theater

5:30 Prep him on the staging of the play.

6:00 Rehearsals: This usually involves most of the cast, including myself, curled up on the floor laughing at some point or another. Fortunately, the photographer is not annoyed and finds himself laughing as well.

Mare

8:00 Dinner with boyfriend for tapas and rioja.

Hou Hai

9:30 Hop in taxi and head out for some live jazz at a café.

Nanlouguxiang

10:30 Friend’s birthday party at Sandglass where I ingest some cardboard cleverly disguised as cake and sing the Polish birthday song (Stol Lot) much to everyone's chagrin. Participate in discussion on oil reserves, a Chinese soap opera about female kung fu fighters, the benefits of ginger, etc.

Sanlitun Nan Jie

12:00 a.m. Head over to Rickshaw for late-night burrito and pool with some friends, reminisce about puppet shows and proceed to cover everyone with Cheeky Monkey stickers to promote “I Heart Beijing.”

Taxi

1:30 Direct driver back to my apartment, finding my Beijing accent more pleasantly slurred after that last pint of Yanjing.

Jianwai SOHO Apt.

2:00 Work on a sudoku and then drift off to sleep perchance to dream.