Looking Back at 2014

The last twelve months have been very busy and as I look back I am pleased that there's so much to be grateful for, proud of and draw inspiration from.

Since last January, no less than nine of my own plays - large and small - have been presented to the world (5 of them World Premieres).

January... 
* Directed/produced/designed/ teched Andy Eninger's THE LAST CASTRATO for Audacity
* Teamed up with TheaterJones and Elaine Liner to sort of adopt the YOLO Solo Fest which featured
* Premiered my short solo show I BROUGHT HOME A CHUPACABRA (dirercted by my lovely wife Ruth and featuring the kick-ass Lauren Moore)
* Taught two classes as adjunct for Tarrant County College (one film class, one theatre)

February...
* Journeyed to the Comedy Parlor in Tulsa to perfom Fun Grip Improv (also taught joint improv workshop there with Swearingen).
* took seven hours to drive back to Dallas from Tulsa due to ice storm. Ruth and I spent time to hatch plan to save money and get out of crappy rent houses.

ROBERTS' ETERNAL GOLDFISH

March...
* Ruth and I move to crappy Irving apartment to save money... which we do.
* Taught Playwriting Workshop to high schoolers at Dallas Public Library for Junior Players.
* Attended Austin's Staple! Fest and sold prints of my comic MY SECRET ISLAND. Drove back in another ice storm.
* Premiered my solo show ROBERTS' ETERNAL GOLDFISH at the 2014 Out of the Loop Festival. Won a Best of Fest Award.
* Hosted the Alternative Comedy Theatre's fourth annual Monologue Jam at Cafe Bohemia in Plano, TX
* Created Kickstarter campaign for Dallas Solo Fest. Raised $1,325 in two weeks.

April...
* Got hand-made letter-press cards from Lilco Press. She used my design. Expensive luxury, but they are so sweet.

May...
* Participated in "Method In Madness" Playwriting Panel at Denton Community Theatre.
* My play ARSENIC & ROSES was read at the "Method In Madness" event as well.
* Produced national festival of one-person shows called Dallas Solo Fest. Local acts as well as acts from around the country. Very successful.
* Taught Intro to Drama summer school session for Tarrant County College.

June...
* Finished last illustration in a series of art prints based on Samuel Beckett plays.
* Directed student-written one-act THE HOLDING FIX for the Junior Players/ Kitchen Dog Theatre event PUPFest.
* Co-Produced the 6th Annual Big Sexy Weekend of Improv with Alternative Comedy Theater.
* Taught workshop called "But I Suck at The Administartive Stuff" at Big sexy.
* Also performed Fun Grip and Dribble Funk at Big Sexy as well as hosting Monologue Jam.
* Taught a two week Drama Camp at Fretz Rec Center for Junior Players. My niece Kylie was in the camp. The kids performed the show I wrote for them TALKING JELLO WANTS A NEW PHONE.

The kids of Fretz Rec

July...
* Updated my ebook "7 Considerations For the Solo Performer"
* Taught Drama Camp at McKinney Rec Center for Junior Players. The kids performed the show I wrote for them THE SEARCH FOR MAGICAL STRAWBERRY SYRUP.
* Drove to Austin and PrintBombed BookPeople.
* Got horribly sick for about two weeks. Which sucked.

August...
* Emceed a three-day Benefit for Matt Tomlanovich at the Margo Jones Theatre.
* Had two plays done at Kichen Dog Theatre as part of the One-Minute Play Fest. They were I HATE IT HERE and CHUPACABRA RIGHTS.
* Sundown Collaborative Theatre did one of my short pieces LIZARD BOY EATS A DORITO as part of their "A Mix Tape: We've Done It Again" series of short works. It is performed in Denton and in Dallas by the delightfully weird Robert Linder.
* Begin teach the Fall semester as an adjunt at Tarrant County College. Two classes (Film and Theatre)
* Produce and host the first of a quarterly series called the Audacity Solo Salon, a sort of workshop for DFW area solo performers.

September...
* Teach two weeks of workshops of Improv for adults at S.T.A.G.E.
* My folks and Ruth treat me to Fogo de Chao for my birthday.

October...
* Ruth and I head to NYC to cacth Peter Brook's show The Valley of Astonishment at Theatre for a New Audience. Also meet up with Friends, including Will Harper and get 3:30 a.m. meatballs at Meatball Shop. Ruth and I stay in New Yorker Hotel suite. Fancy. Almost forgot how wonderful travel is...

November...
* Jeff Hernandez and I resurrect the long-dormant podcast Bike Soccer Jamboree.
* I help Brandon Potter produce his solo show SEX, DEATH AND LIGHT SWITCHES with some hosting from Audacity Theatre Lab.
* Taught workshops called "Making Your Characters Awesome Through Improv" at the 2014 Texas Thespians Festival. At Omni Hotel in Downtwn Dallas. One workshop had 85 high schoolers.
* Hosted pimped out version of Monologue Jam, produced by MINT Presents at Margo Jones Theatre.

CORNER OFFICE SKY

December...
* Finished fall semester at TCC. Filling for absent teachers, I ended up with four classes by the end of the semester. Big workload.
* Read excerpt of CYRANO A-GO-GO at second Audacity Solo Salon.
* My one-act play CORNER OFFICE SKY was presented as part of Nouveau 47 Theatre's "A Very Nouveau Holiday." It was directed by Becki McDonald.
* TheaterJones.com does a write-up on me as one of the "Forward Thinkers" in Dallas Arts in 2014.

Besides the month-by-month breakdown above, I read about 30 books and am contemplating writing (another) one of my own. I enjoyed my second full year of marriage to the wonderful Ruth and welcomed the addition of a new niece. I officiated my sister’s wedding last fall.I moved on from my manual labor job unloading trucks weekly at the Container Store to get another weekly manual labor job as a part-time ranch hand at a spread in Southlake.

As I wrote on my Tumblr around my birthday this year... "It seems so vacuous to list stuff off like this, but a lot of the time I get bogged down in the day to day. I look around at the continually shifting piles of disorder in my office or the unending pile of laundry that needs to be washed and/or folded and put away and just wanna bury my head in the sand. It is good to know I’m still moving and that the movement is in a progressive direction."

I am very excited about 2015. It will see way more travel, more teaching, more writing/performing/directing, more reading. It will also include exciting new projects - some outside my usual domains. It will also be the last hoorah for my 30s, so I plan to blow it out for real and take everything up a notch.