Most of 2017 was occupied with my new role as parent. My wife and I brought a beautiful baby boy into the world on December 30th of last year. Obviously, adapting to my new role as a dad took priority over any creative pursuits. So here's a slimmed down look at the handful of theatre and other artistic things I managed to fit in.
In February, I released my play Raspberry Fizz on Kindle. It is the final work in a trilogy of ebooks of short stage plays that I now have on Amazon. Perhaps someday I will collect them together into a paperback edition.
The bulk of the year was just being cozy and domestic. Not until the fall did I get back on the map, so to speak.
In early August I had two plays in the One-Minute Play Fest produced by Kitchen Dog Theater. I went to see them. They went over pretty favorably.
I took my show Robert's Eternal Goldfish to Fresno, California for a two show weekend at an event organized by my friend Grant. It was titled Seattle-to-Fresno Mini Fringe. I had an epic beard.
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| Me performing Robert's Eternal Goldfish in Fresno |
In September, for my birthday, I started a podcast called the Cultivated Playwright. I released nine episodes over the rest of the year ranging from reflections on Sir Peter Hall, minimalism, Dan Harmon and improv comedy to how Thor Ragnarok fits Goethe's Three Questions of Criticism.
In December I participated in Nouveau 47 Theatre's A Very Nouveau Holiday (my fifth time in as many years). This time I had a ten-minute play about a bear that refuses to hibernate and instead works in a coffee shop. It was called Langdon, The Seasonal Barista. It went over very well.
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| Emily Faith, Robert Long and Monalisa Amidar in Langdon, The Seasonal Barista |
I directed Langdon as well as Jonathan Kravetz's Mr. Crispy. Kravetz's play was a sci-fi tear-jerker that deals with a failed screenwriter endlessly reliving his final night with the song-writing friend he had an infatuation with, through the use of a mail-order robot. It had a great premise, but definitely was not in line with the current zeitgeist, with a controlling male protagonist who self-indulgently manipulates a "female" robot to replay one of his memories/fantasies over and over again.
It was fun to get a chance to direct again, especially my own work.
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| Charles Ratcliff and Cameron Casey in Mr. Crispy |
That's about it. 2017 was a slow year for the ole theatre career, but exciting in a larger sense. I love being a dad, though it has caused a great amount of reflection on where I want to go from here on out and what I genuinely want to accomplish. 2018 should, hopefully, be filled with more balance and more creative endeavors.
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