The Annual Navel Gaze 2014

As I say every year: I don’t do new year’s resolutions. Instead I take a look back at the year and see what I accomplished. Then I look ahead to the new year and see what I might want to accomplish in the year ahead.

Quite a bit happened for me in 2014. So, let’s go over the highlights:

  1. I found a full time job at an awesome company. After two years of working part time jobs, I finally found a full time job at EventMobi, doing tech support, and I love it there.
  2. Keystone Theatre presented The Last Man on Earth at the Berkeley Street Theatre in Toronto, which allowed me to have this moment with a poster of me as Gormless Joe in the lobby.
  3. My play The Parliamentarians was performed at the Red Sandcastle Theatre. It was a huge thrill to work on this play with my very talented cast: Richard Beaune, Scott Clarkson, Rebecca Rodley, Siobhan Richardson and Adrianna Prosser, and I’m very grateful to both them and to Rosemary Doyle at the Red Sandcastle. Also, big thanks to my stage manager: Christopher Douglas. Its really interesting to see how the cast helped me improve the show. It was really gratifying to work with actors who were able to give some great feedback that helped me improve the play.
  4. Keystone Theatre presented its latest show, Gold Fever at the Toronto Fringe Festival to rave reviews. It was great to rework this play and find new depth. It was in the end, very different from the play that we presented at the Festival of Clowns in 2013.
  5. Sarah and I spent Canada Day weekend in Niagara on the Lake, which was an exciting surprise getaway.
  6. We also went to a cabin in the woods, on the other side of Ottawa. It was a little place with no running water and no electricity. Its the most rustic I have ever been. The purpose of the trip was to do some writing, and we did. I was working on a new play, and Sarah was working on an awesome new project. We’d wake up in the morning, and make some coffee on the Coleman stove, and then sit out on the porch overlooking the a ravine as the mist rose.
  7. In November I took a shot at NaNoWriMo and tried to write a novel in a month. I didn’t make it to the 50,000 word goal, but I learned a lot about writing, so I count it as a win.
  8. In addition to NaNo, I’ve been writing quite a bit.
  9. Sarah and I also took a big nine day trip to New York City, and it was awesome. We’d been planning the trip for a year and a half, and it was just as awesome as we had hoped.

Next year, is about creating.

  • Reviewing the drafts of plays I’ve written this year, and starting the work on revising them.
  • In May, I’ve organized a weekend Playwrights’ Retreat, with Artscape Gibraltar Point.
  • Planning to submit one of my plays for the 2015 Toronto Fringe Festival. The only question is, which one?

That was my year, and a look ahead to next. How was your year?