2023 was a very, very busy year.

So busy, it seems, that I’m afraid I’ve rather neglected this blog, and am therefore eager to offer some updates and information to catch things up to the present. My most significant accomplishment of 2023, I would say, was completing my newest play, “Featherbaby,” a three actor comedy with dramatic elements, narrated by a parrot. The first draft was completed in the early part of 2023, then revised a bit through a process of sending it to some very smart people whose opinion I trust. In the summer, we held a small reading in the studio at Spreckels Performing Arts Center, assisted by actors Danielle Cain, Matt Cadigan and Brett Molik, with a small invited audience, also filled with smart people whose opinions I respect and value.

Watching the cast read through the “play “Featherbaby” – and then engaging in a post-reading feedback session with the audience – was incredibly valuable. As a result, I went back to work, made some signigicant revisions, threw out my original ending and devised somthing even better, and now have a strong working script, ready to take into production. I should know soon where “Featherbaby” will have its world premiere, and will announce it here.

In January of 2023, director Bob Ari organized an industry reading of my play “Galatea,” presented in New York City for a number of producers and other theater artists. A few important connections were made, and in the future I hope to announce a bit of progress towards a New York City production of “Galatea.”

I’ve applied for a number of grants and fellowships, a fascinating and time-consuming process that could lead to having a bit more time and resources to put towards future projects.

I continue to work full time as the Community Editor of the Argus-Courier, a rewarding job that allows me to write and work with a number of very talented journalists. My column “Culture Junkie” took the second place prize for best nespaper column in the California Newspaper Publishers’ Association’s annual statewide awards presentation. It won third place a few years aga. This year I’m going for First Place.

Additionally, last year I began an adaptation of my 2012 play “Pinky,” a two-actor romantic comedy in which two adult performers take turns telling a story of their accident-prone teenage courtship many years ago, each actor morphing into all of their D&D-loving friends as they act out the tale. Since its premier 12 years ago, the play has had several productions, and has proven to be popular with teenagers, since it is, after all, about teens. With high school drama programs and colleges often in search for new plays featuring teenage characters, I’ve decided to create a second version of the play, to be titled “Beast Hearts Beauty,” in which all of the high schoolers are played by young actors. It will have a cast of 12. And I’m having a blast with it. I hope to workshop the new version later this year.

That’s just the basics, but there you go.
Looks like 2024 is going to be even busier than 2023, but I’m making it a priority to offer more requent updates and musings here.