Refresh, Renew, Reflect

Happy New Beginnings, everyone! Here are some of my highlights from last year. I'm very glad to be in 2019, but there were some sweet moments to look back on from 2018, for sure, some that I'd forgotten.

Highlights:

• Workshopped How to Hide Your Monster in Creede, Colorado, followed by two readings through HBMG Foundation and National Winter Playwrights Retreat
• My play New Eden was a semi-finalist at Eugene O'Neill Playwrights Center
• Wrote Slap! A Beaver Tale as a Bown Crossing Library Writer in Residence 
• Got a staged reading for Slap! at Boise Contemporary Theater (BCT)
• Mission At Tenth, Volume 7 published (co-editor)
• Spent a week in Pendleton, Oregon in an artist retreat with my dearest love
• Saw Hamilton in Portland, OR, thanks to Jason McGrath and Nicole Laeger 
• Received a grant from Alexa Rose Foundation, giving me paid sabbatical time to write my next full-length play in 2019 (yay this summer!)
• My poem "there is no control" was published by 208 Fringe
• Co-wrote, co-devised and performed in small matters: a big project about little things, Migration Theory's second full production 
• Got lovely new head shots from the multitalented Sarah A Gardner
• Visited gorgeous British Columbia -- Victoria, Vancouver and Hope -- with my favorite person. We finally used our passports, both of us for the first time!
• Started three fantastic one-on-one writing mentorships with brilliant young and emerging writers
• Taught Dramaturgy and Contemporary Theatre History classes at Boise State University, five courses altogether including Introduction to Theatre
• My poem "warm/cool wet" was published by Before/After Godwink
• My poem "Water Obsession" was displayed at Surel's Place 
• My play CloudMelt was a top finalist for Women Playwrights' Initiative
• Got a reading for my new play The Way Up at Opal Theatre Company's 10 Minute Play Festival
• Read favorite selections from Migration Theory productions with Tracy Sunderland and Sarah Gardner at Campfire Stories Reading Series
• Helped Ballet Idaho develop their new pre-show discussion program
• Got the third play of my TYA trilogy commissioned for BCT'S Children's Reading Series in 2019
• Made my first headstand in a yoga class.
• Finished a draft of my first feature-length screenplay, The Hungry Ones
• Got a reading of The Hungry Ones  through HomeGrown Theatre
• Made plans for my third year at National Winter Playwrights Retreat in 2019
• Made 121 submissions (mostly plays, a few poems and one essay) -- 21 plays above my goal of 100!
• Spent sweet holiday time with family in Donnelly, Idaho, writing my latest play for young audiences, Polar Opposites: An Impossible Tale
• Finished my first draft of Polar Opposites

Here are my three big goals for 2019 and 2020:

3 Big Goals for the Next Two Years:

• Travel overseas with my favorite person 
• Get to a Natalie Goldberg True Secret Writing Workshop
• Send 200 submissions in 2019, 250 in 2020

2019 is my year of compassion, generosity and gratitude toward myself and others.

Happy New Year from a friendly neighborhood Sasquatch near Hope, British Columbia.

And from me! Photo Credit: Sarah Ann Gardner