Quick Hello from Charleston (Vlog #7)

It’s been a busy week down here in Charleston, SC, working on KINDA HOME. Good news is - as of today, we’ve got a full-length draft of the work complete! This was one of our goals, and it feels great to know we’ve met it! Of course, the show is far from done. There will inevitably be things to tweak, change, rewrite as we continue to move forward. But for right now, we’re just excited to be able to share a reading of the first full-length draft tomorrow at PURE Theatre!

Here’s the really short vlog I was able to squeeze out this week:

Check out my Composer's Pad (Vlog #3)

I’m in Nebraska City for two weeks for a residency at the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts. In my latest vlog, I give a tour of my apartment here as well as some tips about self-care and convenience while at an artists residency.

Sh... I started vlogging (Vlog #1)

For a couple years now, I’ve been trying to think how I could be using YouTube, but any idea I came up with just seemed so time-intensive. Tutorials? Interviews? Analysis of plays and musicals? It all took research or extra prep that I just did not have time for. Well, I’ve finally landed on vlogging. A simple look-at-the-camera vlog. I’ve had younger and/or newer playwrights tell me that just hearing about my journey and work as a playwright/composer has helped them somehow. So, I’m starting a vlog and maybe someone will stumble upon it and find it meaningful for them. Who knows. I’ll not make much of a hullabaloo because I’m also learning how to vlog as I… well, I explain all this in the video, so just watch if you like.

My Year In Review

The word that comes to mind as I reflect on 2018 is full. The year was full of amazing and unexpected opportunities for my creative projects. My contact list of other artists around the country has grown full. And my heart is full with gratitude for what came to pass and anticipation for what's next. Here are just a few of the highlights from the year:

JANUARY

• Recording sessions for The Four Immigrants cast album

• Tagged along on Brad Erickson's Djerassi Winter Retreat to work on Kinda Home

FEBRUARY

• Invited as a Guest Artist to speak to a class at SF Conservatory of Music

MARCH

• The Four Immigrants received 6 SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Awards

• Inside Out & Back Again opened at Bay Area Children's Theatre

• Story Explorers school tour began

• Austin & Min Write a Musical launched

APRIL

• Developed Kinda Home at the TheatreWorks Writers Retreat

MAY

• Joined the TYA/USA Equity, Diversity & Inclusion Task Force

• NYC Trip!

JUNE

• Visited Charleston, SC to do research for Kinda Home

• Calafia: A Reimagining developed at The Ground Floor

JULY

• The Four Immigrants cast album released!

• Reading of Act I of Kinda Home with Playwrights Foundation

• Story Explorers received a Safeway Foundation Grant

AUGUST

• Attended CAATA's ConFest in Chicago and met a lot of really cool people!

SEPTEMBER

• 4-week residency at Djerassi where I also met a lot of really cool people!

OCTOBER

• Invited as a Guest Artist at Harvard University

• Workshop for Gold: The Midas Musical at Bay Area Children's Theatre

• Joined the Just Theater Play Lab 2018-2019 cohort

NOVEMBER

• NYC Trip!

• Awarded a residency at the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts in March 2019

DECEMBER

• Calafia: A Reimagining recevied a Theatre Bay Area CA$H Grant towards a workshop in 2019!

Photo by Javier Briones

Onward to 2019!