My 2014 in Review

Is it a natural urge to look back on the calendar year and weigh it as positive or negative, productive or wasted? Or is it an act of artificial significance, thrust upon us by society ("2014 sucked for me") and the media ("Best Dressed Stars of 2014," "Those We Lost in 2014," etc.)?

 

New Year resolutions never made much sense to me. If you know you want to make changes, why don't you make them as soon as you think of it? Why wait for a certain date? Is it the arbitrary declaration of a "new year = fresh slate" or something?

 

Regardless, I was going through a dark period a few months ago, and decided to list what I'd accomplished so far in 2014. It did make me feel better, so maybe there's something to reviewing the year after all. So...

 

TARA'S YEAR IN REVIEW

WRITING:

• Variations on a Theme: a 60-minute one-act, with a staged reading at the Fishtank
• Role Play: a short play, with a staged reading at the Fishtank
• In the Cradle: a short play
• "The Cute Little Woman, Young Jacob, and Me": a story-poem, conceived as a children's book
• "Road Trip": a poem of uncertain genre
• (And drafts of a play that we hope to be our 2015 Fringe entry...)

DIRECTING:

• Variations on a Theme: staged reading at the Fishtank
• Role Play: staged reading at the Fishtank
• American Institution, by Bryan Colley: staged reading at the Midwest Dramatists Center
• Project Pride presents: Queerios!: co-director, stage production at The Coterie and KC Fringe
• Project Pride presents: We Are: co-director, stage production at TedX YouthKC
• Red Death: opera by Bryan Colley and Daniel Doss, at KC Fringe
• Honk, Jr: stage production for the Coterie Acts

PERFORMING:

• "The Cute Little Woman, Young Jacob, and Me": a story-poem (at two different events)
• Bad Auditions, directed by Kevin King: KC Fringe
• Variations on a Theme: Narrator
• Role Play: Narrator
• American Institution, by Bryan Colley: Narrator
• Pecha Kucha, at the Middle of the Map Festival
• Dickens Carolers: my eleventh (?) season

TEACHING:

• Superheroes Save the Day, grades 2-4: The Coterie
• Sketch Comedy, grades 8-12: The Coterie
• Be and Awesome Inventor Like Phineas and Ferb, grades 2-4: The Coterie
• Audition Lab, grades 8-12: The Coterie
• Funny Bones, grades 5-7: The Coterie
• Make a Scene, grades 3-5: The Coterie
• Make a Scene, grades 3-5 (again): The Coterie
• Scenes from a Dystopian Future, grades 8-12: The Coterie
• Mythical Creature Academy, grades 2-4: The Coterie
• Acting Fundamentals, grades 5-7: The Coterie
• The Very Hungry Caterpillar, grades K-1: Community School of the Arts
• Dramarama (playwriting), grades 3-5
• Dramarama (acting), grades 4-5
• Dramarama (acting), grades 2-3
• Dramarama (acting), grades K-1
 

...which, by the way, brings my total number of students (since 2011, when I thought to start counting) to 728.

That's a lot in one year. I think. I don't know, it's just what I do.

 

From here, at the top of the 2015 ride, I'm looking the first half of the year, which so far contains:

• Teaching "Rock 'n' Roll Roadshow", grades 5-7, for The Coterie (starting January)
• Teaching "The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane," grades 2-4, for The Coterie (starting January)
• Teaching Dramarama Acting, grades 2-3 (starting January)
• Teaching Dramarama Acting, grades K-1 (starting April)
• Directing the staged reading of Amanuensis, by Bryan Colley (February)
• Co-directing Project Pride's performance at the Coterie (March)
• Leading a children's improv workshop for Johnson County Public Libraries (March)
• Performing in White Rabbit, Red Rabbit (March)
• Directing Silver, a ballet noir by Christian Hankel (July)
• Writing/directing/producing a new original play at KC Fringe (July)

I think I'm going to bed now. I need to rest up.