2022 - Checkov's Fun
Hey Jacob,
Let’s talk about 2022.
If 2021 was a year of many setups, 2022 was a year of many payoffs. Escape Academy was released. Flippin’ Rings has hit shelves. I did move to LA and then a bunch of unexpected “only in LA” shenanigans ensued. I got to do my first professional puppetry gig for [redacted]. I built Bruce the Robot and he was on The Tonight Show???
I think this year was cool and good. I’m so glad to be back in LA, it feels like the right place for me at this time. And living in Highland Park has been a really good fit.
This year I went all in on writing. I finally hit my 3 full lengths in a year goal!
Emma and Richie’s Big Viking Funeral! which was produced at the Hollywood Fringe Festival and was selected for an extended run.
Mira and the Whale, a more experimental piece outside my usual fare that I am really proud of. Pushing outside of my writing comfort zone left me with a stronger grasp on dialogue going forwards. And I produced a reading of it!
And Christmastown - A Hanukkah Play, four years in the making and finally standing on solid (enough) legs of its own. And I produced a reading of it!
I also joined New West Playwrights at EST/LA, met lots of great writers and theater folks there, performed in The Early Bird Special, wrote a couple of shorter pieces (Every Man a King, The Seven Rules of Playing Dreidel), and produced readings of 4 new plays: the two listed above, and Three Randos and Broken Teeth on Stone Fruit. So yay theater!
Here are some big lessons and takeaways from doing so much writing this year:
Writing is so hard and it’s so annoying how it will be very bad before it has a chance of being any good.
Everything should be shorter.
Respect the playwright! Please! And as a playwright, know you can put your foot down. I was told an anecdote this year by a collaborator that I’ve been reflecting on a lot lately. They said they went to a reading of a new work that they thought was very good, possibly the best reading that particular script could have, but at the end of the reading the playwright ran from the room in tears…upset by how the director had handled their piece. I don’t think that’s a successful reading? I don’t think a new work can be a net positive if people are destroyed to create it. It took me too long this year to find the Dramatist’s Bill of Rights, but it was an illuminating read and I’m glad I have it now.
All this to say the 4 readings in the latter half of the year were motivated by a mission to do readings that prioritize supporting the playwright, and I hope to do many more in the future.
I have a lot I want to write next year, but I also maybe want to slow down a little bit. It takes a lot of time, and it’s a very solitary practice. I think my outdoor anxieties have formed a symbiotic habit with hunkering down and writing. It’s not noble, and there’s probably a better balance to be struck.
I do view the pieces I’ve written this year as a kind of investment. I intend to submit both Mira and Christmastown to theaters in the hopes of some kind of workshop/development opportunity arising. We’ll see what happens there I guess.
In the absence of high intensity writing, I want to make more time next year to spend with friends and family. More time to build and tinker toys and puzzles and puppets. More time away from the computer screen.
I’ve been trying to pay more attention to how I pay attention, and I’m not thrilled with what I’ve been seeing. Social media platforms have become a place to dock my mind from addressing the tasks I could otherwise quickly take care of. I miss filling notebook pages with sketches and doodles. I’m going to try to build back the habits of play in my life. Puzzles and toys and games are lovely ways to pass the time.
2023 will be a tug of war between trying to slow down and enjoy the day to day, and wanting to build another robot. Journey and destination. Product and process. I still think I’m habitually focused on accomplishment, which is probably more of a therapy conversation than a yearly retrospective conversation. A year ago I moved back ot LA, and all these doors opened and all these incredible things happened. The start of this new year marks the feeling of the start of a new career, a transition away from being a full-time contractor, and a transition towards a new kind of stability. Enjoy the stability. Make the most of it. Or don’t. Or change what you define “making the most of something” as. The way we spend our days is the way we spend our lives, ya know?
Goals for 2023
Write some plays, but write them slower and shorter
Make things, with friends
Watch more movies, with friends
Exercise more, in complete solitude
Remember sometimes it’s gotta be bad before it’ll be good, and sometimes you just need to cut 10 pages. Best of luck out there bud, see you next year.
Jacob