Looking Back at 2014

The last twelve months have been very busy and as I look back I am pleased that there's so much to be grateful for, proud of and draw inspiration from.

Since last January, no less than nine of my own plays - large and small - have been presented to the world (5 of them World Premieres).

January... 
* Directed/produced/designed/ teched Andy Eninger's THE LAST CASTRATO for Audacity
* Teamed up with TheaterJones and Elaine Liner to sort of adopt the YOLO Solo Fest which featured
* Premiered my short solo show I BROUGHT HOME A CHUPACABRA (dirercted by my lovely wife Ruth and featuring the kick-ass Lauren Moore)
* Taught two classes as adjunct for Tarrant County College (one film class, one theatre)

February...
* Journeyed to the Comedy Parlor in Tulsa to perfom Fun Grip Improv (also taught joint improv workshop there with Swearingen).
* took seven hours to drive back to Dallas from Tulsa due to ice storm. Ruth and I spent time to hatch plan to save money and get out of crappy rent houses.

ROBERTS' ETERNAL GOLDFISH

March...
* Ruth and I move to crappy Irving apartment to save money... which we do.
* Taught Playwriting Workshop to high schoolers at Dallas Public Library for Junior Players.
* Attended Austin's Staple! Fest and sold prints of my comic MY SECRET ISLAND. Drove back in another ice storm.
* Premiered my solo show ROBERTS' ETERNAL GOLDFISH at the 2014 Out of the Loop Festival. Won a Best of Fest Award.
* Hosted the Alternative Comedy Theatre's fourth annual Monologue Jam at Cafe Bohemia in Plano, TX
* Created Kickstarter campaign for Dallas Solo Fest. Raised $1,325 in two weeks.

April...
* Got hand-made letter-press cards from Lilco Press. She used my design. Expensive luxury, but they are so sweet.

May...
* Participated in "Method In Madness" Playwriting Panel at Denton Community Theatre.
* My play ARSENIC & ROSES was read at the "Method In Madness" event as well.
* Produced national festival of one-person shows called Dallas Solo Fest. Local acts as well as acts from around the country. Very successful.
* Taught Intro to Drama summer school session for Tarrant County College.

June...
* Finished last illustration in a series of art prints based on Samuel Beckett plays.
* Directed student-written one-act THE HOLDING FIX for the Junior Players/ Kitchen Dog Theatre event PUPFest.
* Co-Produced the 6th Annual Big Sexy Weekend of Improv with Alternative Comedy Theater.
* Taught workshop called "But I Suck at The Administartive Stuff" at Big sexy.
* Also performed Fun Grip and Dribble Funk at Big Sexy as well as hosting Monologue Jam.
* Taught a two week Drama Camp at Fretz Rec Center for Junior Players. My niece Kylie was in the camp. The kids performed the show I wrote for them TALKING JELLO WANTS A NEW PHONE.

The kids of Fretz Rec

July...
* Updated my ebook "7 Considerations For the Solo Performer"
* Taught Drama Camp at McKinney Rec Center for Junior Players. The kids performed the show I wrote for them THE SEARCH FOR MAGICAL STRAWBERRY SYRUP.
* Drove to Austin and PrintBombed BookPeople.
* Got horribly sick for about two weeks. Which sucked.

August...
* Emceed a three-day Benefit for Matt Tomlanovich at the Margo Jones Theatre.
* Had two plays done at Kichen Dog Theatre as part of the One-Minute Play Fest. They were I HATE IT HERE and CHUPACABRA RIGHTS.
* Sundown Collaborative Theatre did one of my short pieces LIZARD BOY EATS A DORITO as part of their "A Mix Tape: We've Done It Again" series of short works. It is performed in Denton and in Dallas by the delightfully weird Robert Linder.
* Begin teach the Fall semester as an adjunt at Tarrant County College. Two classes (Film and Theatre)
* Produce and host the first of a quarterly series called the Audacity Solo Salon, a sort of workshop for DFW area solo performers.

September...
* Teach two weeks of workshops of Improv for adults at S.T.A.G.E.
* My folks and Ruth treat me to Fogo de Chao for my birthday.

October...
* Ruth and I head to NYC to cacth Peter Brook's show The Valley of Astonishment at Theatre for a New Audience. Also meet up with Friends, including Will Harper and get 3:30 a.m. meatballs at Meatball Shop. Ruth and I stay in New Yorker Hotel suite. Fancy. Almost forgot how wonderful travel is...

November...
* Jeff Hernandez and I resurrect the long-dormant podcast Bike Soccer Jamboree.
* I help Brandon Potter produce his solo show SEX, DEATH AND LIGHT SWITCHES with some hosting from Audacity Theatre Lab.
* Taught workshops called "Making Your Characters Awesome Through Improv" at the 2014 Texas Thespians Festival. At Omni Hotel in Downtwn Dallas. One workshop had 85 high schoolers.
* Hosted pimped out version of Monologue Jam, produced by MINT Presents at Margo Jones Theatre.

CORNER OFFICE SKY

December...
* Finished fall semester at TCC. Filling for absent teachers, I ended up with four classes by the end of the semester. Big workload.
* Read excerpt of CYRANO A-GO-GO at second Audacity Solo Salon.
* My one-act play CORNER OFFICE SKY was presented as part of Nouveau 47 Theatre's "A Very Nouveau Holiday." It was directed by Becki McDonald.
* TheaterJones.com does a write-up on me as one of the "Forward Thinkers" in Dallas Arts in 2014.

Besides the month-by-month breakdown above, I read about 30 books and am contemplating writing (another) one of my own. I enjoyed my second full year of marriage to the wonderful Ruth and welcomed the addition of a new niece. I officiated my sister’s wedding last fall.I moved on from my manual labor job unloading trucks weekly at the Container Store to get another weekly manual labor job as a part-time ranch hand at a spread in Southlake.

As I wrote on my Tumblr around my birthday this year... "It seems so vacuous to list stuff off like this, but a lot of the time I get bogged down in the day to day. I look around at the continually shifting piles of disorder in my office or the unending pile of laundry that needs to be washed and/or folded and put away and just wanna bury my head in the sand. It is good to know I’m still moving and that the movement is in a progressive direction."

I am very excited about 2015. It will see way more travel, more teaching, more writing/performing/directing, more reading. It will also include exciting new projects - some outside my usual domains. It will also be the last hoorah for my 30s, so I plan to blow it out for real and take everything up a notch.

I'm mentioned on Art & Seek

I was mentioned in an interview local critic Mark Lowry recently did with Anne Bothwell on KERA's artsblog Art & Seek. Mark runs the TheaterJones website that covers performing arts in north Texas. He also writes for Arts & Culture and several other outlets. 

The interview was over what stood out to him during 2014. I made the list via the Dallas Solo Fest. It was nice of him to mention me and I'm glad the DSF has made a bit of an impact on the Dallas arts scene.

There's a transcript, but you can also listen to the interview... HERE

Pics from CORNER OFFICE SKY

Early episodes of Bike Soccer Jamboree available for download

Jeff Hernadez and I have been recording a semi-humorous/ semi-sincere podcast since 2012. It is called Bike Soccer Jamboree. It has changed a lot since we first started recording it. We did all the recording in the kitchen of my rent house on a small flip cam. I'd convert the video into an MP3 file, then edit it on a free audio editing program.

In the early days, we were on a now-defunct website Posterous (which was shut down when it was bought out by Twitter). When Jeff opened what would be the new home for the podcast, Sensational Adventure Club he started putting episodes on itunes. Unfortunately, he didn't put the first eleven on itunes and up until recently, there wasn't a way to download them.

But now there is. Head over to the Bike Soccer Jamboree site and click on an early episode. Some of the early ones are my favorites of the series. The first three episodes are now downloadable and the rest of those first 11 will be soon.

All the goodness... HERE

CORNER OFFICE SKY in the press

DeWayne Blundell as R.H. and Ana Gonzalez as Skye in CORNER OFFICE SKY

My one-act CORNER OFFICE SKY opened this past wekeend alongside a collection of nine other short plays as part of Nouveau 47 Theatre's A Very Nouveau Holiday. Here's a synopsis...

R.H. has just been promoted. As he finds a quiet spot away from the raucous office holiday party to congratulate himself he finds an other-worldly young woman named Skye. She seems drawn to a man with a good brain in his head.

The excellent Becki MCDonald directs. DeWayne Blundell is R.H. and Ana Gonzalez is Skye

The show has recieved nice write-ups, including...

"...bizzare and inventive..." ~ Christopher Soden, Dallas Arts Examiner

"...comedy reigns supreme..." ~ Danielle Georgiou, Dallas Observer Arts Blog

"... quizzical... a particular hoot..." ~ Nancy Churnin, DallasNews.com

Playing througfh December 21. Info... HERE.

CYRANO A-GO-GO at Solo Salon

I recently had the opoortunity to read an excerpt of my solo show CYRANO-A-GO-GO at the Audacity Solo Salon. I got some great feedback from the dozen and half audience members that turned out.

I was on a roster with Adam A. Anderson and Kris Noteboom. They rocked it out with their pieces as well.

Adam Anderson, Me and Kris Noteboom

This is nice...

The FB post below refers to... THIS

Recommended: David Mogolov's THIS COULD HAVE GONE WORSE

In 2010, David Mogolov began a series of three comedic monologues that left audiences questioning their life decisions small and large, from their flossing habits to their anger at Ponzi schemers. A hilarious, deep dive into the limits of human rationality, Mogolov's comedy also presents history's most thorough analysis of the smell of a Subway sandwich.

In This Could Have Gone Worse, the trilogy of shows is annotated and expanded with commentary on how they were written and produced, with an honest account of what failed and what succeeded, and why. The notes and new chapters look at it from both the perspective of Mogolov and his director, Steve Kleinedler.

I'm part way through this excellent book by solo performer and bon vivant David Mogolov and I'm going to go ahead and recommend it to all. Especially awesome if you are into performance or comedy (or both). Wonderful mix of smart and funny.

You can get the Kindle version for like $5. Here's a link... This Could Have Gone Worse: Mogologues, 2010-2014

I'm in the Audacity Solo Salon

I will be performing an exceprt of my solo piece CYRANO A-GO-GO at the Audacity Solo Salon next Monday, December 8. I will be in some fine company, alongside Kris Noteboom and Adam A. Anderson.

Here's a clip if the piece I'm working on from a reading back in 2011.

CYRANO A-GO-GO excerpt "The Text, Monsieur..." from FT Bonnigan on Vimeo.

The aim of the Audacity Solo Salon is to support and nurture both established and emerging solo performers in the north Texas area. It is also a way to extend the mission of the annual Dallas Solo Fest beyond just the festival itself. This quarterly series will be a way for solo artists to rehearse, experiement and develop their work in front of supportive audiences.

It is P-W-Y-C and B-Y-O-B, so if you get a chance come on out...

Monday, December 8, 2014 at 7:30 pm 
At the Margo Jones Theatre, 
 1121 First Avenue in Fair Park, 
Dallas TX 75210