2014 has been a year that has seen me create and sustain thus far a successful theatre enterprise with my partner and friends; Strange Fascination has become quickly a greater success than I hoped to imagine. We are well received and approached to bring our unique shows to many venues throughout the region in 2015, we are respected, we are well in profit. Not many can claim as much.
However, I still pursued my acting career independent of these plans and found myself wanting. Living as I do with depression, I am often hard pressed to bring into effect those techniques and principles so heavily studied during my near two years of alcohol rehabilitation. My environment was not supportive of artist credibility, nor was it a place where one could work well as I had found with our own company, where collaboration, mutual respect and friendship were key. I became despondent, upset. Ignored artistically and made to feel isolated, I left that arena as a wholly disgruntled professional and look forward to more like minded collaborations in the future.
As 2014 draws to a close, we are happy and secure after some fortunate financial occurrences and are booked well into next year with SF. We have a holiday to Peru booked for March. Daisy is designing for our next show, 'Secrets' which I am busy writing. My January is spent in my home town doing cooperate work, a very good earner indeed. I'm looking forward to that. A chance to not only earn money for the start of the new year (as theatre creatures, I'm sure you appreciate the need to secure finances often) but a chance to revisit the hometown to put demons to rest. Whatever that means.
2015 hopes to be a year where our theatre company expands further and with Paul's excellent financial savvy, Daisy's ingenious creative talent and my, well, my prop collection (!!!!) we aim to increase our yield both fiscally and artistically. We might not be quite ready for the National, but I see it happening. Why not? We are motivated by good work, by people who work well with us; good people attract good people.
So, a brief summation of a year spent and hopes for the year to come. A year where I surprised myself in many ways and grew further as an artist and an advocate of speaking one's mind, if indeed there is occasion and need to speak it.
Happy New Year!
Simon
