As a new company member, everything is new all the time. Meetings to attend, a fundraiser to plan here, a season to plan there, oh and we make art too, right? All the business of REALLY making theater is new to me. What’s more I joined Savage Umbrella in July and shortly thereafter we restructured: swapping roles and reconfiguring how we work together. Wonderful timing, actually, because common to my experience in working with Savage Umbrella they were supportive of each other while being deliberate in their collaboration strategy.  I also came into the company one month after a pretty traumatic bike accident. I received one hell of a concussion and recovery from Traumatic Brain Injury is no joke. Part of healing from something that dulls and changes your mental capacity takes HELLA patience, diligence and hope. As a product of my injury I made poor choices at times, I forgot things quite a bit, struggled with vocabulary and social anxiety. All this is to say is that I became a student in my own life again.

The situation required me to start over. To recreate not replicate. That meant relearning how to be an artist, administrator, editor, performer and collaborator all anew. Each challenge for which I had been previously suited required me to re-negotiate all of that style I had been honing over the last decade. This was a unique opportunity for me to give myself compassion. I had to let go of the behaviors and judgements that no longer served me because my old solutions were no longer soluble in my new condition and environment.