Rachel Bublitz

Writer

A Look Back at 2019

December 12, 2019

2019 is coming to an end. Are you ready for it? I'm not sure I am, though I am very excited to kick back and spend time with my family consuming all the rich foods I can think of.

But, before the eating and the saying farewell to 2019, I'd like to take a moment and reflect on how grateful I am for having such a phenomenal year of playwriting. I am an incredibly lucky human and artist!…..

Collage of playwriting year: 2019.

Starting in the top left corner, here I am at the Theatre Bay Area Awards with the Executive Artistic Director of Z Space, Lisa Steindler! Working with Lisa this past year developing RIPPED for its world premiere has been an all around rewarding and wonderful experience. She made RIPPED a better play, and working with her has made me a stronger artist. Thank you Lisa, I hope hope hope hope this is only the beginning of our collaborating!

The top middle spot is for the Utah Premiere of RIPPED at Good Company Theatre Company! Thrilled to bring this play back to Utah and see it with a whole new set of artists. Thank you Camille Washington and Alicia Washington, Good Company's artistic directors! Honored to have my work in your 2019 Season! And thank you to the cast and team that put together a new vision of RIPPED for me to see!

Top right belongs to THE NIGHT WITCHES and the SOLD OUT RUN we received at the Great Salt Lake Fringe Festival this past August! Giant thank you's to that whole cast, everyone at the Egyptian YouTheatre, and a special to both Alexandra Harbold (my director), and Jamie Wilcox, artistic director of the Egyptian YouTheatre. (In photo: Laura Fryer, Kat Moss, Isabella Andrews, E Romero, Keegan Fitlow, Chelsea Cowley, Karina Barker, Amanda Rossi, and Katherine Ward).

Middle left is be smiling ear to ear because of the wonderful time I had seeing the workshop production of BURST at the Ground & Field Theatre Festival in Davis, California! Such a wonderful place and people. I got so much insight on BURST there, and as I'm about to jump into more rewrites on that play, thank you thank you Ground and Field!

Middle middle is for my THIRD commission from the Egyptian YouTheatre, cementing the amazing collaborative relationship between myself and Jamie Wilcox; THE SUMMER I HOWLED a teen werewolf horror comedy set to premiere in October of 2020!
Howl with me now, A-OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Middle right a production photo from the World Premiere of RIPPED at Z Space, photo by Lorenzo Fernandez-Kopec! We were a Theatre Bay Area recommended show, and wracked up seven nominations total for the Theatre Bay Area Award Celebration! The cast and team that brought this play to life fulfilled my playwright dreams and continues to make my heart soar. Proudest moment of my career. (In photo: Krystle Piamonte (Lucy), and Edwin Jacobs (Bradley), not in photo, but in the cast, Daniel Chung (Jared)).

Bottom left, because this was an incredible year for my play RIPPED, is the Road Theatre Company reading flyer. It was fantastic to hear the play with new voices in a new place. Hoping to be headed back to work with the great people at the Road Theatre Company again soon, because now I am hooked!

Bottom middle, CHEERLEADERS VS. ALIENS of course! My very first full-length play to be published, it is now available for licensing through Pioneer Drama Service! If you're on the lookout for a sci-fi comedy, look no further! I am so happy to have my play at Pioneer, where it's already had three productions, with another three on the horizon! Here's to hoping for many many more productions!

Finally, bottom right, we're back to RIPPED and the joy it was to work with Z Space! I was interviewed by Lily Janiak in the SF Chronicle just before RIPPED open! Needless to say, it was a busy few weeks!

There were tons of great moments that I couldn't fit on my little collage….

And and and! So much more. 2019 was pretty amazing. Thank you to all the people who came and saw my work. Thank you to my family, for supporting me and my crazy dream. Thank you to ALL the incredible artists I got to rub elbows with this year and create with. It fills me with so much joy, and gives me so much hope for the future.

What's 2020 got in store? Only one way to find out! See ya'll in 2020!

Happy Hanukkah! Happy Christmas! Happy New Years! Happy happy joy joy!

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