2020 Year in Review

4 min readDec 14, 2020

2020 Year in Review

I thought I should sum up this bananas year as I might want to remember what it was like for me, being all historical and everything. So I did a little month by month re-cap to finish out the year.

Happy New Year! Cheers! It’s 2020! What a nice round number this is! Maybe this’ll be my year!
Twenty Twenty, so exciting.

Oh yeah, January and already things are looking up! I’m back in the rehearsal room, getting back on stage next month. It’s looking good.

Oh, February — the joys of being in a theatre full of people, pressed into a tiny dressing room with way too many actors and some unidentified randos, trying to warm up in small corners, whispering backstage so close to one another.

Oh hey, March — what’s up?
What? You want us to what?
But I can still take the subway to go see a show, right?
And hugging my friend is okay, right?

They wouldn’t shut down Broadway. They’ll never shut down Broadway.
Oh fuck, they shut down Broadway.
They shut us all down. No more theatre. Anywhere. Uhhhhhhhhhhh.

This is just a moment. It’s just a moment. We’ll be back to normal lickety split.
Let’s have those margaritas we were going to have in person on-line! So novel! So crazy, virtual drinking via Facetime.

And now it’s April and now the invitations to Zoom shows roll in. And they are all equally terrible, regardless of theatre size or reputation. Zoom is the great equalizer. Theatre on Zoom is not theatre and I should definitely write something about this but I can’t figure out how to because Zoom just fills me with existential despair, like every time, not just for theatre either. Why does every encounter with this app end with me in tears on the floor of the living room?

Tiny apartment. Tiny apartment. Terrifying trips to the grocery store. Walks past the freezer morgue trailers.

It’s May and the only thing keeping me going is my weekly on-line theatre watching “with” my friend via text and jigsaw puzzles. Thank goodness I have a silent scream practice.

June — Argggh! Arggh!

July — Arggh! Arghh! But outdoors. I’m staying at my friend’s place with grass and trees and flowers so it’s nice. But I’m on my own, which is good after being pressed together for so many months but also, I get so desperate for hugs that I start hugging trees.

August — Argh! Argh! It’s my birthday. I saw a friend. It’s my first time in 5 months. Also before I come back to the city, the power goes out for ten days from a Tropical Storm and I go full Laura Ingalls Wilder.

September — Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

October — Arghhhhhhhhhhhhh but colder and with Halloween decorations.

November — A one day celebration in the street on the day the election is called. A day of euphoria and a lot of cars blaring YG & Nipsey Hussle’s “ FDT” — which frankly we should have been blaring for the last four years but it was very satisfying to hear everywhere on this day. In fact, it’s how I found out the election had been called. Our downstairs neighbor started playing it at top volume and then I heard some cheers and I knew what all that meant.
Later in the month, a neighbor has dressed his scary chainsaw wielding psycho dummy in a turkey suit and just like that Halloween décor becomes Thanksgiving décor.

December — Time to collect the year’s best into the yearly zine and sum it all up and it’s…argghhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

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It’s been a brutal year. And we are the lucky ones, just by virtue of surviving it. May we all have a better year next time around. Thanks for keeping me company through it, lovely readers.