Benefit For My Family and Cancellation of February Meeting

There will be a benefit put on by Columbus playwright Rick Hole for me and my family. It is this saturday, February 19, 2011 7:30pm at the Ballet Met performance space. People keep telling me I have been going through a rough time... I have though for some reason it is hard to admit and ask for help. My mom died January 12. She had come home for hospice and died 4 days later. My dad has also been very ill and between my parents illnesses and all the shenanigans from their insurance company (Humana...), writing has been something I have not had a lot of time or energy to put toward lately.

I have had a song written about me. I have had poems written about me. I even have had characters created in plays and books after me. However, I have never had a benefit for me and frankly even though I need the help and am very grateful that so many people care enough to do this, it still feels weird. I guess I am not used to all the sympathy and this will be an opportunity for me to receive instead of give. Here is Michael Grossberg's blog post on the event.

Meetings... We were supposed to have a meeting this month and we errr... wanted to have a meeting this month but from my understanding between trying to get people involved in getting the meeting off the ground and recruiting the writers and the fact we have the benefit going on the same day, Rick and I decided to cancel and try for the early part of March.

On a side note, I am looking to change the structure of the group and open it up a bit so I am not carrying so much of the water in getting the meetings together. There seems to be enough interest to do so, we'll see what happens. I have gotten a lot out of running this group and have learned a great deal. My hope is that the group can continue and so others can get the same benefit that I have had.

Finally, I want to thank some people. Firstly, Rick Hole, Theresa Nolan, BalletMet and the cast for the reading Ben Gorman as Jerry, Jim Azelvandre as Sarge, Rich Stadler as Don and Kim Garrison, Hopcraft as Flo, with stage directions by Amity Cauthorn. Thank you very much for doing this. You're kindness is humbling.

I'd also like to thank some other folks for their support over the last 2 years: John Dranschak, Adam Brouillette, Ruby Classen, Roland Tech, Chris Shaw Swanson, Meagan Burkeholder, Louie Cowan, and Matt Keida. For anyone else I forgot - Thank you too. There is more yet to be revealed...  ;o)