December 2025 - Looking Forward

Now that 2025 has officially packed its bags, we’ve been reflecting on a very productive and formative year for Hijinx & Sue. In the past twelve months, we’ve redrafted our show (multiple times), wrote six original songs (not including rewrites of existing songs or reprises), and showcased our work in Seattle, DFW, and NYC!

This month, we’ve been doing lots of non-flashy behind-the-scenes work, like submitting applications for opportunities, writing sheet music, and editing the script.

First, we presented Someone to Someone at the “2 Songs and a Scene” showcase, co-curated by AC Petersen and Daniel! This showcase offered us a low-stakes opportunity to share fresh new work in front of a live audience. A huge thank you to the Bothell First Lutheran Church for hosting the showcase, and to Sam Peters for accompaniment.

Watch Daniel sing the FUCK out of the ending to Someone to Someone (and watch Jessi lurk in the background):

Second, Hijinx & Sue was a semi-finalist for the 2026 New Works, New Voices initiative—a program through Syracuse University to develop new musical theatre. To have gotten that far with an (at the time) incomplete script was a huge honor!

Which leads me to our third piece of news….

A little explanation: while we’ve previously celebrated completing our full draft, there were still scenes that needed rewriting, outdated songs that needed replacing, and reprises that were still just concepts. So even though we had a full script that was technically complete in October, it wasn’t ready for reading. NOW we have the whole shebang, ready just in time to greet the new year.

2026 is already promising to be a pivotal year for Hijinx & Sue. Now that our first draft is done, we’re moving into the “reading and revising” stage of incubating this baby. We’re starting off strong with another private January living room reading, followed by a PUBLIC staged reading at Tacoma Little Theatre in April.

We’ve just finished casting our staged reading and we’re excited to kick off rehearsals this spring.

(There is at least one more confirmed very exciting thing happening in 2026 but we’re not allowed to share it, yet. Hopefully in the January newsletter! 🤭)

In non-H&S adventures for January, if you happen to be in NYC January 31-February 1st, you should join Jessi at the Sapphest play festival!!!

Jessi’s short play, Maybe She Does, will be showcased at the festival by the phenomenally talented director, Reva Grimball.

Early bird tickets are on sale until January 10th, 2026!!

Thanks for encouraging us all through 2025 - we really couldn’t have gotten this far without your help. So Happy New Year, and STRAP IN, BITCHES, because 2026 is bound to be a ride.