In 2022, a series of anxiety attacks required me to take a mental health leave from my work and seek counselling. Weirdly, it also prompted an obsessive re-evaluation of 80’s era synth-pop, the music of my youth.  It felt cathartic to write a theatre work that used comedy, vulnerability and live music as a means to address mental wellness and Gen X mid-life.   NWYB premiered at the Hamilton Fringe Festival with repeated sold-out shows; it will be presented across and beyond Canada in 2024.