I started writing plays out of spite. Jealousy, really. It was motivating. That work is pretty terrible and occasionally funny. In it, I recognize the signature elements of my writing and the early development of my voice. I see the seeds of what has come to be my practice as a playwright and independent theater maker (writing out of spite and jealousy only occasionally now). Like I said, it’s a motivating force, not even procrastination gets in its way.
My worlds favor the lost, discontent, and unheard. They reveal hidden worlds that reflect something of our own. Even my early baby playwright efforts show my inclination for strangeness, playfulness, strong female characters and my desire to expose violence and corruption, to push language and form.
I make my best work in collaboration with other artists and love the opportunity to exchange ideas with artists, makers and thinkers across disciplines. I favor a slow art practice, exploring material over long periods time (1 to 3 years or more). My practice is driven by chance encounters and rigor, heavy on research and images. I constantly challenge my ideas about what performance can be and push to find new strategies for storytelling and experiment with form. I’ve written about child abuse, body image, poverty, environmental activism, terrorism, and the limits of love. No matter how experimental or non-linear my storytelling, I write from an intimate, honest place that invites reflection about our time and reaches out to future generations.
My work includes plays, devised theater, solo performance, communal gatherings, curated writing practices, broadsides, short experimental texts and Flash fiction. It has been commissioned, developed or produced by Enso Theatre Ensemble (Portland), Flugwerk (Berlin) Crowded Fire (San Francisco), Playwrights Foundation (San Francisco), Shotgun Players (Berkeley), FoolsFury (San Francisco), and Paducah Mining Company (San Francisco).
I live in the San Francisco Bay area.
