More than anything, I love the transformative power of theater. Specifically, I love how it transforms me. I am not precious about playwriting. I don't think my plays are going to solve racism or homophobia or sexism. I know this because I’ve written about these things and unfortunately those problems are still here. They remain unsolved, despite my body of work. I write plays to change me, to deal with my anger, my fear, my sadness, my own personal biases as shameful as they may be. I am an improved, more enlightened, more empathetic person because of the plays I have written. So, while the problems of the planet remain largely unchanged, I’m transformed, and I live on this planet. So maybe that helps things, if only a little, and that makes me quite proud.

A lot of playwrights will tell you their work focuses on the intersectionality between something and something else, and perhaps mine does too, I am just still searching for what those cross streets are. I certainly often define myself by my happy marriage and my two incredible children. How much they’ve influenced my work is difficult for me to quantify, though I imagine a lot. On the other hand, the cross streets in my work might have more to do with my growing up in a broken home. The insecurities that have resulted from that. My feelings of shame as I navigate a career writing reality television, which is a lot like writing scripted television, only without the quality or sense of pride. Maybe my Judaism is somewhere in the mix. Or my white privilege, that certainly could be a part of it. Maybe it’s none of these things. Or all of them. I’m not sure. What I can tell you is I don't always know what I'm writing about when I start writing a new play. Like many playwrights, I often am inspired by a question that gets me typing, but that question is usually one of plot, not theme. A character's strong external crisis, what he or she wants, is usually what gets me turning on my computer. The character's internal crisis, what he or she needs and undoubtedly what the play is about, is what I discover along the way.

Sometimes it's about forgiveness, racism and examining one's own personal prejudices, as is the case in my play Hermione. Sometimes it's about the fear of failure and disappointing your father and overcoming paralyzing grief, as is the case with my play Annelies. I didn't go into these stories with an agenda other than to see where the story takes me and to relish in the discovery that I know will come, that moment when I will finally understand why I'm writing what I'm writing and be transformed by that discovery. It's my favorite thing about this artform. When I come across that moment! I write a line of dialogue for a character and then suddenly it's like someone turned a light on, my eyes are finally open, and I realize just what has been bubbling in my subconscious this whole time. This play is about my dad. I see that now. I miss my dad. That was certainly the case with Annelies.

So, if anything, I guess my plays are at the intersection of my love of story and my desire to know myself and hopefully improve myself as best I can. Perhaps it’s selfish to admit that I write my plays for me, but it is with the understanding that I am exploring something more expansive, and the genuine hope that my plays have a greater resonance beyond what they mean to me - The hope that an audience will be as transformed watching the plays, as I have been writing them.