I believe theater is meant to transport us great distances to worlds we would never experience otherwise, and to encounter individuals and moments that would remain foreign to us without it. Whether the distances we travel are measured in miles, years, or divergent ideologies and experiences, the audience becomes a traveler to these new realities. It is my hope that they exit the theater carrying those new shared experiences into their communities and personal lives.

I have been drawn to the shadowy corners of the American experience (And I don’t just mean the Pacific Northwest.) I have always been intrigued by individuals, events, and stories that exist on the literal and metaphoric fringe of American reality and history. I think dramas are best when they make us laugh, and comedies are best when they make us cry.

In the past, I have been drawn to the legacy of forced tattooing among Russian immigrants, cults in the Utah Desert, or the almost unspoken lore, buried and nearly forgotten beneath so much suburban track housing around us. I live for the forging process, researching and interviewing the players and movements involved. Though not a natural extrovert, I have ventured into near secret communities to interview polygamist sects, dug through the faded correspondence from forgotten prisoners, and studied the ghost towns hidden within the Washington forests. These are the stories I love to enter as the house lights dim.