If I wasn’t a playwright, the next obvious choice is to be a rabbi.

Even though my family was never very devout - somehow bacon was considered kosher but ham wasn’t (because who doesn’t love bacon?), and my sister kept a tiny plastic drugstore Christmas tree year-round in her room - I’ve always been drawn to the rabbinical job description:

* Talking to people that sit in rows of seats and telling them stories that mix miracles with everyday realities, and extreme triumph with stark devastation.
* Delighting in the power of language because words are magical. They have hidden meanings that can be played with and deciphered and rearranged in ways that surprise and reveal deeper messages.
* Honoring the Jewish sentiment of tikkun olam - fixing the world.
* Teaching by asking questions and then questioning those questions, never content to rest with a simple answer.

My plays create collisions between the fantastic and the humdrum, celebrate the absurd alongside the sacred, and set spectacular events against familiar backgrounds. I love playing with words and structure to reveal something new amidst things we normally take for granted. I’m a passionate humanist and believe in the inherent goodness and possibility of people.

For me, theatre is a deeply spiritual experience and I want the people watching my plays that are sitting in rows of seats listening to the stories I tell to be stirred, to question, and to be empowered to activate miracles and recognize that the impossible is always possible.