My work attempts to dismantle systems and reconstruct systemic norms through plays that raise issues and confront them head on by creating theatrical experiences that tell very human stories. My greatest goal is to destigmatize stigmas and deconstruct the myth of Normal by creating narratives that honestly and truthfully tell stories about trauma, sex and sexuality that are populated with characters whose voices are often squashed.

Lofty goals, I know, but the more I write plays, the more I find I embrace these instincts rather than run from them. I try to understand them, I try to understand how they’re connected to me and my past and through that specificity, I believe they become universal. Recently, I discovered that I had been subconsciously trying to explore, understand and tell stories about my own trauma in my work; while this was apparently apparent to most, it wasn’t something I realized I had been doing.

All that being said, my plays are still playful and though they are very dark, throughout, they beat Hope. They take place in Brooklyn (mostly Coney Island), in isolated houses after Hurricane Sandy, in the Midwest during the dawn of the AIDS crisis, at a retreat house during a Non-Profit’s disastrous staff retreat, in a supermarket that’s going bankrupt and a sex shop. They tell stories about a boy who longs to be a superhero, a roller derby team chasing championships, amateur wrestlers, a woman searching for her missing son against the backdrop of a noir thriller, and a struggling burlesque troupe trying to make a name for themselves. Characters grapple with their sexuality, with eating disorders, with socioeconomic pitfalls, with their mental health and trauma.

It is my hope that by telling these stories, we can begin to reconstruct narratives to open up what is possible for theatre to accomplish both technically (pro-wrestling on stage!) and emotionally (telling stories that are viewed as abnormal and showing that they are anything but).