I was born in upstate New York into a troubled, wealthy family of Jews who didn’t want to be Jews and later lost their money. My dad was a gifted architect; we lived in a Frank Lloyd Wright-ish house he designed of wood and stone and large windows where birds would smash and drop to their deaths. These small but large tragedies showed to me the beauty, sorrow and gravity of life.

From childhood, I inherited conflict, chaos, laughter, dismay, love of literature and music. My writing’s clamour for justice I inherited from a mother who was confused about a lot but clear about the worth of every human. My writing is anti-oppression, cognizant of history, not-quite-realistic, charged, difficult, funny, hysterical, tragic, plunging, poetic.

I am a poet and composer-musician as well as a playwright. I honor my “poetic” style and work to render my plots clear and tense. I am interested always in the psychological dimensions of characters, explicit and sub-textual. My plays always contain heightened language and word-rhythms, can be realistic or fantastical

War, racism, sexism, capitalism, trauma and its reverb are my subjects. I am fascinated by how collective experience intersects with personal history, what the single American life carries of the public and political American moment.

What excites me in theatre is genuine transgression in action, texture, subtext, image, arc. I believe the stage is the place for savage acts as well as kindness. I deeply respect the human story's ancient ability to instruct and cleanse. Theatre as a calling of spirits. Theatre can offer moral sanity and clarity in a time when both are desperately needed.