As a writer, I wonder—what can we learn about ourselves, each other, and the wider world by cracking open our assumptions about “story” and the various other words with which it is so often interchanged (e.g. “drama” and “narrative”)? Among other things, I’m curious about the relationship between popular story structures and our culture’s habit of binary thinking and polarized, hero-or-villain relationship to politics. If we collectively work on expanding our understanding of what story, narrative, and drama can be, together over and over in real time, could that practice ripple out to more curious, open, nuanced thinking about each other and the prevalent social issues of our day? This, I believe, is one exciting and crucial function of playwriting today. While I move through many art-making realms (contemporary performance, dance, poetry, music, public art), I feel rooted at home in theater for its etymological purpose—“a place for seeing” or simply, “behold”—a hospitable space (as Erik Ehn puts it) which facilitates sight and insight. My goal as a playwright is to keep seeking out new ways to create that kind of space, over and over, toward a more imaginative and compassionate world.