Artistic Statement

Artistic Statement

We don’t see things as they are, we see things as we are.” - Anais Nin

I grew up in a house of stories – my father was a very commanding and entertaining storyteller. My mother said they were invited to a lot parties because of my dad’s entertainment value. He knew how to get your attention and reel you in. My role as his daughter was to listen when he started talking and not interrupt. Those years of listening taught me how to be observant, hear the rhythm and music in language and recognize how a story builds momentum.

I came to playwriting and theater through the side door. I accidentally registered for a performance art class my first semester in graduate school. I wasn’t a performer or a writer and I was sure I’d be the idiot of the class, but I stayed. That class changed the direction of my studies and my life. I discovered that everything I learned from my earlier pursuits in visual art, dance and music could be channeled into plays and performance. It was a revelation and a total surprise.

That aspect of surprise is what interests me about writing and creating theater. I want to upend the audience’s idea of what’s logical in order to unearth an emotional truth. What might be explained away as a character’s dream is, to me, a submerged reality that reveals itself when we fall or get pulled in.
Humor, especially dark humor exists in all my plays. Dark humor can create situations and highly charged emotions that resolve themselves in unexpected ways. I write absurd, bizarre situations with larger than life characters that derail people, but also have the possibility of jumpstarting their imagination. Comedy is an important part of my style, but I also want people to respond on a deeper level to the play’s emotional core and to leave the theater with images and sensations that linger beyond the life of the performance. Poetic language and verbal rhythms are also distinct and important elements in my work and I use poetic imagery to elucidate a character’s hidden feelings.