Artistic Statement

Artistic Statement

I am fascinated with what we hide from ourselves and others through dialogue - what it is that is underneath our words. My aim as a playwright is to use language to explore the issues of my generation, which has led me to write breakneck, character driven dramas that examine a diverse cross-section of young people trying to cope, confide, or forget their secrets. I strive to use theatre's immediacy, energy, and limitations to create drama that unfolds in front of you and on top of you.

Within this intimate experience, my intent is to challenge myself and the audience by putting diverse characters in timely, dynamic circumstances that reflect the world we live in. Specifically, I want my plays to represent the outcast and the overlooked (politically, economically, socially) millennials, to engage in a conversation with my audience and give voice to perspectives that do not often appear on our stages. That the questions and language in these plays be as timely as possible is of utmost importance.

In pursuit of these questions, I have come to believe that theatre's greatest potential can only be reached when the process is highly collaborative. I am of the mind that a playwright's structure and vision for a play is paramount when completing a first draft -- but after that initial draft is completed, it is the play that decides what the story will be. This process can only be achieved by listening, both to the characters in the play and to collaborators. Revising has become integral to my writing, and I have found that I never have a true grasp of the scope or intentions of the play until the third or fourth draft. This vision can only be revealed to me through vigilant listening and rigorous rewriting.

While I write much of my work what some might call "traditionally" (a playwright alone in a room typing on a computer), I am constantly experimenting and discovering new ways to create theatre: adapting a single work of fiction with multiple playwrights tackling designated chapters, site-specific plays, date-specific plays (a play that was performed during the 2014 summer solstice and then never again), broken narratives, plays where the audience must choose the story they physically want to follow. Each experiment has informed my more traditional full-length work and forces me to constantly discover new ways to use the theatre.

I write for the theatre because it is a medium in the unique position to tell the story of now. This ability to reflect the present tense back to our audiences is one of the strongest tools we have as theatre artists. It is my hope that when an audience experiences my work and sees that reflection, they are able to recognize themselves -- and are able to be surprised by what they see.