Artistic Statement

Artistic Statement

I consider myself both a playwright and a dramaturg and my dramaturgical career really began in Albany twenty-eight years ago when I was a graduate student at the University of Albany working on my Master’s in Library Science. Much of the work I have done as a playwright has involved extensive research either on historical issues (Loos Ends: A History of Two Broads in Two Acts is about the lives of and friendship between author Anita Loos and actress Paulette Goddard) or social issues (Free Radicals was a fictionalized look at the damage wrought by 60s radicals and Cut: A Restoration Drama explores the subject of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and the politics of circumcision). My playwriting career began in Chicago, Illinois where I lived for almost nineteen years before moving back to Albany, New York, studying for another Master’s in Writing and working with Chicago Dramatists, Women’s Theatre Alliance, Stockyards Theatre Project, and The Dead Writers Theatre Collective. As a playwright, I am most interested in writing about people on the margins – of their communities, in their families, in history – and I often feel my calling is to be the voice of the voiceless. As a dramaturg, I am most interested in educating and engaging audiences in the worlds of the characters I create for the stage, hoping to start those conversations which might foster inclusivity where there has only been isolation.

I was recently awarded a 2018 DEC Grant through the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) to create a new play, Manufacturing Albany: A theatrical presentation on the past, present, and future makers of Albany County, which will be a full-length work that explores the economic, political, and social history of manufacturing in the Albany County region. My goal is to demonstrate how manufacturing has always been essential to the economic and social health of the area – from the late 18th century through the early 21st century – regardless of the products manufactured. Manufacturing Albany is a genuine extension of my process and goals as an artist – to educate and engage the typical theatre-going audiences and to provide a voice for those on the margins – the manufacturing community – which stands on the outside of a closed stage door