Artistic Statement

Artistic Statement

a testament of agency; or, my artist sermon

My earliest theatrical experiences were inside the Charismatic Christian Church, with its elaborate worship, prayer, and communion. On holidays, we preformed passion plays. On mission trips, we evangelized with morality plays. The art we created in the faith of my youth was an altar-call of catharsis. It was a visceral, communal ritual that opened portals to realms beyond the physical, if only for a fleeting moment.

Today, my faith looks different, in many ways, but mostly because the theatre is my church. A major part of my spiritual practice is playwriting. Every phase of the process, the writing hermitage, the collaborative rehearsal rooms, the live performances for audiences, and every micro phase in-between is a sacred ritual in its own right. As I continue to reckon with the complicated faith of my past, my stories disrupt passivity. And in my journey of healing complex trauma, my stories empower agency. At the convergence of these two identities, my stories dismantle patriarchal whiteness, in earnest, with radical tenderness.

Stylistically, I would categorize my art as hyperrealistic, wholeheartedly character driven, and inherently folksy. My characters combat stereotype by embracing the poetry of breath, body, and desire. The worlds I build diverge from naturalism as they hang in the delicate balance between the otherworldly and the dirt of the Earth. In performance, my plays are a trauma informed, healing centered space that speak to the most starved places hiding within each of us.

Often, when the alchemy is just right, my plays tap into something larger than itself. It’s undeniable that my art is rooted in my Charismatic origins. Therefore, the art I create in the faith of my womanhood is an altar-call of catharsis. It is a visceral, communal ritual that opens portals to realms beyond the physical, if only for a fleeting moment.