I began writing daily when I went to Drama School in London at THE WEBBER DOUGLAS ACADEMY OF DRAMATIC ART. After a career as an actress, director and a university professor of drama, I was suddenly commissioned to write and direct historical dramas for the House of the Seven Gables in Salem, M.A. At the first read through of LEGACY OF THE HANGING JUDGE, everyone got chills and I knew I could write what comes through me. That is still how and why I write plays and characters. The characters talk and I translate it into drama.
I write because I feel passionate about the subject. At the heart of all of my works are evolving female protagonists and generations of changing women. I am interested in how the sins, traumas and lessons of the grandmothers influence mothers and their daughters today. I write about people and issues that I believe need a voice.
I began my full time work as a playwright with two plays about Holocaust survivors. The need to process trauma to heal from it fascinates me. SAY THE NAME is an adaptation of Judith Sherman’s book. This play was presented at Harvard and used as a text in the divinity school. FROM SILENCE is based on my experience and observations of Judith’s family and interviewing other 2nd generation survivors. The impact of that trauma on children and grandchildren of survivors and how it can be healed is at the core of this drama. RECOVERY is about mothers of drug addicts and how they can recover. My daughter became a heroin addict, and I wanted to help damaged families of addicts. The mission of this play is to see addiction as a disease that has a cure. Other successful short plays I have written, “Accidental Death” and “Finished” deal with addiction.
PARTY is a comedy about a woman whose cultural training and low self-esteem lead her to marry a narcissist. I have also written a screenplay about how NEDs (near death experiences) change people and their families in AFTER HEAVEN. All of these works are journeys from darkness to light.
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My active directing career keeps me revisiting great plays and admiring their language and structure. I hope to keep directing and writing side by side for years to come. It has been thrilling to see my work performed and when possible direct it. But there are always so many wonderful surprises in collaboration.
I write to uplift people’s hearts and minds. I find it mysterious how stories comes through me, and I enjoy being a vehicle for drama and change.