I am loving all of the personal Dolly Parton tributes. To me, she represents a rare kind of tenacity and grace—the ability to live in all of her iridescent colors in coexistence with her past, present, and future selves, and to do so with authentic love and joy,  without the weight of self-shame or judgment. May we all own the pen to our stories with such courage, understanding, and generosity. 

Now seems as good a time as any to share that my play “Bloom”  was selected to be presented as part of Parkway Playhouse’s Appalachian Playwriting Festival this September. 

Parkway Playhouse is proudly one of the oldest continually operating professional theaters in North Carolina, located in the mountains near Asheville, NC. 

BLOOM explores a young Mennonite girl’s experience with puberty and adolescence inside the realm of her mother’s garden. Part rural cookbook and part farm know-how, “BLOOM” strives to unearth the complicated and often harsh power structures of women and daughters within societies which limit them to bloom where planted. 

It’s a special piece to me rooted in my rural Mennonite childhood. I hope to continue to develop this new play, which was also a “Second Rounder” in the Austin Film Festival Playscript Division. 

Thanks to Sarah McNeer Beitler for this powerful poster image.

For tickets and more information see https://parkwayplayhouse.com/appalachian-playwriting-festival/