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Dolly Parton, Coexisting with our Past, Present and Future Selves and my play “Bloom.” “Bloom” will be presented in the Appalachian Playwriting Festival with Parkway Playhouse in NC.

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…
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On the recent New Yorker article “Women Playwrights Lose the Limelight.” It’s complicated, except, IT’S NOT.

On July 22nd, Helen Shaw, wrote in the New Yorker, “After years of progress in diversity, many companies’ upcoming slates feature mostly, and in some cases entirely, male-writer lineups. The backslide has prompted an outcry.”Here’s the link! https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-lede/women-playwrights-lose-the-limelight. Here’s what I think about it all, as expressed through excerpts from my newest play “Run Wild”…
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My new play “Run Wild” presented in Pittsburgh International Theatre’s “Bards of the Burgh” new play reading series.

My newest play “Run Wild” received a sold out performance and standing ovation – for a reading!! – on Thursday, July 11th. Here’s a brief and insightful article from the Pittsburgh Tribune Review about Bards of Burgh which includes interviews with the playwrights. RUN WILD: A Trilogy of of 10-minute Inspired Greek Goddess Plays +…
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On Political Theatre or Not

Buried within The New York Times Style Magazine the “Men’s Fashion” March 9th, 2025 issue “The Legacy Begins – Statement-making, easy-to-wear men’s clothing for this generation…and the next” (Um…what…?) was a beguiling little article entitled, “Please Stand – What do audiences want from political theater now – and what does it want from them?” (Why…on…
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My Play Studied in History Classes

It was a meaningful return to my play 🎭“JH:MECHANICS OF A LEGEND” on March 13th, 2025 with Monteze Freeland and Delana Flowers, phenomenal actors and humans who respectively originated the characters of John Henry and Polly Ann in this play. ❤️ We led workshops with The Winchester Thurston School’s high schoolers to reveal themes and…
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Aging Artists, 2 Scarlet Letters

Recently two New York Times articles were about playwrights and their ages. “The Next Hot Playwright? They Prefer the Ones Who Cooled Off.” With their Tent Theater Company, Tim Sanford and Aimée Hayes want to raise the profiles of older artists and keep them from being sidelined. By Laura Collins-Hughes on Feb. 10, 2025 The…
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“Like a Dog”

My monologue, “Like a Dog” received a winning a selection, and was published with “Fresh Words: An International Literary Magazine in their special anthology of To Be or Not to Be. Marcus, a farmer in south central Pennsylvania, implores his daughter Chrissy to understand that when the time comes, he hope he’s been good enough…
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The Ignorance (and Arrogance) Around Professional Theater Jobs and Arts Leadership Roles

I just need to say – that theater is an industry. It has specialized jobs, degrees, training, tracts, fields, and experts LIKE ANY PROFESSIONAL INDUSTRY. When you think you “know all about theater” because you know someone who was once on Broadway or because you have seen a lot of Broadway shows, that’s like me…
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The After Death (and after birth) Onstage (Remembering my Dad’s Death Rattle)

My play, “IN OUR TIME: Pandemic Stories from the Frontlines” was presented in two staged readings in February in 2024. Work on this play began in Dec of 2020, during the thick of COVID when my artistic partner in my company, Hiawatha Project, Heather Irwin, and I began interviewing women ICU physicians from across the…
