Writing
Thirteen plays, a published collection, and two decades of commentary for American Theatre Magazine, NEON, BroadwayWorld and Common Dreams. The work begins in research and ends in language an actor can speak on a bare stage.
When Churchyards Yawn and Other Plays
Four plays in which the past is not past and the dead are not silent, published by Upstage Left Press with a foreword by Chuck Fager and contextual material for actors, directors and educators.
Published commentary
Essays, interviews and recipesRegular contributions to BroadwayWorld and Buzzine, three pieces for Common Dreams, and many others across arts and political publications.
How a play gets made
Research, staging, languageResearch
Letters, diaries, court records, testimony and the writing of the people themselves. Nothing is invented that the record can supply, and where the record is silent the silence is part of the play.
Minimal staging
Every play is written so that it can be produced with very little: a chair, a light, a handful of properties. A company with no budget and a company with a full shop should both be able to stage it.
The language
The writing is shaped out loud, in the mouth of an actor, until the rhythm carries the argument and the audience can follow a long thought without strain.
Request a script
Copies of the plays are available. Write with the titles you would like, and kindly send $25. A PDF or a hard copy comes back, your choice.
Reading a script is not the same as staging it. Performance rights are granted separately, for each production.
Which titles would you like
Commissions and development
Commissions have come from the Be the Change Project and the Gannet Foundation, and adaptations have been built with Kore Press and Nevada Shakespeare Company from archives, letters and oral testimony.
On Track, the Brian Willson Story, is in development, and Jeanmarie is open to workshop partnerships with universities, festivals and companies who want to build a new piece from the ground up.
I write plays to give serious attention to people, questions and histories that are too often pushed aside.Artist statement
New plays, new productions, twice a year
A short letter when a play is finished, when a production opens, or when new classroom material becomes available. Nothing else.