I’ve been refining my Artistic Statement as I prepare to apply for residencies for Summer 2020. Here’s a draft:
While the truth is often elusive and difficult to uncover, I have found the theatre to be an ideal place to explore truth’s various facets, layers, and its terrible implications.
I have so many questions!
I know that stories wield immense power and can create change in the world. Stories allow us insight, grant us a chance for empathy, and move us to a place where our hearts may soften, our bellies ache from laughter, and our minds may change. A play is a journey we take together.
As a theatre artist focused on examining painful issues through a comic lens, I write plays and musicals that satirize truths that may be hidden from the public eye. If my work asks difficult questions without finding any obvious answers, I know I’m challenging my audiences to find answers on their own.
I’m inspired by the collaborative nature of bringing a play into being. The writer provides the text, the director interprets it, the actors embody it, technical experts incorporate sensory dimensions, and of course, the audience participates. Plays are powerful in their unique ability to address challenging questions while engaging the whole self … engaging in the same experience at the same time, in the same space as the actors.
I write from a feminist point of view. Ever since I saw King Lear in Saratoga, CA at the age of 13 – and loved it as “the play about the wronged daughter” – I have been compelled to tell women-centered stories. My plays put women characters center stage, providing plum roles for women actors. To date, I have written three all-women plays, and all of my full-length plays feature women protagonists.
With careful attention to asking questions about important issues, and to telling women’s stories, I use my plays to create in the theatre a modern day agora: a thriving gathering place for art, introspection, discussion, and curiosity.
I write characters who display dignity, intelligence, heart, anger, and perseverance. When an audience sees these characters, they see themselves, and know they’re not alone.
My own values of laughter, candor, artistic excellence, determination, integrity, generosity, and feminism form the foundation of my mission: to harness the power of candor and curiosity to entertain and provoke audiences. I tell women-centered stories that ask complex questions while celebrating the intrinsic and real value of human beings.
My strengths are determination (okay, stubbornness), striving for excellence, and dedication to humor and honesty. I feel as if I am at a crossroads, and there are many new explorations to be had.