At its core, teaching is a partnership (it's just you and me). I have a passion for storytelling - whether it's on the stage or on the screen, and my favorite thing to do is to talk about the infinite varieties of story. As a teacher I consider it my calling to open doors, not to close them. I try to listen, not only to you and what you want to accomplish and why you're writing and what you want the audience to understand, but also to what the play/screenplay itself wants to do, say, accomplish. Sometimes we writers are not sure what we're writing about or even why we're writing it; we're simply trying to get something out onto the page so we can understand it and then shape it in a meaningful way. And sometimes our intellects get in the way of our instincts - especially in the first drafts. I try to listen to the play's instincts most of all - sometimes they are smarter than we are. And I ask a lot of questions. Answers are not so helpful in the long run - they're an easy fix, but questions are helpful. Questions open doors to solutions. Finally, I want you to come away knowing your strengths and weaknesses so you can continue to grow in the "real" world. Therefore, I revere so-called "failure." It's where we learn the most, and it sets us on a path toward success. I hate to mention the dreaded word "process," but writing is one, and once we understand this, we retain power over our writing. And we should all be so very powerful.
Work
Plays
The Art of Burning
Haiku
Code Blue
The Last Bark
Bark's Dream
The Glider
Brickwork
The Seduction
Parallelogram
Rubik's Goldberg Variation
New Hampshire
OZ
Critics' Circle
Observatory Conditions
L'Air Des Alpes
Que Sera, Sera
Spaghetti Al Dente
Praire Echoes
Asylum
How I Saw the Light
Circus
Awards
Tanne Foundation Award, Elliot Norton Award 2012 for Sustained Excellence, Heideman Award, IRNE award (twice), Dramatists' Guild Commendation, Milan Stitt Award for Outstanding Teacher of Playwriting, Leonides A. Nickole Theatre Educator of the Year Award, Huntington Playwriting Fellow, Outstanding Achievement in Theater Arts Education Award, Theatre Hero Award (Stagesource), AATC National Steinberg Award nomination, Best Play Award (Southeast Theatre Conference and Mississippi Theatre Association), David Mark Cohen Award (2nd place), Creative Writing Fellowship in Fiction (Wichita State University MFA in Creative Writing Program).
Current Affiliations
Member of A.E.A., A.F.T.R.A., and the Dramatists' Guild, Professor Emerita of the Practice of Playwriting at Boston University, Playwriting Fellow with the Huntington Theatre Company.
Past Affiliations
Former Artistic Director of both the Elliot Norton Award-winning Boston Theater Marathon and Nobel Laureate Derek Walcott's Boston Playwrights' Theatre, Former National Chair of Playwriting at the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival.
Education
M.A.,Creative Writing, Boston University
B.A., Speech and Drama, Wichita State University
B.A., English Literature, Kansas University
London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, Post-Graduate Certificate