July 2018

When I'm busy and traveling, I'm not thinking about updating my website even more than normal. So for the 10 of you to whom I am so grateful and might care a lick about what I'm doing, here it is.

I have mastered no new recipes for Fava beans, yet this was the first summer I can ever remember seeing them fresh in the market and now live for their return. The thing is, they're a lot of work, and the volume of unhusked pods per finished product is ridiculous. Seriously, start out with an 8"x 1.5" pod and you might get three .5 diameter beans. So I wouldn't recommended serving them at a dinner party unless you have lots of little fingers to help shuck.

In other news... early May brought me to the Pasadena Playhouse where OUT THERE RIGHT HERE had a masterful reading helmed by Brian Brophy of the Mach33 team at Caltech and starring Philip Baker Hall, Lizzie Peet, Paul Bartholomew and Mauricio Mendoza. I'm hoping to get a production going somewhere very soon.

My sketch team in Portland has been kicking it with NIGHT BUS, now at the Shoebox Theatre. We're a new company and we've received our first review. It's a good one: http://www.wweek.com/arts/2018/07/03/night-bus-is-a-wacky-sketch-comedy-show-that-holds-tight-to-a-brand-of-portland-weird/

And I participated in a 24 hour playfest last night at Profile Theatre with 29 other spontantous theatremakers and paid homage to Luigi Pirandello's Six Characters in Search of an Author, with my play. It went as well as could be expected considering it was written and performed in 24 hours.

Next up--finishing the edit on Muffia III, aka Muff Stuff, and, in August, developing a new play, Girl v. Troll in Coho Theatre's Play development lab. Thank you Coho and Philip Cuomo for the opportunity!

MARCH 2018

It's been hectic. The New York City Reading of THE ONE YOU FEED, was a great success. After the play being selected, The Dennis & Victoria Ross Foundation and O'Henry Productions put together a great cast with Heidi Armbruster in the lead role of Serena Wolcott, a shut-in who wakes up one day to find out her son has been radicalized and joined the so-called Islamic State.

Next up on Monday, March 12th at Sacred Fools Theatre in Los Angeles, MY KNEE HURTS will be included in "We the People Theatre Action," a series of short plays, the proceeds of which will benefit "Moms Demand Action" for sensible gun regulations.

At the moment, I'm torturing myself (probably unnecessarily though isn't that what writers do?) over the rewrite for OUT THERE RIGHT HERE, which was the recipient of the Caltech Mach 33 playwrights prize for science writing. It will be read on Monday, May 7th at The Pasadena Playhouse and I'm thrilled.

November 2017

Two of my plays have won prizes this month, which after months of rejection has been gratifying and humbling. One never knows what the formula is but for whatever reason, each of these plays has resonated with different organizations.

The One You Feed was selected as a finalist for the Dennis & Victoria Ross Foundation prize in New York City and will have a reading there in the spring of 2018.

Out There, Right Here was selected for the Mach33 Science play prize at Caltech/TACIT.

Meanwhile, I'm really enjoying writing and performing sketch comedy at The Ape Theatre in Portland, OR!

OCTOBER 2017

"Dying's easy, comedy's hard." So said actor Edmund Kean on his deathbed. Well, at that point, it would be, wouldn't it? I won't disagree but now that I"m about to debut in sketch comedy team Big Mother at the Ape Theatre, I've found it's an incredible opportunity to write for laughs. Soon to be at a theatre near you (maybe).

Tickets available: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/big-mother-sketch-comedy-for-the-masses-tickets-38733786799?aff=efbneb Use discount code: "MOMJEANS"

In other updates: Muff III is inching toward the finish line!

September 2017

The new play is complete following rewrites from its first reading in July. Entitled GIRL V TROLL, the 4 character play follows a medical student as she tracks down her online troll, finally confronting him and discovering he's not what she expected at all.

ONE MINUTE WITH MELANIA, an online series will debut in October. Yes it's what it sounds like.

JULY 2017

If you're in Portland on July 9th, please come hear the first reading of DAM THINGS, in which a young woman tracks down the troll who's harassing her online and gets a big surprise.

July 9th @ 5pm, Cerimon House, 5131 NE 23rd Ave, Portland (in the Alberta Arts District)

June 2017

THE ONE YOU FEED is now in development with Corwin Evans (Production and Video Design), Michelle Joyner (Director) and Charisse Glenn (Casting Director).

UPDATE APRIL 2017

I'm thrilled to have been asked to participate in the William Inge Play Lab this year with my play Ocotillo. This is the 36th year of the festival and Beth Henley is the featured playwright. That should be some Master Class!