Hometown: Plymouth, MI
Education: Interlochen Arts Academy, Penn State
Favorite Credits: Things At The Doorstep - inspired by the works of HP Lovecraft with Greg Bodine and IT winner for Best Solo Performance - Nat Cassidy, Lights Narrow by Vincent Marano (3 IT nods, Winner Outstanding Director 2014), Appeal to the Woman of the House by Christie Perfetti-Williams produced by Retro Productions (3 IT nods, 1 win - Heather Cunningham, Best Actress)
Why theater?: Everything we understand about the human condition - others and ourselves - we understand through the telling of stories. Telling them in the same room with the people experiencing them exists only in theatre and is more and more precious in our media based world.
Tell us about Good Boys and True: It's an incredibly complex play which raises a myriad of issues and provides no easy answers. The most truthful stories always do.
What inspired you to direct Good Boys and True?: It's an incredible opportunity to make sure a script this delicate is calibrated finely. As I read it, I kept thinking of how it might be done wrong or badly, with easy answers or villains implied. That made me hugely motivated to take the chance to try to get it right.
If you could work with anyone you’ve yet to work with, who would it be?: My incredibly talented novelist boyfriend, Ed Hancox. Since we began seeing each other, he's considered expanding his writing to the stage and screen. I would treasure a chance to collaborate.
What show have you recommended to your friends?: Anything by Gideon Productions or Flux. Also a big fan of the Neo-Futurists.
Who would play you in a movie about yourself and what would it be called?: “Against the Wind”. Starring Cobie Smulders.
If you could go back in time and see any play or musical you missed, what would it be?: Some friends of mine saw the infamous Moose Murders in 1983, widely considered the benchmark of awful theatre, and they are still talking about it. I would be most curious to see that.
What’s your biggest guilty pleasure?: Now that you mention it, and given my previous answer, Murder She Wrote. The glory of 70s and 80's and future 90s TV "stars" converging together, the unintentional comedy of the magnet for murder this ONE WOMAN is, the suspense of seeing if the endlessly professional Angela Landsbury will somehow betray the knowledge she MUST have that this material is beyond wretched. I love every minute of it!
If you weren’t working in theater, you would be _____?: Slowly going insane.... :)
What’s up next?: I am scheduled to direct Verona Walls by Laura Hirschberg at the Workshop Theater next winter.
