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Bio
I received my MFA from the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) Writing for Performance program and was the first CalArts playwright selected for the Kennedy Center's MFA Playwrights Residency during the summer of 2009. I also spent the last three summers at the Last Frontier Theatre Festival in Valdez, AK (2009, 2010, 2011).
CalArts has also given me the opportunity to get produced TWICE at the Edinburgh International Fringe Festival. I brought FLOOZY in 2010 and FleshEatingTiger in 2011.
I have taught playwrighting to students ranging from grade school to high school and beyond. I believe in the development process (asking 10 million questions of a script, staging things as workshops, experimenting and failing) and a physical approach to understanding characters and the writing impulse.
I'm currently a founding member of Fierce Backbone, a Los Angeles theater company that serves all stages of play development and meets weekly to workshop scripts. I am also a proud member of The Dramatists Guild of America, Inc. I am most likely writing, producing or directing something as you read this...
CalArts has also given me the opportunity to get produced TWICE at the Edinburgh International Fringe Festival. I brought FLOOZY in 2010 and FleshEatingTiger in 2011.
I have taught playwrighting to students ranging from grade school to high school and beyond. I believe in the development process (asking 10 million questions of a script, staging things as workshops, experimenting and failing) and a physical approach to understanding characters and the writing impulse.
I'm currently a founding member of Fierce Backbone, a Los Angeles theater company that serves all stages of play development and meets weekly to workshop scripts. I am also a proud member of The Dramatists Guild of America, Inc. I am most likely writing, producing or directing something as you read this...
I grew up on a farm in South Dakota. (That's our barn.) I graduated from the University of Iowa's undergraduate theater department where I worked with writing mentors: John O'Keefe, Keith Huff and Art Borreca. After Iowa, I continued to write plays while studying acting at the William Esper Studio, NYC. I also studied at the Stella Adler Conservatory, the Actor's Studio and performed/developed new work at LaMAMA, ETC, Circle Rep Lab and Alice's Fourth Floor.
I lived in Mississippi for a while after NYC (a long story) and made a living as an actor for an entire year. This was strange and wonderful...but I was on contract at the Equity theater and did local commercials and voice-over work. It was amazing. The whole time I was writing.
I then received my first grant from the Arts Alliance of Mississippi for development and production of my one-woman show CATRIX. I moved to Los Angeles (to try out the other coast) and while here found more time to write and do the theater I wanted to do.
My short play Close Encounter was part of the Quo Vadimus Arts ID America Festival in NYC (November 2007). My full-length play I'm Your Girl premiered February 2008 in Los Angeles. Other Los Angeles productions include short plays Naked Truth and The Course We Set. I had solo pieces produced for four consecutive years at Riverside Theatre in Iowa City, IA, as part of their annual Walking the Wire Monologue Festival.
I performed/produced/developed theater in Los Angeles for a few years before heading back to graduate school in playwriting. I got lucky and was one of two playwrights accepted at CalArts...my first choice as it's right outside of LA!!
I then received my first grant from the Arts Alliance of Mississippi for development and production of my one-woman show CATRIX. I moved to Los Angeles (to try out the other coast) and while here found more time to write and do the theater I wanted to do.
My short play Close Encounter was part of the Quo Vadimus Arts ID America Festival in NYC (November 2007). My full-length play I'm Your Girl premiered February 2008 in Los Angeles. Other Los Angeles productions include short plays Naked Truth and The Course We Set. I had solo pieces produced for four consecutive years at Riverside Theatre in Iowa City, IA, as part of their annual Walking the Wire Monologue Festival.
I performed/produced/developed theater in Los Angeles for a few years before heading back to graduate school in playwriting. I got lucky and was one of two playwrights accepted at CalArts...my first choice as it's right outside of LA!!
The Basics...
I've been writing my entire life. I was inventing stories before I could write. I was singing made-up songs before that. I grew up on a farm in South Dakota. I couldn't wait to leave...and now I can't wait for time at home. That's pretty much how I sum up the creation of my characters: living in contradition. We all do it in some way. I'm pretty passionate but I'm also kinda mellow. I love people but they can really piss me off. You know...half-crazy but mostly normal.
HAMLET is my favorite play. RHINOCEROS is a close second. After that, I just love playwrights and the plays don't matter. I'd rather write with blood than flowers. I'd rather piss someone off and talk about it than make them warm and fuzzy without much thinking. I'd at least like to ask more questions...but mostly because I have so many.
I've been writing my entire life. I was inventing stories before I could write. I was singing made-up songs before that. I grew up on a farm in South Dakota. I couldn't wait to leave...and now I can't wait for time at home. That's pretty much how I sum up the creation of my characters: living in contradition. We all do it in some way. I'm pretty passionate but I'm also kinda mellow. I love people but they can really piss me off. You know...half-crazy but mostly normal.
HAMLET is my favorite play. RHINOCEROS is a close second. After that, I just love playwrights and the plays don't matter. I'd rather write with blood than flowers. I'd rather piss someone off and talk about it than make them warm and fuzzy without much thinking. I'd at least like to ask more questions...but mostly because I have so many.
More Official Version...
