My play "Miss Keller Has No Second Book" was one of four plays selected for Gulfshore Playhouse's New Works Festival in Naples, Fl, and what a great week it was! I was blessed with an amazing cast, director, stage manager, and along with the hard-working staff at GS, the entire process was productive and delightful. The surprise factor was the engaged and enthusiastic audience -- a smart, sensitive, honest, theater-savvy crowd who valued their own participation in helping to develop new theater.

Thanks to all who made me feel so welcome, and who embraced my play so wholeheartedly! This play (and this writer's soul) feels so much better because of you.

Rewrites, and rewrites, and rewrites...

The stellar cast prepares...

L-R: Me, Annette Trossbach (Director), and Kristen Coury (Artistic Director, Gulfshore Playhouse) at the post-reading talkback

I mean, COME ON. Taken on Naples' Fifth Ave just after my reading.

Wonderful news! L.A.'s celebrated Rogue Machine Theatre will be producing a world premiere of my newest play, "The Super Variety Match Bonus Round!" this fall. Directed by beloved director Cameron Watson and scheduled to open November 5, this rollicking comedy explores the risks of desperate love, the exemplary form of the 1970s game show, and the psychedelic side effects of fear your doctor may not have warned you about. 

Check back here for more details about the design team, the cast, and how to see this funny, thoughtful, brand new show.

So honored to be selected as one of four playwrights who will be workshopping new plays at the prestigious Gulfshore Playhouse in Naples, FL during the first week of September! My play, "Miss Keller Has No Second Book" will be featured in their 2016 New Works Festival, and will have a public reading on Sunday 9/11 at 3:00 p.m.  More info and tickets HERE!

So excited to learn that "The Presentation," one of my ten-minute plays, is a finalist for the 2017 Heideman Award at Actors Theatre of Louisville. The play was submitted for consideration of this award as well as inclusion in ATL's National Ten-Minute Play Contest.

Established in 1989, the National Ten-Minute Play Contest remains one of the most enduring and significant means by which the literary staff at Actors Theatre of Louisville connects with American playwrights and is introduced to vibrant new voices for the stage. The Heideman Award was established in 1979. Made possible by the late Ted Heideman, a Louisvillian, the $1,000 cash prize is bestowed annually upon the winner of the National Ten-Minute Play Contest (1990 – present).

Won't know final results until February, but I'm honored to be selected as a finalist for this prestigious prize.

Skyler Gallun and Nikita Tewani, as directed by Lori Kee at Nylon Fusion (NYC). All photos credit: Al Foote III

My new short play, "Chain Link," will be produced as part of Nylon Fusion's "This Round's On Us" series Friday June 3 and Saturday June 4 at 9:00 p.m. The evenings will also feature a World Premiere by the brilliant John Patrick Shanley.

Directed by Lori Kee, the short play features Nikita Tewani and Skyler Gullen.

The performances will take place at TADA! NYC, 15 W. 28th Street, New York, NY 10001. Tickets available here and more info at NylonFusion.org. Catch it if you can!

Honored to announce that my play, "Miss Keller's Second Book" is a Semi-Finalist in this year's Eugene O'Neill National Playwrights Conference. The Eugene O’Neill Theater Center is the country’s preeminent organization dedicated to the development of new works and new voices for the American theater. The O’Neill has been home to more than 1,000 new works for the stage and 2,500 emerging artists. Scores of projects developed at the O’Neill have gone on to full production at other theaters around the world, including Broadway, Off-Broadway, and major regional theaters.

In "Miss Keller's Second Book," it’s been nearly 50 years since the notoriously reclusive Agnes Keller published her first and only book. Now, with her protective sister recently deceased, Agnes must face the pressures from outside her small sanctuary as she grapples with the inevitability of change, the tangled tethers of family, and the question of an artist’s obligation to the world.

What an honor! I've been invited to join The Playwrights Union, which is a collective of theater artists writing for stage, tv, and film, who provide a community of professional and personal support for each other in Los Angeles. Membership is limited to thirty playwrights and "extended to those who demonstrate dedication and ambition as writers, as well as a spirit of generosity toward their colleagues." 

I look forward to working with and being inspired by these talented and prolific writers. A huge thanks to the membership for the inclusion.