Looking Ahead to 2024
This has been an incredibly productive writing year for me! I tend to have years in which I am very prolific and years in which I am more production-focused. This year, I completed FOUR full-length plays, three of which have gone on to public developmental processes! Likewise, I’ve added a few shorter works to my catalog, including a few experiments with the very intimidating one-minute play form! I even had a one-minute play produced!
My works have had productions from coast to coast (plus one international production earlier in the year). I’ve also noticed an uptick in productions at colleges and universities—and even a few at high schools! In the coming year, I am hoping to experiment further with writing for younger performers. I have a one-act for a cast of teenage girls currently in development. We’ll see if anything happens with that piece in 2024!
Some particular highlights from this year:
My new one-act, Any Port in a Storm, received back-to-back professional productions in Chicago and NYC
My play Hot Blood Sundae was selected as one of Smith & Kraus’s best 10-minute plays of 2023 and received its second off-broadway production at The Tank
I received a Creative Communities grant from the Huntington Arts Council and used the funds to write and develop two new full-length plays (blowhole and The Care and Feeding of Restless Spirits), both of which received enhanced public workshop productions at Westbury Arts
I flew to St. Louis, MI for my second Aphra Behn Festival as a playwright and got to see a phenomenal production of my new one-act, — reANIMA
My Great Gatsby adaptation, These Gilded Souls, found a new audience in Iowa
My new full-length play Murdering Medea received developmental workshops with Kent State at Trumbull and The Bechdel Group in NYC. It was a top-ten finalist in an open-script competition
My short play Pandora’s Box of Donuts was part of the Light in Dark Places festival, which raises awareness for suicide prevention. It felt like the perfect theatrical home for this piece
Believe it or not, I already have a LOT to look forward to in 2024. I have pieces programmed through OCTOBER! Amazingly, that includes TWO full-length mainstage world premieres!
Here’s what’s ahead in 2024 (so far):
I’ll be kicking off the year with the world premiere of my short comedy Body Horror at B3 Theatre in Arizona as part of the First Festival of Feminist Shorts
Next, Big Idea Theatre in Sacramento, CA will be presenting the world premiere of my one-act play, Odd Songs for Odd Birds as part of their one-act festival through February
In the early Spring, the Roving Peregrine Theatre Company in West Virginia will be presenting the world premiere of my full-length play, You Enter the Tavern, as part of their mainstage season
Later in the spring, two of my one-acts will make their Long Island premieres in the Long Beach Short Play Festival - both Tracks and Any Port in a Storm are included in the lineup… and I am the only playwright with two pieces in this festival, which is neat
As we ease into summer, the Pharmacy Theatre in PA will be presenting Hot Blood Sundae as part of their al fresco Clinical Trials Festival - and I am told the selection process for this one was intense, so I’m excited to have work included
Finally, as we enter Autumn, I will get to experience the long-awaited world premiere of my full-length play, Occupied, which has had robust development but didn’t make the cut for production… until now! The Storefront Theatre of Indianapolis will be presenting the play as part of its mainstage season. I cannot WAIT to finally see this story fully realized!
I have a few resolutions related to writing this year. I’d like to complete one original full-length play, and really prioritize classes and education. I am already registered for a workshop series in January, so I’m off to a great start! As 2023 was winding down, I spent some time working on prose to try and stretch a different muscle, but it is reinvigorating my passion for this form! I can’t wait to dive back in and make some cool new work this year!
