I’m preoccupied by the manner in which women allow themselves to be defined by others as well as women’s
inability to see that defining themselves from the inside is an important component for liberation. I wrote
Deliver Us with this in mind. It’s based on the true story of Rebecca Gomperts, the Dutch doctor who
converted a fishing vessel into a mobile abortion clinic and sailed it to Ireland. It’s a fascinating story, but the
play was too political and too religious. I wanted to write something lighter that was similar thematically and
pointed to the way in which a woman’s role is constantly being redefined in every aspect of society:
emotional, social, cultural and political. My new play, It’s Raining Men, is about a mother who fears her
daughter will become a social outcast unless she chooses a husband. The daughter, however, sees
marriage as an institution that was organized around and reinforces a fundamentally oppressive biological
condition, what John Stuart Mill calls the “primitive state of slavery.” Through dark humor and exaggeration,
the play attempts to push the boundaries of what has traditionally been looked at as “acceptable” for women
and explores the implications of the societal pressure to adhere to such conventions.

I write a lot about this. Communion, which was directed by Deborah Mathieu-Byers last January is a
surrealistic exploration of a woman’s place in society and ranges in theme from the degradation of women in
traditional relationships, to the arbitrariness of modern fashion, to the role of religion in marriage. I just wrote
a short play, “The Alteration”, which also deals with marriage. The groom sets up an appointment for an
alteration for the bride-to-be, because he wants her to wear his mother’s wedding dress that is several sizes
too small. Of course, it isn’t the dress that is altered at all, but the woman. Against her will, she undergoes an
extensive liposuction treatment, to the point of near death.

I’m working on another full-length play, Team Red Snapper, the inspiration for which came from my brother’s
running club in Columbia, S. Carolina. The play takes place at the pasta party the night before the New York
City Marathon and spans the course of ten years. In this Italian Catholic Brooklyn family, the Antonelli men
define their worth by their interactions with women and their threshold for physical pain. The oldest brother,
Tony, decides to abandon both, and realizes in doing so that he must give up his place in the family as well.
There’s only one female character, the mother, in a cast of six, but the central action swirls around her, and
ultimately it is her passivity and desire to please which causes her family to disintegrate. Thematically, Team
Red Snapper is similar to the rest of my work, but it explores the condition of women through the eyes of the
men.

I just finished the narration for Yearning for the Fourth Grade, which I was commissioned to write by
Streetlight Productions in September. It’s about the difficulty of connecting with someone in a world that’s so
complicated. (It opens at The Lion Theatre on West 42nd in New York on November 13th) I was also recently
commissioned by The Walton Arts Center to write a piece for First Night-Fayetteville about the importance of
community and the arts.