I wear many nouns: fiction writer, playwright, memoirist, folklorist, actor, teacher, arts producer, and director. Involvement in all the arts forms inform the others. I learn whenever I teach. I learn whenever I work in a theatrical ensemble. I am usually working on more than one project simultaneously. Thanks for visiting.
NEWS:
Wednesday, 12 June, 2019 at 7pm at St. Mark’s Church at 1900 St. Paul Street in Baltimore, the Dramatist Guild is presenting a reading of my newest play, Good Men and True. I’m writing it for an American Shakespeare Company competition in which playwrights write in response to one of the Shakespearean plays in their upcoming season. I decided to write in response to Much Ado About Nothing after I learned that the Lord Chamberlain’s Men company’s clown, Will Kemp, was fired while he was performing Dogberry. No one knows why. A year later, in need of funds, Kemp danced the Nine Days Wonder that tracked his Morris dance from London 114 miles to Norwich. He made bank, sold his LCM and Globe shares, and disappeared. Some say he was involved with some sort of political intrigue; actors were messengers of sometimes treasonous letters. Shout out to the amazing cast: Marianne Angelella, Ted Frankenhauser, David Forrer, Adrienne and Celia Rose Gieszl, Randy Hadaway, Joe Leatherman, Larry Malkus, Tim Marrone, Mark Scarf, Kerrin Smith, and John Wilson for helping me develop this work.
I’m finishing my romance novel, Night Narrative; early drafts are with test readers and I’m developing the book proposal.
I’m teaching two independent studies in playwriting and screenwriting with graduate students in summer. Readings of new work developed will be in mid July.
Media Stuff:
My friends Lance Bankerd and Mike Barton produce this adorable and hilarious House of Bankerd State of the Arts podcast. They interviewed me about creating art in Baltimore.
Baltimore City Paper nominated Stillpointe Theatrical Initiative and Spotlight UB’s shared production of Assassins in fall 2015 as Best Musical. Congrats to co-director and Stillpointe artistic director Ryan Haase.
My friend Big Mama Ama Brown at Be Exposed Radio interviewed me and Kafi D’Ambrosi about arts engagement and partnership in Baltimore.
Judy Rousuck interviewed me and Baltimore Playwrights Festival Chair Michael Stricker on WPYR about the addition of book-in-hand readings to the summer 2016 schedule.
DC MetroTheaterArts nominated Stillpointe Theatre Initiative’s first production of my science fiction play, The Benefactor, in their Best Plays in Professional Theaters of 2015 category. Thanks, Stillpointe and creative team!
Some writing thoughts:
For the five summers from 2012-2016, taught American students playwriting in Northern Ireland. Thanks to funding from UB Foundation, filmmaker Peter Salisbury created a trailer from AP15.
Judith Krummeck of WBJC interviewed me about my latest play production, The Benefactor. Follow the link to hear Judith’s amazing bell-like tone.
Dramatist Guild representative Brent Englar interviewed me in the DG magazine July/August issue National Reports section. DramMagJuly15Article
Below, Kelsey Magrath in Siren’s Call, John Hewitt International Summer School Festival, July 2013, Armagh, Northern Ireland.
