An Artistic Statement

All things come down to the act of play. It is the imagination of play that makes our children and our friends magnetic to behold. It is the act of play that allows us to do anything and everything we set our mind to. Play is what teaches children how to create families when they play house. It teaches competition and collaboration within sports. It teaches rules of society when they play town or they pretend to survive of a deserted island. When we agree to play a round of pool with the scraggly man with only one eye at the dive bar, we learn about how he is and we learn a new friend's name. (Shout out to my boy, Derek.)

Play is where all of society comes from, and it's all that we do in creating art. Play is the first step to creating empathy. Play allows us all to create a new universe as a completely new person and discover all the news things the world we live in could be.

Theatre is play that expresses how we are feeling. It is a simulacrum of what has happened in either the real world or a world created by it's performer. That need to communicate created all of society, and the stories that drive it. And yet, play is silly and stupid.

Play is seeing a man with a bad neck tattoo win a make-believe a strap of leather and gold, for his father long passed. Play is getting weepy eyed at the death of a chocolate bunny priest. Play is watching two men who don't look like you have a conversation you wish you had with your estranged father. Play is listening to a group of ten year old girls chant the works Sock Jesus and writing a musical because of it.

Play is where all of society comes from, and play is the silliest thing. So my works will be silly in either their subject, their performance or their process. Even during the most intimate and heart-wrenching performance we should be able to laugh at the process.

All my works, from acting, to directing, to writing, to teaching revolve around the act of play and the embracing of how silly it is. So read my plays, let me direct/act in in yours, and let's all become better players.