The best plays are plays forged in the fire of passion. But not passion from a single individual, but rather the gathered passions of many individuals working together. In order to foster this passion, there must first be a foundation of trust. In my room, every voice matters and every person is valued. Collaboration is the key to unlocking theater’s magic. I do not speak commands with harsh words, but rather guide and provoke with questions and affirmations. I believe each person in the room has something beautiful to share, and it is my responsibility as a director to make sure they feel comfortable enough to share the magic that lies within them. This is what makes a play feel electric… this feeling that everyone on the stage has something invested, something at stake, and a shared desire to create something beautiful.

Before I get into the room, and while we forge the play as a team, I primarily act as a spelunker, a botanist, an archeologist, and a treasure hunter. I am one with the dirt (or, the play, for that matter). I dig and I dig and I dig until the dirt reveals to me what it would like to become in the hands of our creative team. I believe in ongoing exploration, play, and discovery. I am a text oriented and metaphorically inclined director, it’s not uncommon for me to find one repeated motif, or a handful of repeated motifs, and offer this initial discovery up as our central seed from which the entire production may grow and foster.

In my work, you will find a through-line. An obsession with the battle between light and dark within us. An aesthetic full of shadows, puppetry, marionettes, masks, and anything else whimsical, weird, and rooted in old red-curtain-opera-house theatricality.