When Carol Mack called me and asked me if I wanted to join her and be a part of a documentary play project about women human rights workers who risked their lives to make better conditions for other women, I jumped at the chance. So did Ruth Margraff, Susan Yankowitz,…
So. The contracts are signed. It’s almost time to let the cat out of the bag. (Why is there a cat in this bag…?) In 2020, composer Guang Yang and I are heading off to Pittsburgh to unveil our brand new opera. We’re waiting for PFO to make the formal…
It’s a thrill to be involved in an opera project and tremendously exciting to be able to show glimpses of the work as we go. (And it’s also tremendously helpful to hear the work as it’s being written, so that we can make sure that all of it flows organically.)…
A first look at a new musical, GOLDEN. Book & lyrics by Paula Cizmar. Music by Nathan Wang. Directed by Diana Wyenn. For a new musical, it’s only right that there should be a beautiful new performance space: The Glorya Kaufman International Dance Center, 849 W. 34th Street…
Coming December 1 in Los Angeles, a performance of Act One of GOLDEN, a new musical about a strange confluence of cultures–the Polish musician and statesman Ignacy Paderewski and the diverse people of the Central Coast growing fields of California. Music by Nathan Wang, book and lyrics by me…
You know it’s really happening when you show up at the theatre and there it is: The announcement of your play taking up the entire box office door!
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One day, a very long time ago–maybe when I was taking piano lessons as a child?–I dreamed of writing for the musical stage. But it has taken a long time to transition from poetry to playwriting to being a librettist. Now I have two musical projects–GOLDEN with composer Nathan Wang,…
What a strange journey it has been to get The Hotel Play on its feet–and what a five-ring circus it feels like every time the play is performed. First, going back to the making of the play, just getting seven playwrights in the same room at the same time for…
The timelessness of the plays of the Ancient Greeks is well-documented, but it still never ceases to amaze me that a play written 2500 years ago can continue to have resonance today. Actually, some of the plays of Sophocles, Euripides, Aeschylus, Aristophanes may have even more resonance in times of…
There’s so much that is thankless about being a playwright, so when two projects pop up on an electronic screen serving as a billboard, it creates a big moment of fun. Here they are–an ad for ANTIGONE X and an announcement about SEVEN, on the same screen at the same time at SDA.…