About
Me
I’m seven years old, bouncing on my heels in my polka dot bathing suit, waiting for my mom to finish getting dressed so we can go to the beach. Impatiently, I open her bedroom door to see her just as she’s about to pull up the top of her one-piece. Her lopsided chest stares back at me. One breast hangs down, and next to it the skin is taut and blank. My mind flashes to the Greek mythology book I got from the library, and its colorful illustrations of the terrifying cyclops. I had spent a year delightedly poking the pad my mom kept in her bra to cover up her mastectomy scar, but this is the first time I’ve seen her naked chest since she faced the knife. She clutches her bathing suit to her body. I turn my back quickly, not understanding the bloom of shame creeping up from my stomach.
That feeling of shame shaped me. It’s the force that has always told women to keep our bodies covered, our hands folded, our legs closed, our voices silent. It is a pillar that empowers patriarchy. As a playwright, I investigate shame, in order to imagine a world without it.
I received my MFA in Playwriting from Columbia University, and my BFA in Drama from NYU Tisch. My plays have been developed in NYC and regionally with Roundabout Theatre Company, Urban Stages, Hartford Stage, American Stage, Williamstown Theatre Festival, New Light, The Tank, and more.
In addition to writing I'm also a dramaturg, writing instructor, performer, and newly converted fan of cats.
I'm currently reading These Truths by Jill Lepore.
Teaching
*Guest Lecturer, Hunter College Department of Theatre, City University of NY (Fall 2020)
*Guest Lecturer, NYU Open Arts "Embodied Performance" class (Spring 2019)
*Instructor in Stage & Screenwriting at The Writers Rock (Spring 2017-present)
*Writing coordinator for Tribeca Performing Arts Center's Writers in Performance Workshop (2015-present)
*Teaching Assistant in undergraduate drama at NYU Tisch (Fall 2017) and Barnard College (Spring 2017)
*Creative writing instructor at Writopia Lab, an afterschool creative writing program for elementary, middle, and high-school students (Fall 2016-Summer 2019)
*Teaching artist in partnership with Carnegie Hall's Somewhere Project, a citywide exploration of West Side Story for community arts organizations (Winter 2015)
*Creator of the Indian Arts Workshop, an educational outreach program presented through the off-Broadway theater Urban Stages, which she performs at libraries throughout New York City (2015-present)
*Artistic director of Cirque d'Ete at Park Slope Day Camp - a summer circus and performing arts camp for elementary school students (2011-2017)
Dramaturgy & More
Dramaturgy
Middlebury Acting Company's
American Dream Project (Spring 2021)
THE ROYALE by Marco Ramirez
THE NICETIES by Eleanor Burgess
SPOILED by Elizabeth Hess
The Hess Collective
Dixon Place (April 2019)
La Mama E.T.C. (March 2020)
*cancelled due to COVID-19
NO COMMONER TALE by Quinn Rol
Classics on the Rocks
Shetler Studios (March 2019)
NOW EVERYONE GO AROUND THE TABLE AND SAY WHAT THEY'RE THANKFUL FOR Devised & directed by nicHi Douglas
NYU Tisch School of the Arts
Experimental Theatre Wing
Loewe Theater (December 2017)
Artistic Assisting
Writing Assistant to TV writer James Manos (Summer 2019-present)
Developing projects for BMW, HBO Max, the UN, & more
Assistant to writer and performer Eve Ensler
Manhattan Theatre Club (January-March 2018)
MONSOON WEDDING
Assistant to lyricist Susan Birkenhead
NY development workshop (March 2017)
Memberships
Affiliate Artist - The Hess Collective
Member - The Dramatists Guild