Like everyone who makes theater, I suspect, I believe there’s no substitute for the live performance; even a staged reading is usually better, I think it goes without saying, than reading a play yourself.
And yet… I am a lifelong book fetishist of a somewhat high order. My home has an actual library; my (adjacent) study has books the library couldn’t hold, and my bedroom even has a small cache of favorite books: they’re everywhere. Two of my first jobs out of college were with publishers, and (though it’s been two decades) I can still conjure the romance of the profession. And as much of a technophile as I clearly am—hell, I even read on a Kindle quite regularly—nothing will ever replace for me the heft and import and significance of a beautifully bound book.
I came to theater late in my life as a writer, and I came to it through literature, not through performance or through film. (Though I did act for a while, and design sets, and run a few light boards back in the day.) I didn’t grow up wanting to see the characters I created be brought to life; I wanted them brought to mind. (For the record, and so nobody gets confused: now I want BOTH.) So I really can’t understate how important it was to me—nothing less than the fulfillment of a lifelong dream—to have my work published.
Pictured above is a copy of ABSTRACT NUDE, one of two plays I’ve had published by Original Works; the other is CRACKED. I’ve also got a short play (VERTICAL CONSTELLATION WITH BOMB) in The Best American Short Plays 2014-15, too, and a chapter (co-authored with Jason Loewith) in The Routledge Companion to Dramaturgy. I hope very sincerely that if you’re interested in getting to know my work, you’ll consider a purchase… and then, if you’re so inclined, drop me a line to share your thoughts.
Oh, and if by some chance you’re interested in an early minor work… you can check out The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Grammar and Style. My friend Laurie Rozakis was the author, and I had the privilege (at a crazily young age) of writing the foreword. Christmas gift for a college student, anyone?
