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We Must Reject ‘Oppression Olympics’
Though I appreciated Rebeck’s advocacy on behalf of woman-identifying playwrights, who have indeed been denied opportunity for decades, I’m concerned about her reliance on the outdated notion that there’s not room for everyone at the table. Equity is not a contest—race vs. gender—as Rebeck’s essay would have us believe. Woman-identifying playwrights don’t make a habit of comparing our progress with that of our global majority colleagues. Or our disabled colleagues. Or our trans and non-binary colleagues. READ MORE
Surrendering a New York License Plate
I will always be a New Yorker. So I cried when I had to swap out my New York license plates for California ones. I might have framed and hung these mementos of my Empire State years on the wall but New York requires you mail expired tags to their plate surrender department. To ensure they be treated with loving kindness, I enclosed this letter: Dear Plate Surrender Department: My plates are surrendering at last, after a long hard brave battle... READ MORE
9/11 Anniversary: 110 Supports Charity
When the Towers fell, we all wanted to help. We spilled out onto the streets to mourn in unison, flooded the relief centers to volunteer and lined up at hospitals to give blood - all hoping for a chance to make a difference. The impulse to alleviate suffering seems inherent in our natures - a primal force. So why does it take a disaster for us to be galvanized into service? Without a major tragedy to keep things in perspective, a "disaster" is spilling a cup of coffee on our iPad. Yes, I know, that really does suck...but disaster? READ MORE
Surrendering 9/11 (or What My Own Play Taught Me)
Burning towers… Stars and Stripes rippling through the title graphics… The term “heroes” splashed across the page… It’s every 9/11 cliché I abhor. Yet there it is—in the ad for my play, 110 Stories, being produced in Torrance, just an hour south of my new hometown of Los Angeles. I want to die, I say. “You asked for it,” I reply.Fourteen years ago, I wrote 110 Stories based on first person accounts of the day and its aftermath as an antidote to exactly that kind of sensationalism... READ MORE