Currently residing: Pasadena, California! 

Grew up in: Millbrae, CA. (Right next to the San Francisco airport!) 

Creative beginnings: My mother tells a story about me writing scripts for my dolls (and being very frustrated when my playmates wouldn’t say the right lines). I was obsessed with acting in school plays and community theater, and wrote a set of one-acts my senior year of high school that my friends and I performed in a local park.

Like many artistic kids, I was somehow both painfully shy and incredibly loud, and was lucky to find theater as an early outlet of expression.

Playwriting empowerment and nurturance: My first plays were written for theater companies started by and/or with my friends. Spending years working with beloved, supportive collaborators was a real gift.

Writing process: Oh, it’s pure chaos. I would recommend it to no one. It involves intense procrastination, a giant papier-mâché tiger head, smelly candles my husband hates, frequent submersion in water, melodramatically ripping up giant pieces of paper, literal growling and foot-stomping, and alternating feelings of terror, rage, and accomplishment. 

Inspiration behind your play: I saw a fantastic production of Much Ado About Nothing and left feeling royally pissed off. I thought Hero deserved better. I still do. 

Favorite moment or line: The back half of Hero’s first scene with Benedick is a favorite.

Most looking forward to at ANPF: I’m always looking to deepen—so looking forward to digging in with such a stellar director and cast!

Hope for audience takeaways: I hope they get to tap into some feelings they’ve been neglecting, whatever those may be.

(And laughter! I hope they experience laughter!)