Plays
My theater career began as an actor, working at Actors Theatre of Louisville, the Guthrie Theater, Milwaukee Rep, Alaska Rep, Baltimore’s Center Stage, and the Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights’ Conference. And it was at the O’Neill that my playwriting took my career to new heights with the first production of Agnes of God. A co-winner of the Great American Play contest, Agnes premiered professionally at Actors Theatre of Louisville, a production which was followed by several other regional stagings, including a seventeen-month run on Broadway.
My other playwriting credits include: Voices in the Dark, produced on Broadway and the winner of the 1999 Edgar Award for Best Play; Haunted Lives, a collection of one-acts published by Dramatists Play Service; Courage, a one-man show about J.M. Barrie, produced at the Lambs’ Theatre off-Broadway and filmed for public television (which I performed). The Boys of Winter and Sleight of Hand, both produced on Broadway. Jass, presented at the O’Neill Playwrights’ Conference.
Impassioned Embraces, a collection of short plays and monologues, published by Dramatists Play Service; Steeplechase The Funny Place, a musical (with music and lyrics by Matty Selman) workshopped at the New Harmony Project; Young Rube, a musical (also with Mr. Selman), workshopped at the Gathering at Bigfork in Bigfork, Montana, and first produced at the Repertory Theatre of Saint Louis; Willi, a one-man show based on the speeches of mountaineer Willi Unsoeld, which premiered (and was performed by the author) at A Contemporary Theatre in Seattle (breaking box office records); The The Classics Professor, workshopped at The Gathering at Bigfork and at CAP21, New York City (and performed by the author); and Slow Dance With A Hot Pickup, a musical with Mr. Selman workshopped at the New Harmony Project, Sarasota Shakespeare Festival, and the Musical Workshop at Indiana University, and which premiered at The Barnstormers Theatre in Tamworth, New Hampshire in 2007, winning 4 New Hampshire Theatre Awards, including Best Production of a Musical and Best New Play.
My play Madonna and Child was read at the 2007 New Harmony Conference, where I was in residence; and my latest completed play, an adaptation of William Peter Blatty’s The Exorcist, played London’s West End followed by a tour of the U.K., both productions directed by the extraordinary Sean Matthias. I have completed drafts of a new play, Fathers and Sons, and a book to a new musical, composed by Matty Selman, about the life of Maria Montessori: La Dottoressa. Currently I am working on a new play, commissioned by The Denizen Theatre, tentatively titled Marlowe. Goethe. Faust. I have been a writer-in-residence at the MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, Ossabaw Island, The Gathering at Bigfork, and the New Harmony Project, and have received alumni awards from both my Alma Maters. In 2003 I was inducted into the Blair County, Pennsylvania Arts Hall of Fame. I served as the Keynote Speaker for the Harriet Lake Festival of New Plays in Orlando, Florida in February 2008, and have taught as a guest lecturer at University of Vermont and Carnegie Mellon.