Graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University with a concentration in Dramatic Writing and Literature. Studied with William Alfred, Robert Brustein, Adrienne Kennedy, Gregory Gunter and Tony Kubiak.

Graduated from UCLA with an M.F.A. in Playwriting. Recipient of Hal Kanter Comedy Writing Award and Marty Klein Comedy Writing Award. Literary intern at The Geffen Playhouse. Studied with Leon Katz, John Glore, Velina Hasu Houston, Edit Villarreal and Hanay Geiogamah.

[For a complete play production history (including readings, awards, publication, etc), please click on the Production History button on the left.]

Resident playwright, City Theater Company (Wilmington, DE)

Playwright-in-residence, Choate Rosemary Hall Summer Arts Conservatory (Wallingford, CT)
Wrote a new play geared specifically to teen actors each summer. See Day One, Dear Chuck and Now You See Me in the Plays Available for Production section.

Managing Director, Philadelphia Dramatists Center (Philadelphia, PA)
Managed finances and membership, provided overall supervision of services, activities and physical space for organization of dramatic writers with over 100 members.

Stage Director, Walnut Street Theatre (Philadelphia, PA)
Directed Shakespeare in Love? (now titled From Shakespeare With Love?) and From Lit to Hit, a pair of plays they commissioned from me specifically for their Outreach program.

Co-Founder and Associate Artistic Director, The American Experience Theater (Haverford, PA)
Made artistic decisions and fundraised for professional company dedicated to American work. Led by Artistic Director Scott Schwartz, the theater performed for two summer seasons before we retired it to pursue individual projects

Script reader, American Repertory Theatre (Cambridge, MA); McCarter Theatre (Princeton, NJ); Philadelphia Theatre Company (Philadelphia, PA); New York Theatre Workshop (New York, NY); Philadelphia Young Playwrights Festival (Philadelphia, PA)

Professional memberships: Alliance of Los Angeles Playwrights (Co-Chair), Dramatists Guild of America, Philadelphia Dramatists Center (life member), The Ariadne Group.

Freelance Script Consultant
Consult with playwrights and screenwriters on their work, providing detailed notes, instruction, and/or phone support. Have also worked with such theatre companies as Blue Man Group and the VSA Playwright Discovery Award program. Click the Script Critique Service button on the left to learn how to hire me.

Resident Playwriting Expert, Final Draft (Los Angeles, CA)
Created "Ask the Expert" playwriting for Final Draft's industry-leading scriptwriting software. Wrote over a dozen articles for the website of the screenwriting/playwriting software maker and advise on playwriting issues.

Resident Playwriting Expert, The Writers Store (Los Angeles, CA)
Created the content for Playwriting 101.com, an online instructional site and for a number of years the top-ranked playwriting website on Google, for The Writers Store. Write articles for their e-zine and advise them on playwriting matters.

Playwriting Instructor, Writers University
Teach an online course, "Introduction to Playwriting," to a wide variety of students from across the United States and the world.

United States Cultural Envoy to Barbados (Bridgetown, Barbados)
Taught playwriting workshops to local writers, as well as a playwriting master class to members of the Barbados Association of Drama Educators. Served as Literary judge for the National Independence Festival of Creative Arts, was a guest speaker at the University of the West Indies and met with local practitioners with the goal of improving playwriting in the island country.

Visiting Associate Professor of Theatre, Hollins University (Roanoke, VA)
Taught Narrative Theory and Dramatic Structure and Special Topics: Theatre for Young Audiences, in summer 2008 in the MFA playwriting program. Returning in summer 2011 as Visiting Associate Professor of English, and currently advising a graduate thesis.

Teaching Assistant, UCLA
Graded most assignments, papers and exams for Theatre Arts 11 and 13, required for freshman theatre majors. Held regular office hours to assist students with course material, which included plays and musicals from such diverse authors as Marlowe, Ibsen, Shepard and Sondheim, as well as supporting critical texts ranging from Aristotle to Zola. Teaching assistant for 130B, an advanced playwriting class, which involved one-on-one dramaturgy work with undergraduate playwrights, assisting the professor with evaluating their work, and occasionally running the class and lecturing.

Dramatic Writing Teacher, Choate Rosemary Hall Summer Arts Conservatory (Wallingford, CT)
Worked with students to develop plays and screenplays, culminating in public staged readings of student work.

Workshop Leader, Philadelphia Young Playwrights Festival (Philadelphia, PA)
Taught playwriting, culminating in school showcase and submission to PYPF contest, to students at Moore Elementary School and Cheltenham High School.

Screenwriting Teacher, Walnut Street Theatre School (Philadelphia, PA)
Taught course for beginning-intermediate level adult screenwriters.

Dramatic Writing Teacher, Wilma Theater Studio (Philadelphia, PA)
Taught course in playwriting and screenwriting for beginning-intermediate level adult writers.

Drama Teacher, The Haverford School Haverford, PA
School's first drama teacher. Created curriculum to develop acting, directing, design and playwriting skills in middle and upper school students through required and elective major and minor survey courses, and specialized course in playwriting and screenwriting. Students were recognized with young playwrights' awards and professional productions. Directed two plays per year (for six years), including the North American premiere of Lord of the Flies, Broadway classics such as Big River and Dead End, and more adventurous fare by Brecht and Ionesco. Supervised budget and five-play season, represented drama program at department heads meetings. Supervised hire of additional drama and movement teachers, and selected and arranged all guest artists. Evaluated writing samples of students applying for admission to upper and middle schools and served on upper school admissions committee.

Guest lectured to MFA playwrights at the University of Southern California School of Theatre (Los Angeles, CA) and to theatre students at the University of the West Indies (Barbados). Playwriting clinician at the Tennessee Arts Academy, and guest artist at the Educational Theatre Association annual conference, the Asian Festival of Children's Content (Singapore), Society for Reading and Literacy (Singapore), International Thespian Festival and at the state festivals in Alabama, California, Florida, Georgia, Missouri, Ohio and Tennessee. Participated in Writers Day, a program that brings writers in all disciplines to elementary and middle schools in the Philadelphia area to run writing workshops (at approximately a dozen schools). Taught playwriting through lectures and workshops at Church Farm School (Paoli, PA), The Episcopal Academy (Merion, PA), the Green Theatre (New Malden, UK), Hagerty High School (Oviedo, FL), Idyllwild Arts Academy (Idyllwild, CA), Lyman High School (Longwood, FL), Marple Newtown High School (Newtown Square, PA), Niles North High School (Skokie, IL), Oak Park High School (Kansas City, MO), Socorro High School (El Paso, TX), Springfield Academy of Arts and Academics (Springfield, OR), Stevenson School (Pebble Beach, CA), and Toledo School for the Arts (Toledo, OH).

Miscellaneous

Six-time voter for LA's Ovation Awards, a member of the Edge of the World Festival's peer review panel, and a two-time judge at HDfest, a festival of HD films held in Burbank, CA.

Panelist at Lincoln Center Directors Lab West with Luis Alfaro, Elaine Avila, Oliver Mayer and Jon Lawrence Rivera.

Panelist at the Scriptwriter's Showcase, sponsored by Final Draft, Inc. and scr(i)pt magazine, for a panel entitled "Stage to Screen, Screen to Stage."

As part of the City Lights Youth Theatre production of NOW YOU SEE ME, I appeared on a panel to discuss school violence. Joining me were William Mastrosimone, author of Bang, Bang You're Dead!; John Woodall, founder of the Unity Project and a Harvard University professor; Jeanette Cueva, head of the adolescent unit at St. Vincent's Hospital and a professor at Columbia University, and Damaris Webb, director of the production. Moderator was Dan Abrams, anchor of MSNBC's The Abrams Report and NBC Chief Legal Correspondent.

Featured in the "LA Confidential" column of the November-December 2003 issue of The Dramatist (the article isn't online), the journal of the Dramatists Guild of America.

Guest on Good Morning, Barbados on the Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation in November 2008.