How long have you been writing?

I’ve been writing plays since 2017. Not gonna try to do the math in my head right now, but however long that's been.

What got you into it?

I majored in theatre in school. I was doing a general theatre major, and when I took my first playwriting class, it was one of the required classes, and it just immediately kind of clicked. I was like, “Oh no, this is the niche within theatre that I really want to be doing.” So I've just kind of jumped in with both feet at that point and I've been writing ever since.

That's awesome, I love that. I love when people find their niche and it's just like, this is it, this is what I want to do.

Yeah, it's a very cool lightbulb moment when that happens.

Is this your first play that’s been produced?

No, I've had a few other things happening in various stages of production. I've had a couple professional workshops of different plays, a couple readings. One of my ten minute plays has been getting produced a lot this year which is really exciting, and that's the first time that one particular piece has kind of taken off. It’s being produced in three different places in different parts of the country this year so far, which is very exciting.

A little more about Personal Library. You’ve repeatedly interwoven within the scenes of this play the story of Peter Pan, and the characters of Peter Pan. However, even though Peter Pan is the titular character of the story, he only appears in one scene, whereas we have Wendy, who is in and out constantly. What was your inspiration behind that choice?

This play is just so much more about the women. That’s really the main answer. The play is about the women. The male characters that are in it are also important, but they're secondary. There's a female friendship that's central to it, a very complicated friendship. Of course, Megan is our protagonist and it's her struggles with her mental health and her learning how to deal with this big trauma that's happened and learning who she is, and she kind of does that through putting herself into these stories. She sees herself in Wendy, and she sees her best friend Claire in Wendy, also. Really, the biggest reason for making Wendy the main character from Peter Pan that shows up so much is just because Megan connects with women more than she connects with men at this point. That’s kind of brought up in the play a lot, that she has a hard time being around men at this point in her life because of what’s happened to her, so that’s really why.

In addition to Peter Pan, you also have some of the characters from Alice in Wonderland. Both of these stories are children’s stories, they're very lighthearted. What was your reasoning behind integrating these stories within something that’s so heavy?

Megan has dealt with this really scary, adult thing, and in order to deal with that mentally she’s trying to escape into worlds that don't have those scary adult things. She's escaping into children's books, which are just much safer and, you know, anything scary or bad that happens in a children’s book, there's kind of a safety net. There's a happy ending, there's magic...you know everything’s going to be okay in a children’s book, so she’s escaping into them for that reason. She's trying to be who she was before this trauma happened to her and she hasn't yet learned to accept that she might not be that person again, and that’s okay and she needs to move on and be a different person but it's this kind of grasping at her innocence and her childhood and trying to hold on to that as much as she can.

What do you think and what do you hope people will take away from this play?

I hope that the ending comes across as hopeful. I think that’s something that is really important to this play. I wouldn't want someone to come see this play and yes it is very heavy, of course, it’s extremely heavy, but I hope that by the end of the play it leaves them with a feeling of hope, and not of just dread and hopelessness. That’s one of the big things. Also kind of walking a fine line with the ending of the play with making sure that it’s not unrealistic. I hope that when people come see this play who haven't struggled with mental illness or with trauma like this in their lives, that it's kind of giving outsiders an insider perspective of what that’s like, and that there’s hope and that you can move forward with hope but that those things don't just go away, that they're still going to continue to be present in your life, you just need to learn to deal with them in a better way, in a more healthy way.

What is your favorite play?

I have two that are very different, kind of my go-to’s when anyone asks me this question. One is Angels in America. I just think it’s perfectly written and just artistic genius. If I need to reconnect with what good writing is, I'll just go read Angels in America because it's so perfect, it's just fantastic. I also really really love Cyrano de Bergerac, which I think is kind of a deep cut, but the reason I love it so much is because it's the first professional production of a play that I ever saw. It's also a wonderful story and really witty and well-written, again, and heartfelt and clever and funny. I love that play as well, but that’s a little bit more of like, I love it because it really sparked my love of plays. Most of us, I think, generally who are in theatre, kind of started with musical theatre, you know, and Cyrano de Bergerac was the first play that I saw where I was like, “Oh this is a thing that I love, and can dive into, too.”