Hometown: Philadelphia, PA
Education: MFA - New School for Drama in playwriting, BA - NYU
Favorite Credits:Tar Baby (Off-Bway w/Desiree Burch), The Mumblings (Fringe 2013)
Why theater?: There are few places I actually feel completely at home. An old room, with a bunch of chairs, where a bunch of stories have been told, usually to and by a bunch of gays and jews, why, that to me is home.
Tell us about Dead Special Crabs: It's a road trip screwball comedy. Loomer has to drive the wedding present tan corolla from Maine to Florida to his sister's wedding because his Aunt Missy has CFC (Chronic Foot Condition). Along the way, he meets emo poets, joins a cult, loses the car and gets in a heap of trouble, all while a serial killer is running up and down I-95. I like to think of it as the most important play ever written.
What inspired you to write Dead Special Crabs?: I love comedy. I think it's incredibly difficult to do successfully and a room full of people laughing is a room I want to be in. I also love road trips and how in theatre, you can go anywhere. Mashing those two together has been tremendous fun.
What kind of theater speaks to you? What or who inspires you as an artist?: A good story. It doesn't matter if it's Shakespeare or Miller or Lisa Kron, watching characters with big desires have to wrestle others and themselves till the core of their humanity is exposed, that's the kind of theatre I adore. I am also always entranced by people who break apart stories, show us the strings and then play them like a violin. Theatre is fake, but I love fake things (at least half of my breasts are), and I get inspired by theatre that embraces its theatricality and lets every one play pretend.
If you could work with anyone you’ve yet to work with, who would it be?: Amy Sedaris.
What show have you recommended to your friends?: I just saw CSC's Allegro. It is very much a noble and enjoyable failure by Rogers and Hammerstein.
Who would play you in a movie about yourself and what would it be called?: Gene Wilder in "Jumpin' Jehosephat!"
What’s your biggest guilty pleasure?: Herr's Sour Cream and Onion potato chips on french bread. Really folks, it's kind of amazing.
What’s the most played song on your iTunes?: "Cabaret", as sung by Liza Minello
If you weren’t working in theater, you would be _____?: I always thought I'd be good at taxidermy, but maybe that's just the narcissism talking.
What’s up next?: My play Third Person is being workshopped in Terra Nova Collective's Groundbreakers Series and my screen adaption of Justin Torres' novel "We the Animals" will be shot in the summer, directed by my co-writer Jeremiah Zagar.