When did you graduate from Pitt Social Work and what did you study?
I graduated from Pitt Social Work School in 1986 with a specialization in community organizing.
How did you transition from community organizer to playwright?
I had been working as a community organizer and teaching community organizing my entire career when my wife was diagnosed with cancer in 2008. (She is now strong and healthy). I felt frustrated and inept. I took out a yellow pad and wrote out an imaginary interaction with her and her doctor. I went for a walk and saw an announcement on a small local theatre marque, “Ten minute play contest.” When I returned home I timed my scribbled conversation. It was ten minutes long. I entered the contest and my “play” was chosen among over 500 entries. When my wife and I saw the play, people in the audience applauded and cried. I had found a new way to connect with people.
How does your COSA education inform your play Repulsing the Monkey?
My COSA education may seem disconnected to playwriting, but it was actually excellent preparation. My education at Pitt honed my listening and communication skills. It taught me the importance of every individual and the need we all have to be understood and valued. It taught me to act on the values I treasured. It taught me how to create meaningful change.
My plays center around people who are overlooked and undervalued in our society. I try to connect them to audiences who leave the theatre with a better understanding and more genuine concern for people different than themselves.
What are the major themes of Repulsing the Monkey?
REPULSING THE MONKEY is set on Pittsburgh’s Southside. A brother and sister inherit their parents’ “shot and a beer” tavern. They can either keep it or sell it to young, wealthy out of town people. I wrote it to break down the issue of gentrification in human, emotional, terms.
What do you hope people will take away from the play?
The play has been performed in three cities, but this time in will be done in New York City at the famous White Horse Tavern. There were 500 New York actors asking to be auditioned! The audience will watch the play in the bar. My hope is that people will have a better understanding of the impact of gentrification on real people and think harder about improving neighborhoods for new residents and long -time residents as well.
What are your plans for your next play?
Two special things are in the works for 2022. My newest play will have its’ World Premiere. It’s called SIXTY NINE SEVENTY and it is the story of four undergrads in Buffalo NY in 1969-70. Interspersed in the story is actual film footage of the Draft, Lottery, Earth Day, Kent State etc. The play will be directed and performed by Yale Drama students in their 20’s.
Secondly, two other plays of mine will be having their London premieres. It would never be happening without the Pitt School of Social Work!