Why this Career Change?

Between 2017-2019, I created, developed, and directed Novenas for a Lost Hospital, a theatrical requiem for Saint Vincent’s Hospital. The show was produced at Rattlestick Theater in the West Village, where I have been the artistic director for the past seven years. The theater is around the corner from Saint Vincent’s former location before it closed in 2010. Through the research and rehearsal process, I saw the immense impact a hospital can have on a community, from the intimate and essential bedside interactions to larger systemic roles of support. At each performance, I met former Saint Vincent’s nurses and doctors and patients who all shared life- changing stories of loss, healing, grief, and community. I began to realize it was time for me to be of service in a much more hands-on, active, and immersive way. Novenas for a Lost Hospital closed in October 2019, and just a few short months later, the world felt the devastating impact of COVID. My desire and urgency to shift gears and move into the front line grew even louder and stronger.

In 1996, I graduated with a BFA in Directing from Carnegie Mellon, then stayed an additional year to pursue a graduate degree in Arts Management, and I have since had a successful career in theater, directing and creating programming in NYC and around the country. My theater work has dealt first-hand with community and social justice issues (incarceration, housing insecurity, health care). I feel grateful for my long and beloved theater career in the theater. Now, with great urgency, I am committed to shifting my focus into a new challenge that will have a meaningful impact on people’s lives in a more direct way.