Artist Statement
“What if lightness is a philosophical choice to temper reality with strangeness, to temper the intellect with emotion, and to temper emotion with humor.”
Sarah Ruhl
As a devisor, I seek to adapt my training in classical comic techniques such as commedia dell’arte, mime, and clowning to create the magical, femme stories that I am interested in telling. To engage audiences on serious issues in a light, joyful, sometimes absurd way, through transformation, play, sincerity and finding the “epic” in the personal. With a passion for bellylaughs, I am not above a stupid joke; constantly in search of the "the game," once found, I play as hard, as long, and as many different ways as I can. My comic mantra is: high concept, low comedy. As a devising/performance artist, I am also interested in building work that challenges local audiences on what a play can be. My first first step in this artistic journey was the creation of Silent Reflections, a “clown noir” show I devised and produced with an all female collective, “Women from Mars”, that explores women’s insecurities and societal pressures through the medium of silent film. More recently, I delved deeper into this practice with LadyM which pits the poetic and absurdist lives of the modern, menstruating woman against the themes, characters, and language in Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Delving into the deep, dark, and bloody traditions of women’s stigmatized bodies, we pushed these difficult issues through the lens of grotesque comedy in this highly stylized, absurdist, and radical feminist bloodbath. Now, as a Co-Artistic Director of Faction of Fools Theatre Company, I am committed to the preservation and promotion of commedia dell’arte in its traditional form, while also exploring and pushing the style towards innovation and inclusivity.
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