1.CROSS KEYS is a recent play you’ve submitted to The Baltimore Playwrights Festival. What is it about?
Brendon Riordon, beloved professor from a local university, looks forward to a peaceful retirement with his long-time live-in girlfriend Mackenzie. Those plans are threatened when a non-binary student demands that Professor Riordon use his preferred pronoun to address him. The situation escalates and eventually challenges Professor Riordon’s liberal beliefs and ultimately transform his own conception of identity, time, and space. Mackenzie and others in Professor Riordon’s life must face these changes.
2. What was the inspiration for CROSS KEYS? Did the play stay true to its inspiration or take another path?
Even before the 2020 election, challenging long-held norms about what is true or real has dominated the news. For several reason, many beyond our understanding, the current zeitgeist has us all on edge because our long- held beliefs, some of which are sacrosanct, are challenged daily. A desire to explore this tension inspired me to write this play. I mostly stayed true to the original inspiration but my own obsessions, quirks, and a desire to entertain myself took me down some unexpected paths.
3. Did you have a plan in place before you began writing: number of scenes, subplots, the ending? Do you outline your plays or just jump in?
I had a rough outline for the play before I began but the structure revealed itself more through rewriting than prewriting.
4. Tell us about yourself.
After nearly 30 years teaching in Taiwan, I returned home to Maryland to help care for my elderly mother. During the first half of the pandemic, I wrote every day. In October, my mother’s health further declined, as did the time I had for writing.
5. What are you working on now?
In January of this year, I started “The Mainstreet Podcast,” a podcast focused primarily on the people and stories of Harford County, Maryland.
6. What is coming up next for you?
I hope to resume writing soon.