1. GERTRUDE, QUEEN OF DENMARK is a recent play you’ve submitted to The Baltimore Playwrights Festival. What is it about?
In my play GERTRUDE, QUEEN OF DENMARK, Gertrude is devastated to learn that her husband has died suddenly. She feels suicidal. Claudius acts sympathetic and, with the help of Polonius and Hamlet’s old nurse, persuades Gertrude that she should marry him and that that will be best for Hamlet. She is heartbroken when Hamlet becomes angry at her. She tries to calm him and reconcile him with Claudius. I have borrowed the Nurse from Romeo and Juliet to be a confidante for Gertrude and to add touches of humor.
2. What were the challenges of writing a play using a well-known fictional story and characters?
Of course no play can compare with Hamlet. Although my play is a take-off, I hope no one will expect it to have such majestic language. The characters are so rich that it is tempting to give them additional lines. I try to keep my characters like the originals, except that I have a more sympathetic interpretation of Gertrude than many directors have.
3. What is your general approach to developing a play?
My full-length plays come from a passion. I don’t think I could write a full-length play unless I were obsessed with it. I work on what I see as a full first draft, then show it to others, including the Dramatist Guild’s Plays in Progress program, and especially other members of the Playwrights’ Collaborative. I keep working on it. I think about it and think about it. I find that it will change shape often.
4. Tell us about yourself.
I am a feminist, and that shapes my vision. I am also a compulsive reader and a compulsive writer. I have written essays and novels. I particularly enjoy taking characters from literature I love and putting them in different situations. I always knew I wanted to write novels, but I had my first desire to write a play when I woke up in the middle of the night and knew I had to write a play about Queen Gertrude because I had been widowed by a sudden death.
5. What are you working on now?
I am working on a play that is a take-off on Jane Austen’s work.
6. What is coming up next for you?
I am hoping to have readings of my work, especially more readings of Gertrude, Queen of Denmark. Of course I hope that they will go beyond readings to productions.