I love books. Always have. Always will.
Growing up, I worked at The Children’s Book Shop in Manhattan, KS as a gift wrapper and assistant to my mom, who did displays. I also got to meet Mary Downing Hahn and Stephen King because of this gig.
In New York, I worked at The Drama Book Shop, The Unoppressive Non-Imperialist Bargain Book Store, The Strand, Housing Works Bookstore Cafe and I have directed and narrated 100s of audiobooks.
Recently, I have been able to contribute writing to books and magazines that have been published, which is a total dream!
Pandemic Performance – A collection of essays written really early in the pandemic, curated by Kendra Capece and Patrick Scorese, published by Routledge.
The Occasional #3 – A cool collection of essays about obsession, curated by Emma Horwitz and Lucas Baisch, published by 53rd State Press.
Fucked and Jolly: Ten Years of The Exponential Festival – A book of interviews about the festival I created in 2016, also published by 53rd State Press. I did an interview with Lena Engelstein and wrote the introduction!
Richard Foreman and His Artists – A book of fascinating anecdotes, stories and legends related to working with Richard Foreman, curated and edited by Shauna Kelly , published by Rowman and Littlefield.
Theater der Zeit – The November 2024 issue has an article I wrote about the state of US theater through the lens of Peter Mills Weiss and Julia’s Mounsey’s art.
Coming up – An interview in The Brooklyn Rail with Chad Kaydo!
In addition, I have numerous ideas for books:
BUCH IT! – A collection of book tales from my travels in book culture.
TITLE:POINT: THE FIRST 20 YEARS – Scripts, drawings, posters, photos, stories and interviews from the first 20 years of my theater company.
IS THIS A SUBSTACK OR A BOOK – A collection of performance opinions.
SHARED VIBE – PERFORMANCE IN NEW YORK: 2004-2024 – A wild look at the transformative era in which I was in NY that I am working on with William Burke.
BASEMENT BOOK
Basements have always been important to me.
They keep finding me.
In 2020, after a Bourbon Cohort (a 10 person gathering around a table with bourbon), that took place behind the set of The Hopelessly Hopeless Story of All Good Girls, where Larissa Hayden asked the cohort about important basements, I decided to create a book of memory drawings of basement floor plans accompanied by a personal narrative.
I started to gather drawings and stories through conversation.
Then COVID-19 happened and I finally went public with the idea.
The drawings will not be accurate. They will be memories.
I would love to get drawings from multiple people who experienced the same basements.
I would love to get drawings from people who know they will never return to that ol basement again.
If you are like me, there may be more than one important basement.
My basements:
- -1215 Houston Street basement in Manhattan, KS (my childhood home)
- -Grandma and Grandpa Kinder basement in Dodge City, KS
- -Great Aunt Sis basement in Plainville, KS
- -Mr. Winkler’s library in the basement of Teddy Roosevelt Grade School in Manhattan, KS
- -Joy Irwin’s basement, my best friend from grade school
- -Andy Knopp’s basement, my neighbor, arch nemesis and crush from gradeschool
- -Erin James’ basement, my first high school friend sleepover basement
- -Cameron Hawk’s basement, the basement where the high schoolers could hang out while the parents were upstairs
- -Nate Gibson’s basement which I definitely combine with Ranjan Muthukrishnan’s basement
- -Brie Sherow, Lauren Hamer, Lisa Hamer, Evan Sherow basement, down the spiral staircase
- -Manhattan High School Drama basement
- -Drama Book Shop basement, 40th and 8th in NYC
- -Housing Works basements, Crosby and Houston in NYC
- -Dale Buchheister and Scott Johnson basement, where I rehearsed and then lived, Lefferts Gardens in Brooklyn
- -Strand Bookstore basement
- -1516 Gates basement, where I lived
- -Silent Barn basement, where we stored the chairs for so long
- -1224 Hancock basement, where Vital Joint moved
- -NACL haunted basement
- -Vital Joint on 109 Meserole Street, Brooklyn