So this is the biggest news: the world premiere of Seeds begins March 1 at Road Less Traveled Theater. I’m so excited for this and I’m so impressed with the work of director Kristen Tripp Kelly, and cast Todd Benzin, Diane Curley, Kelly Jakiel, Pam Mangus, and Diane DiBernardo. Just amazing. My daughter has been […]

I’m embarrassed at how long it’s been since I’ve updated this blog. I hope readers have had a wonderful 2012, and are excited about the prospects of a new year. I’m beginning my year by committing to actually completing my first “playwright’s purge,” which means I promise to write—something, anything—every single day in January. As […]

It’s kind of funny that my last post (which was WAY too long ago) was my interview in Insight for Playwrights. Beginning this month, I am actually taking over the editorial portion of that newsletter, and will be conducting those interviews myself (the former editor contacted me because she remembered I had an editorial background). […]

Today, the August 2012 issue of Insight for Playwrights came out, featuring a longer version of this interview: http://stageways.wordpress.com/2012/08/10/interview-donna-hoke/ I was also asked yesterday to participate in a very cool project for the 2013-2014 theater season. In celebration of Road Less Traveled’s 10th season, the theater is compiling an anthology of ten-minute plays by local […]

If you know Albert Ramsdell Gurney from his days at the Nichols School in Buffalo, you call him Peter, a name he says his mother “picked out of a hat” because Bert and Al were already taken by his father and an uncle. If you became his friend during or after his time at Williams […]

This blog post is in response to my friend and fellow playwright, Rachel Brody’s actions in getting Eve Ensler to assemble an all-star political cast to read her play, The Vagina Monologues, on the steps of the Michigan State House. Rachel will be holding a solidarity event in New York City tonight. Read about all […]

I really do. There is always too much going on so that I miss half the things I want to be doing, and am almost too busy to enjoy the things I am. Put a layer of baseball on top of all that, and trying to find time to write… next to impossible. That said, […]

Yesterday, there was a Joss Whedon quote going around Facebook: Q: Why do you write strong female characters? A: Because you’re still asking me that question. I reposted it, and thirteen of my women friends, and a lone man (shout out to Steve Roylance!), liked it. I didn’t really need those stats to tell me […]

As a playwright, when I go to readings—whether they’re mine or somebody else’s—I’m always paying attention to the audience as much as the performers on stage. How they’re behaving can tell me a lot about what’s working well in the play and what isn’t. I just got back from NYC (wasn’t that the subject of […]

I just got back from a whirlwind trip to New York City, delivering a Christmas present to my daughters: Darren Criss. Well, not the man himself, but tickets to his star turn in How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying. This was his final Saturday performance, and the energy in the audience was thrilling. […]