I was a kid who "let loose" in the productions we put on in our basement.  The only things that mattered to me were those that centered around the performing arts.

We all had music lessons of one kind or another and our family had at various times a piano, saxophone and marimba.  We sang in the church choirs and loved to spend time together on our many rides in the car singing along with our parents.

Besides that, my Dad was the documentarian of the family.  His hobby was photography (film and still) and we grew up very comfortable in front of the camera.  It seems second nature to me to want to "document."  Over the years my interests have changed from art to performing to directing to videoing and researching.

After college graduation the theatre became my life.  I immersed myself in the joy of taking a playwright's words, understanding and  identifying with those words and turning them into physical and verbal poetry that could touch my audience emotionally.

Videography is another way I express myself.   The art of it is to record images that match my feelings and hope they convey similar emotions to the viewer . I love to incorporate my video work as part of my sets and performance.

I have become involved with performance sign language.  The first time I saw a theatre production using sign I knew it was what I wanted to do.  Sign language brought the whole level of theatre up a notch for me.

Currently I am participating in, and experimenting with, all three types of performance:  theatre, video and performance sign language interpretation. I  expect that my interests will always be changeable—but investigation, documentation and creation into some kind of an art form will always be the end result.

Women's History Interpretation
  I am passionate about Women's history!

When I was an undergraduate in the Theatre Department at the University of Wisconsin--Milwaukee. I wanted to perform women's first person roles.  I started searching for material written by, or specifically for, women that would lend itself to theatrical production.

In my search I found, at that time, little that had been published. I began to acquire, for myself, bits and pieces from all sorts of unpublished writings, diaries, journals and oral histories.  I was elated!  I had discovered some great resources of women's fantastic writing. To me these women's themes—family, the work ethic, home as a springboard of life—needed to be expressed.

That's why I love to show women who are not represented in contemporary theatre—women who are true adventurers.  All I need to do is find their own words and then make the real history into a theatrical performance.

It's extremely gratifying to help a woman tell her own story—to use her own words and mold them into a production that encompasses women's real life!