Baker Artist Portfolios

Looking back, maybe it's not surprising that I wanted to be a writer when I grew up. My family loves stories: true, made up, spoken and read that entertain and inform, sadden, challenge and delight. Pop, my paternal grandfather, a son of Irish immigrants, recited narrative poetry from memory when our family gathered for Sunday dinners at their home in Queens. A large man with a strong voice and a seventh-grade education, Pop shared "The Shooting of Dan McGrew" and "The Cremation of Sam McGee" by Robert W. Service and "The Face on the Barroom Floor" by Hugh D'Arcy among others. He was riveting. Then my father and Aunt Dipper sang while Mona, my grandmother, played the piano on an old upright that was out of tune. We kids were also expected to perform -- a song, a poem, a dance, a joke or a riddle.

For several decades as a freelancer, I contributed human interest stories and essays to newspapers and magazines, including The Christian Science Monitor, the Baltimore Sun, the Binghamton Press, the Poughkeepsie Journal, the Washington Post, Johns Hopkins Nursing; and JD, the University of Maryland School of Law alumni magazine, among others.  

At one point I tried writing a mystery. But I discovered I didn't have enough words in me to write a novel. The compression of language that's inherent in plays appeals to me. Plus, I've loved theater since my father took me to see A Man for All Seasons and Man of La Mancha in New York City when I was a teenager.  With help from courses at The Writer's Center in Bethesda and classes with Ernie Joselovitz's Playwrights Forum, I began writing plays in 1990 and have continued since then with commitment and a quiet passion. Participating in critique groups like the Playwrights Group of Baltimore and workshops sponsored by the Dramatists Guild have helped me to improve my craft and to reinforce the idea that playwriting is collaborative. Since then, I've written a total of 20 plays that have been produced -- two full lengths for the Baltimore Playwrights Festival and 17 shorts, mostly 10 minutes, produced by 40 theaters in the U.S., Canada, England and most recently, Australia. In addition, 17 of my plays have had readings by 23 theaters; three of them were full length and 17 were shorts. Two of my plays have been published -- Black Widows, a full length, by Next Stage Press, and When I Fall in Love, It Will Be..., in the Best 10-minute plays of 2022 by Smith & Kraus, edited by Debbie Lamedman. All along, I've worked to help my characters tell their stories in a way that resonates with an audience(s).

When I first started out, the advice was to write what you know. But in writing plays, I learned to write what I care about. For me, it's often been people at the margins of society -- the homeless, those struggling with addiction or conflicts with their religion, immigrants, the mentally or physically disabled, women treated unfairly by society and the courts. For example:

Women's reproductive rights:

• Feeble-Minded White Trash, full length, inspired by a true story

The homeless:

• Black Widows, full length, "inspired" by a true story, published by Next Stage Press
• Taking the A Train, 10 minutes
• Waterfront Property, 10 minutes
• Skeletons in the Cellar, 10 minutes

Immigrants:

•   Not in Service, full length

Gun violence:

• Queen for a Day, 10 minutes
• Just a Bus Driver, 10 minutes, inspired by a true story

The physically disabled/disfigured:

• The Next Dance, full length
• Just Another Face in the Crowd, 10 minutes
• Headlong into the Abyss, 10 minutes
• Shattered, 10 minutes

Drug addiction:

• It's My Party!, 10 minutes
• A Club No Parent Wants to Join, 10 minutes
• My Heroine, 10 minutes
• Nature: The Last Resort, 15 minutes
• The Sober House for Men
• Physician, Heal Thyself
• Surprises

Humor:

• Consumer Confidence, 10 minutes
• Circumcised or circum-skeptic: And the winner is? 10 minutes, inspired by a true story
• A Table for Two, 10 minutes
• Meet Me in the Endive, 10 minutes

Aging and dementia:

• When I Fall in Love, It Will Be..., 10 minutes
• Waterfront Property, 10 minutes

Romance:

• A Modern Pas de Deux, full length
• A Senior Moment, 15-20 minutes
• Night Divers, 10 minutes

Art theft, romance and philanthropy:

• Master Theft, full length, inspired by a true story

Overly aggressive marketing:

• Suite 510, 10 minutes

Harriet Tubman:

• The Jackson, 10 minutes

Genealogy and overstepping boundaries:

• 23and..grandma? 15 minutes

I would like to thank the following for their support over many years: directors Barry Feinstein and Andre Tittle, dramaturg Lisa Wilde and playwrights Kathleen Barber as well as Rich Espey, Rosemary Frisino Toohey, Pat Montley, Dwight R. B. Cook, John Conley, S.J., Kevin Kostic and Amy Bernstein. 

I am a lifetime member of the Dramatists Guild and a longtime member of the New Play Exchange.

To read my plays, you can see many of them here or go to my website at the New Play Exchange: https://newplayexchange.org and search for my name