Category Archives: Interview

Parental Advisory: Helping Your Kids Cope With Trauma In Real Life (CHICAGO HEALTH MAGAZINE)

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Hi Readers,

The Dark Knight Rises shooting prompted my latest article, which examines how parents can help their kids cope with trauma. I was fortunate enough to interview Julie Kerkman, whose husband, Steve, an English teacher, survived a school shooting at Millard South High School in Omaha, NE, last year.

“At 1 p.m. on Jan. 5, 2011, Steve Kerkman was stooped over the Millard South Patriot’s frozen softball field, tape measure in hand. It was his first day back after winter break—a Wednesday. The pale sun hovered overhead.

On New Year’s Day, a student had driven his car through the school’s football field causing thousands of dollars worth of damage. Luckily, the softball field had been spared.

Kerkman ambled, back-bent, from one side to the other, gathering dimensions for a new chain-link backstop he hoped to install behind home plate. As he hurried to finish, hands freezing in the 20-degree air, he heard a car pull into the parking lot across the way. Then another. Then another. More kept coming. Finally, he peeked up from the tiny numbers on his measuring tape and saw something he would never forget: Idling in the school’s parking lot were 20 police cars…”

To read the full article, click here.

On Playwriting: My Interview with Adam Szymkowicz

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I’m happy to have been interviewed by fellow playwright Adam Szymkowicz, whose remarkable blog details the work and lives of American Playwrights.

Q:  Tell me about The Xylophone West.

A:  Often, the desire to explore a certain relationship will inspire me to begin a new play. With The Xylophone West, I wanted explore the unbreakable bond between two boys growing up in rural Nebraska- a relationship that, for most of their community, is too close for comfort.

I wasn’t interested in creating a clear-cut relationship; one defined as distinctly ‘a friendship’ or ‘a gay relationship’. They’re 14-year-old-boys. I don’t think they know what to call it themselves; they only know it’s good. And I think there’s a lot of truth in relationships and ideas when we’re younger. There’s more honesty in the world’s lack of definition at that age. It’s only when we get older that we start forcing ourselves into boxes: “I’m this, she’s that. We fit neatly into these categories.” I think life is more nuanced than that and it’s something I explore in my writing.

Halfway into the first draft I discovered a Mark Twain quote– “It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare.” That fascinated me and informed the rest of my process. I think it rings especially true in today’s world.

The interview runs the gamut from The Xylophone West to Tom Waits. To check out the full interview on Szymkowicz’s blog, click here.