Check out my latest newsletter in full here. Intro below:

Here in New York State, we're finally wildly into summer!  Strawberries taste good again, the smell of sunscreen abounds, and we're getting some Vitamin D from the great outdoors at last. Whether you're in a theatre camp, a theatre production, or just doing some summer theatre reading, 'tis the season to immerse yourself in Shakespeare, a great musical or an undiscovered new play...

Check out this interview below which Marcie Sillman, of Kuow.org/94.9 FM in Seattle, recently hosted with Valerie Curtis-Newton. The interview-article is entitled, "She’s a theater legend. But still often the only black person in the room."...

The first book that I “wrote” was a short story about Superman. My grandmother had sent me a set of stickers in my birthday card, and I immediately set them to work on paper, drafting a story around the poses. My attentive mother wrote the story down for me, as I was probably about 3 years old at the time, and this began my marriage to writing (I would never call my relationship with writing a “love affair”—it’s much deeper than that!).  By the time I was 6, I was writing prolifically; during in-class writing time I would write 10 pages on that dusty green recycled paper to my classmates’ 1 or 2 pages. I loved to write.  By the time I was 8, I adapted one of my stories into a play and directed my 3rd grade classmates in a production. My mom typed up and copied the script, and made the costumes for the play. This was the beginning (I feel it was the beginning, but of course, it started from the moment I was born) . The beginning of so much quiet support from my mother.