As much as we try to tell ourselves “this just happened” or “I didn’t mean anything by that” the truth is that this is hardly ever the case. Things tend to happen for a reason, some driven by our own needs (or wants) and sometimes by the needs (or wants) of others. That is certainly the case in All The Ways To Say I Love You and hearing a seemingly well-adjusted and caring woman tell us in quiet and rational terms how she could push the envelope of “love” to such extremes is a sobering journey and a lesson well worth learning.

I love writing in the monologue form and it was a pleasure to lose myself in the character of “Mrs. Johnson.” To listen to her voice as she told her story, to give words to her desires and to help fuel her calculations until she had seen her plans through to the bitter end. It was fun and a kick but I’m glad it was all on paper and nobody actually got hurt in the process.

To get a chance to work with the theater company MCC on our 10th full-length play is such an amazing event—that it is this play shows how deep their commitment to new work is. I want to thank the collective artistic team there—Bernard Telsey, Will Cantler and Robert Lupone—along with their great literary manager, Stephen Willems, for taking many chances on me and my work and for always being honest about my writing. It’s never easy to tell someone you know and like that their work isn’t good enough or not good enough yet and these folks have been kind and strong enough to do just that to me many times over. Their collective honesty has made me a better writer.

The fact that the director Leigh Silverman and the actress Judith Light are bringing All The Ways To Say I Love You to life on stage speaks to how absolutely lucky and blessed I have been as a writer for the theater. Two brilliant women combining to create the world of “Mrs. Johnson.” It doesn’t get much better than that.

And then I wrote All My White Sins Forgiven because I needed to hear from “Eric” as well. “Eric” is the husband of “Mrs. Johnson” and someone, I felt, who needed a voice in this triangle of love and lust. To hear his words, I decided on a short play—a two-hander—that would give us a bit of Eric’s world-view and a sense of the man that perhaps even his own wife doesn’t know. Philip Levine (a fellow Detroiter) supplied me with the provocative title and the rest just spilled out of me—I love writing for and about men and can do it all day long. The weird camaraderies, the silly, almost sexual banter between friends and the petty rivalries. It’s great stuff. It’s always a huge compliment to be told “you write well for women” and I’m glad that’s part of what I can do but finding the jungle rhythms in the banter of boys is one of my favorite things ever.