Past Curfew won the AOPW Fellowship Award in 2009, and premiered at the Pacific Resident Theatre in Los Angeles the following year.

In the play, a seventeen year old teenager Kirstie gets caught sneaking home after curfew. Her mother, Sarah, has been waiting up with a bottle for company. Sarah's thirty-four, which, if you'll do the math, explains why she's so distraught about Kirstie being out with a boy... Michael. Kirstie's first crush.
Years of bitter conflicts gradually erupt as Sarah and Kirstie finally confront the unspoken issues between them, including Sarah's conviction that becoming a mother at 17 ruined her life.
Michael's arrival after Kirstie has fled in tears only makes things worse; but eventually, as the layers of lies and truths wielded as weapons are stripped away, the core of their relationship is exposed - and can be rebuilt.

Why this play?

I wrote this play after my time in Alabama, and it was inspired by a couple of people I met there who were struggling - sometimes successfully, sometimes less so - with their inner demons and troubled childhoods. The ways in which Sarah and Kirstie clash, and their horrific relationship, belongs to them alone... but the longing for a connection that drives them is universal.

Sample Dialogue...

It's a challenging play to perform - a real powerhouse of emotions, and it contains adult language and themes. You can get a feel for it by reading some monologues from the play.