Produce my play

There’s a saying. " Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass. It’s about learning how to dance in the rain."

Having been hospitalized for mental illness over a dozen times in my crazy life, I’ve done my share of dancing. Thankfully, my life is pretty good today. I wrote The Very Last Dance of Homeless Joe because, well, I felt like it. I knew a guy who was homeless with his dog and we hung out some, and one day he was just gone. Got me thinking. All these folks who are homeless on Manhattan’s streets needed a voice. Someone to make people see them not as homeless people, but as people who happen to be homeless. And then, well, my play sort of wrote itself. I intentionally left out the swear words cause I’d like to see it in classrooms everywhere. Kids need to learn early on that all lives are precious and we need each other now more than ever.

Oh, one last thought. I know now why I wrote this emotionally compelling, eye opening little play about folks who are homeless.

I wrote it to break folks’ hearts. To break them open, that is.

To stir up too seldom felt feelings of compassion, empathy and love for folks who need it most. I hope that folks who experience The Very Last Dance of Homeless Joe come away realizing that people who are homeless are, well, just people. And they have as much to offer us as we do them, if we just give them a chance.

There’s a lot of me and my gypsy past in the play, and a composite of many other folks I’ve run across. Broken dreams, voices in my head and nightmares in my bed. But, like I said, life is so much better nowadays, and my play could really shed much needed light on the lives and humanity of folks who are homeless. Please help me realize a dream. Then I hope you will come experience The Very Last Dance of Homeless Joe on stage this December at Theater For the New City.