About me

Born the oldest of three children to a Yankee jet fighter pilot and a magnolia Southern beauty, I lived in seventeen houses by the time I graduated high school. 



Winter in Wellfleet

Places I’ve called home,

in chronological order:



• Marietta, Ohio
• Sumpter, South Carolina
• Orlando, Florida
• Valdosta, Georgia
• Waco, Texas
• Alexandria, Virginia
• Managua, Nicaragua
• Abilene, Texas
• Fort Walton Beach, Florida
• Baton Rouge, Louisiana
• Minneapolis, Minnesota
• Washington, D.C.
• New Orleans, Louisiana
• Wellfleet, Massachusetts

     Though I grew up in the South, I was not of the South; rather, as a military child I became a keen observer of Southern ways and charms without the burden of having to defend what was never mine.  As an adult, I've divided my time between Wellfleet most of the year and New Orleans for shorter times, and still cannot decide if I should call myself a Southern writer.

     I began my playwriting career in 1989 when the Provincetown Theatre Company produced my one act, Keepers.  Family and other career demands led me to write short stories for the next ten years, but in 1999 I returned to the Provincetown Theater’s Playwrights’ Lab, and my ten minute play, Meryl Streep, Meryl Streep, was produced featuring the legendary Julie Harris.  Since then, I’ve had more than forty short plays produced in the US and Ireland, have written four full length plays, and won several awards.  I've taught playwriting in a number of venues, including the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, MA.  I'm a member of the Dramatists Guild and have benefited from Cape Cod playwrights' labs with  the Provincetown Theater Company, Eventide Theater Company and Cape Rep.

     Professionally, I’m a clinical social worker and community organizer.  I’ve helped found several organizations, including the Parents’ Campaign to End the Nuclear Threat (New Orleans); Fighting Racism, Educating for Ethnic Diversity (F.R.E.E.D., Cape Cod); and Am Ha Yam (Jewish Fellowship, Cape Cod).  I’m a Life Member of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) and conduct workshops on Writing for Change.

     I’m married to Charles Thibodeau, a social worker, writer and activist. We have three sons, three grandsons, and a granddaughter who all live in San Diego.  Most of my other family members live in Louisiana.  We are a diverse and far-flung bunch!