In the business of war, the role of women is really to maintain normalcy and ensure that there is cultural continuity.

Plays are getting smaller and smaller, not because playwrights minds are shrinking but because of the economics.

I need a release from whatever I'm writing.

Each play I write has its own unique origin story.

I wanted to tell the story of these women and the war in the Congo and I couldn't find anything about them in the newspapers or in the library, so I felt I had to get on a plane and go to Africa and find the story myself. I felt there was a complete absence in the media of their narrative. It's very different now, but when I went in 2004 that was definitely the case.

I'm interested in the moments where the audience is restless. I'm interested in the moments where they lean in and become incredibly engaged: the laughter, the silence. All of that is part of how I think about shaping and rewriting the play.

In the business of war, the role of women is really to maintain normalcy and ensure that there is cultural continuity.