“Why No PhD, Jill?”: A PhD.

When I was first researching further higher in the late 00s, Richard Schechner suggested that I might pursue a Creative Writing PhD. It makes sense to me for natural predilections— and also—I wish I were laughing as much as the emoji I was about to use—cathartically—because it could take an entire dissertating book’s worth of knowledge to dissect the journey of why I don’t already have a PhD. So much work, so many informed adventures, so much info interior, so much interpretation to share, so much philosophy. And a Creative dissertation can be this self-reflexive, loosening myself up in style commitment. Let it flow. And truly: a form of Creative Writing was my first commitment. But also: being a Dramatist is a vocation, and it called in Big Form all around me. And from within. That’s why I was in Schechner’s office, at NYU in the Performance Studies Department he helped to create. My body had become the language of Drama. I knew I could get back to theatricalizing a play—but first I would have to study myself.