Writing & Producing
“Why are you like this?”
When I was twenty-nine, my parents sat across from me as I begrudgingly broke the seal on a comically large envelope. I knew what it was before I opened it. “I got it,” I said quietly. They cheered as if we had won the lottery.
I had just been declared legally disabled.
And it felt like the end of my world.
Was I being dramatic? Maybe, but I had no model for success as a chronically ill artist. I wrote to understand my experience and along the way, I met others with similar stories. The best way to amplify those voices was to add my own and create disabled stories told by disabled artists.
My brothers would say this path was inevitable as they were regularly recruited to perform in plays I wrote as a child. The work has improved since then. I’ve also learned that nail polish is a terrible substitute for stage makeup.
Z IS FOR ZEBRA
Katie Scarlett has crafted something remarkable here—a tightly executed, deeply personal, and often wickedly funny piece that finds its power not in spectacle, but in honesty.
— Kirk Sheppard, Off Book Cincinnati
If C is for courage,
then Z is for Zebra earns an A for honesty, humor, and heart.
— Alan Jozwiak, League of Cincinnati Theatres
My Writing
