Art, to me, is about radical empathy. It is about bringing you so close to me that I can smell your breath, that you can see my sweat. It’s about the welding of individuals into something connected, into an orbit, a massive weave of lives and minds and souls and hurt and joy. In my work I am interested in finding methods of crystalizing emotional truth in ways that fosters connection, that reveals humanity, that are openhearted in their honesty. Art is a working through of the questions and concerns that make up a life, a creative unpacking that, at its best, can better both the creator and the recipient of the creation. I am interested in writing plays that, by writing them, I better understand myself and my place in the world. I am interested in writing plays that will touch strangers and make them understand themselves better, make them understand that they are not alone, that none of us is alone. I want to slip inside the skins of an audience for ninety minutes, and I want them to slip inside of my skin, and I want us to feel safer for having done so. I think that is the salutary power of art.
Dominic Finocchiaro, The Found Dog Ribbon Dance, play, 2017, premiered at the Echo Theater in Los Angeles, California and published by Broadway Play Publishing