Poet/Philosopher

Poet/Philosopher

Philosophy of The Ater!

“I believe poetry is medicinal and is the only prescription needed to prevent the vast majority of mental and emotional illnesses. I believe theater is the place where we go to receive a collective healing with powerful and poetic words. Everyone in the theater – whether on the stage or off – is an essential element to the solution of societal ailments. Together the speakers and the listeners create power.

I believe theater removes the veil of our differences in identity, power or desire and uncovers our common humanity.

Theater proves to even the most cynical of witnesses that we each have the power to become more than we are – in every moment that we are. If we suspend our beliefs (or perhaps instead fortify them with faith) we can transcend in every moment of our lives. Summer Hill Seven will show you how theater gives us an access to the power of transcendence and transformation.”

“The Ater is bigger than the theater and includes: television; film; poetry-slam venues; piss-stained halls in the projects; refer-filled studios; speeding vehicles parading down the strip with a musical escort; ghetto-fabulous clubs on Saturday nights; Pentecostal churches on Sunday mornings; Synagogues; Mosques; jail cells; mental hospitals; college dorm rooms with virgin co-eds; your mama’s basement; and perhaps most obviously any corner in the hood where the real players gather.”


Any serious student of the theatre should read his highly thoughtful and thought-provoking book.
Professor Randy Hertz, NYU School of Law

Summer Hill Seven is an exceptionally gifted writer and performer whose work is both entertaining and thought provoking.
Sanford Robbins
Director, Professional Theatre Training Program
University of Delaware