Current social issues inspire 'Neglect'

Wearing a purple T-shirt and jeans, with her brown hair pulled back in a ponytail, she looks like a college student taking a break between classes. Ms. Rothstein says the idea of setting the play in this time and place was prompted by reading Eric Klinenberg's treatise, Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago, for a course. Ms. Rothstein says "Neglect" and her interest in social issues can be traced to her Jewish heritage and observing her parents, who were active volunteers in the community and the schools in Avon, Conn., where she grew up.