Writer and performer Mark Sam Rosenthal, of the one-man show Blanche Survives Katrina in a FEMA Trailer Named Desire, muses on King cake, critics and the beloved Blanche DuBois. Now playing at the Soho Playhouse through March 15.

You were born in raised in Baton Rouge, so Katrina hit pretty close to home.
Half my family is in New Orleans—aunts, uncles, cousins. So I had a lot of personal connection(s) to the whole thing, which is the reason why I wrote the show. It was very emotional. My cousins spent four months at my mom’s. After the storm in Baton Rouge, I think 200,000 extra people were there overnight. It was crazy. And I think 50,000 have stayed and become permanent residents.

Was your family able to return to New Orleans?
One distant cousin’s home was totaled, but everyone else was able to repair eventually and return.