The idea to write Snapping the String came about many years ago when my best friend's school chum was incarcerated in a mental institution for kleptomania.  He is still there today.  That seemed ridiculously harsh to me. Also, during the 1970's, I worked with Virginia's deinstitutionalization program freeing inmates from a regional mental hospital.  This [Snapping the String] speaks to the souls abandoned inside the hospital wards who yearned for nothing more than freedom. These two profound experiences served as an inspiration for Snapping the String which is set against the backdrop of my hometown Richmond, Virginia.