Memoir Theatre (Winter 2021)

Memoir Theatre (Winter 2021)

Feb. 27 - Apr. 17
1:00pm - 4:00pm Central Time

Instructor: Wendy Hammond

In this course, we will dive into the stories of our own lives. We’ll play writing games to unearth  what we cared about, what enraged us, what hurt us, what shamed us, what lifted us, what we lost, what we gained, how we triumphed. We’ll learn from memoir pieces by Roxane Gay, Jesmyn Ward, David Sedaris, Kiese Laymon, and Jeannette Walls, and talk about ways to make theatre from memoir. Then we’ll write what happened to us, what we did about it, and how it turned out. We will shape our work into literature or theatre or both. In our last class each of us will read or perform a short memoir piece, our own Memoir Theatre for Zoom.  Memoir Theatre:  Writing the stories of our lives.

Wendy Hammond's plays (Julie Johnson, Absence, Suzy Psychopath, Jersey City, Family Life: 3 Brutal Comedies, etc.) have been produced at Second Stage, HERE, Soho Rep, Long Wharf, Actors Theatre of Louisville, People’s Light & Theatre, Charlotte Rep and many other U.S. theatres. Her work has also been seen internationally in cities such as London, Berlin, Milan, Singapore, and Melbourne, and has earned a Drama League Award, a McKnight Fellowship, a NEA Grant, a NYFA Grant, and a Nomination by the American Theatre Critics Association for Best New American Play. Her screenplays include Julie Johnson which premiered in the Sundance Film Festival and played in film festivals all over the world winning many awards including Best Feature in the Barcelona Film Festival and an Audience Award in Berlin. 

Wendy holds MFA in Dramatic Writing from NYU, an M.Div. from Yale, and an MFA in Memoir from Hunter College. She has taught playwriting and screenwriting at the University of Michigan, Brown, the New School for Drama, TischAsia School of the Arts in Singapore, NYU in New York, and Brooklyn College. Currently she is working on a memoir, Back When I Was Crazy, about her struggle to overcome the violence and its aftermath of her devout Mormon family.

The Early Bird Discount is not applicable for this course.  Network Discounts still apply.

Classes will be held via Zoom. Instructors will send out Zoom invites one day before class begins. We encourage students to setup a Zoom account for themselves before class if they have not already to ensure when class begins you are able to jump straight into the art!