Friday, January 02, 2009

Folks are always wondering when I will be offering another workshop. The short answer is that I don't know. But I do know that Ms. Woodbury is an extremely sharp, perceptive, and empathic person, so I thought I'd forward this announcement about a workshop she's offering in LA.


CONTEMPORARY SOLO
with HEATHER WOODBURY

a four-day workshop for writers and performers on creating from the dramatic imagination
taught by acclaimed playwright/performer of epic plays,  & published novelist, Heather Woodbury.

Inaugurate your own imagination: January 2009
2-weekends 12-6pm, January 10th, 11th, 17th
-final class, Sun., Jan. 18th, 2:30-8pm: performance for invited audience-
AT BANG STUDIO 457 N. FAIRFAX 90036
Los Angeles  email  info@bangstudio.com or call
323-653-6886 to register.

Starting with the premise that the first impulse is the magic one, Heather will introduce you to her method of  "instant performance," locating your innate capacity  to give life to something that is fully formed from the moment you transmit it.  We will then crystallize that initial impulse to point the way toward making work of lasting value.

In order for the originator of solo work to successfully captivate and hold an audience, rigorous demands must be met but also unique opportunities for invention are offered.  This intensive workshop explores how these solo performance methods - of conjuring character, inventing natural speech and locating place- can be applied to generating writing of every kind and to infusing performance with live-wire authenticity. 

For solo show originators, actors, and for writers of all stripes, this is writing on the tongue and stage, as an alternate to, and enhancement of, writing on the page.

Heather is an award-winning performer and writer known for her groundbreaking multi-character solo and ensemble works, which combine the immediacy of performance art with a novel's length and scope. Her 10-hour, 100-character solo play, What Ever: An American Odyssey in Eight Acts (published by Faber/Farrar, Strauss & Giroux) was hailed as a "Whitmanesque vision of America" [Chicago Sun-Times] and cited as "a masterwork of the solo form" by the NY Times.  It was adapted as a radio play hosted by Ira Glass. Woodbury has received multiple awards, grants and fellowships for her subsequent works. Her play Tale of 2Cities: An American Joyride on Multiple Tracks won a 2007 OBIE (Outstanding Achievement in Off-Broadway Production) for ensemble performance. And in 2006 she was awarded the inaugural Spalding Gray Award honoring writer/performers who are "fearless innovators." Heather has taught professional workshops for A.S.K. Theatre Projects in Los Angeles, Northeastern University in Boston, St. Edward's University in Austin and University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. She has conducted performances and lectures for students at Yale, SMU, Northwestern, UCLA and NYU. She will be Master-Artist-in-Residence at the Atlantic Center for the Arts, Florida in 2009.

For more information visit: heatherwoodbury.com

quotes about  heather woodbury's work:

"a triumph of unfettered creativity"
Terry Morgan,VARIETY

"like living inside a novel"
Richard Linklater, film director

5:20 PM