FREE
A New Monologue Showcase:
Voices of Healing & Transformation
Presented by Kelly DuMar’s Play Lab
The International Women’s Writing Guild is proud to host a special theatrical event showcasing A New Monologue Showcase: Voices for Healing and Transformation. On Sunday., May 7, 2023, from 7-8:30 p.m., ET, writers from Kelly DuMar’s Play Lab will present original monologues for the stage, performed by actors.
In writing monologues for the stage, a story begins as words on the page. The next stage of development is to have the monologue performed by an actor in front of an audience. In this monologue showcase, class participants who have been developing monologues over six weeks in Kelly DuMar’s Play Lab will have the chance to see their writing performed by an actor for an audience––you.
Stella Adler called theater the “seeing place”––the place we come to see the truth about our lives and social situation. Oscar Wilde called theater “the most immediate way in which a human being can share with another the sense of what it is to be a human being.” And August Wilson was, “fascinated by the idea of an audience as a community of people who gather willingly to bear witness.” We invite you, our audience, to share in making dynamic theater with us, by being present for this showcase of new monologues. This intimate and powerful experience presents writing by class participants––read by actors––as part of the critical page-to-stage development process that all new plays need. Please join us, and share the vitality of your presence and your witness as our much-appreciated audience.
This evening of staged readings is free and open to the public. Donations to benefit scholarship programming for IWWG members are welcome! It will take place via the online video conferencing platform Zoom. A link to the show will be sent out to registrants.
PLAY LINE-UP and Assignments
1. Sharon B., Death Valley Monologue #1- Tonya Quillen
2. Beverly Reed Scott, How To Ask God A Question When You Don’t Even Know If You Believe In God Kelly DuMar
3. Grace Calder, The Garden Dilemma Jamila Capitman
4. Hazel Aranha, Line in the Sand Tonia Pinheiro
5. Susan Villardo, Circular Pool Garden Jamila Capitman
6. Sharon Blumberg, Slime Trails Remain Tonia Pinheiro
7. Leslie Neustadt, We Weren’t Heroes Phyllis Rittner
8. Ann Quinn, Emily’s Decision Franci DuMar
The Monologue Showcase is Directed by Kelly DuMar
ABOUT THE PLAY LAB: Monologues in the play lab are inspired by the writer’s life. However, throughout the Play Lab process, each writer focuses on creating and developing a character and a story arc for the character. The writers present works in process for feedback during our live zoom labs, and generate multiple drafts to shape and craft their personal and experiences into monologues for the stage. The writers grow from the process of giving and receiving feedback to each other, and they rise to the challenging task of creating theatrical monologues for the stage to be performed by actors. This is not live storytelling, as in the Moth––“true stories told live without notes.” These are theatrical pieces that involve collaboration with other theater artists, including the actors who read their drafts in process and rehearse them to bring them to life on stage for an audience.
When a woman writes her life experience, or story of healing, and sees it performed for an audience, not only is she witnessed in her healing, but she maps courage for other women.
Here is one of the writers, who has written a monologue that will be performed, stating the impact of this project in her own words:
About Kelly DuMar, M.Ed. is a poet, playwright, and workshop leader who generates enlivening writing experiences for new and experienced writers. Author of four poetry collections, including “jinx and heavenly calling,” published in March 2023 by Lily Poetry Review Books, Kelly is also author of Before You Forget— The Wisdom of Writing Diaries for Your Children. Kelly’s award-winning plays have been produced around the US and Canada, and are published by dramatic publishers. She founded and produced the Our Voices Festival of Women Playwrights at Wellesley College for twelve years, and she is a past president of Playwright's Platform, Boston. For the past seven years, Kelly has led the week-long Play Lab Intensive at the annual conference of the International Women's Writing Guild. Additionally, Kelly regularly teaches Your Memoir as Monologue Webinars for the Transformative Language Arts Network and in her own monthly play labs. Kelly is a certified psychodramatist, former psychotherapist, and Fellow in the American Society for Group Psychotherapy and Psychodrama. Kelly also produces the monthly Journal of Expressive Writing Open Mic Program. You can learn more about Kelly at www.kellydumar.com.