Gina Femia is an award-winning playwright and performer whose work has been seen/developed at The Goodman Theater, MCC Theater, Playwrights Horizons, EST, Page 73, New Georges, The Playwrights Center, CTG, Theater of NOTE, Rivendell Theater, Cape Cod Theater Project, among others. Selected honors include Winner of The Lammy Award for LGBTQ+ Drama, The Kilroys List, Leah Ryan Prize, Doric Wilson Award, the Otis Guernsey New Voices Award, the Neukom Award in Playwriting, and The Relentless Award (Semi-finalist & Honorable Mention), as well as nominations for Drama League and NYIT. Gina has received commissions from The Farm Theater (College Collaboration Commission), New Light Theater Project, Boomerang Theater and MCC/Parsnip Ship. Gina is a former Core Writer with the Playwrights Center, and an Alum of EST Youngblood, Page73's Interstate 73, Pipeline Theatre’s PlayLab, New Georges' Audrey Residency, the Ingram New Play Lab at Nashville Rep and Parsnip Ship's Radio Roots Writer's Group. Gina’s a New Georges Affiliated Artist and has received residencies with Page73, Powerhouse, NTI at the O’Neill, Tofte Lake Center and Everwood Foundation. As a teacher, Gina has worked with The Playwrights Center, Primary Stages ESPA, among others. Gina's debut YA novel, Alondra was named a Best Book for Teens and was a Finalist for a Golden Kite award. Learn more: www.femiagina.com.
SEMINAR DESCRIPTION
Do you have a story you want to tell in which you’re the protagonist? In this seminar, Gina Femia will guide students to develop a narrative around their lived experiences. Whether you’re writing a solo show or a multi-character play in which one of the characters is you, students will learn techniques to take center stage while theatricalizing their story.
This class is for you if you:
- Have a burning desire to tell your story.
- Are interested in biographical writing.
- Want to explore solo performance art.
- Are interested in learning more about Gina Femia’s work and approach to writing.
What to expect:
- A series of writing prompts to help you theatricalize different aspects of your personal experience.
- In-class reading and discussion of excerpts of auto-biographical work (in multi-character and solo form plays) using various forms of inspiration.
Our one precious life is both singular and infinite, containing a multitude of stories. And the possibilities for telling our stories is an infinite as our own lives. But how do we decide what story to tell? And how do we create a fictional version of the truth? There is power in telling our stories – and there is power in theater. Over the last decade, I have chosen to tell autobiographical stories as solo work and in multi-character plays because of this power. Writing these theatrical pieces has given me autonomy over times where power was stripped for me and it has helped me connect with other people who have had similiar experiences, while spreading awarenes to those who haven’t. But it all starts with the start – and I can’t wait to go on this journey with you.
Gina Femia
