Creating Characters: Playwright-Actor Collaboration Workshop!

Playwriting Professor T. Adamson will be hosting New York-based writer-actor Mary Glen for a workshop on collaboration between playwright and actor throughout the new play development process. Professor Adamson and Mary Glen will share insights into how actors approach developing scripts, give advice on how to make dialogue actor-friendly (as well as advice on when not to alter dialogue), and discuss productive/unproductive playwright-actor collaborations. They will walk participants through the development of a single monologue from their collaboration The Straights, from its first draft to the closing night performance, as an example of how play texts can evolve through the collaborative process.

After a brief Q & A, workshop participants will be encouraged to share new monologues with Mary Glen for a cold read, character-based discussion, and an abbreviated open rehearsal. Participants will gain experience in giving feedback to actors and responding to actors’ questions regarding intention, context, and tone. Come experience the rigors and joys of the collaborative process.​

Mary Glen Fredrick (they/she) is a New York-based writer, actor, and video editor, hailing mostly from Kansas. You can catch them as an actor in indie films including Stag, Sunday, Sunset Rock, Inheritance, Been So Good, Mister Backlash, STILL, and more. Theatre credits include Theatre for a New Audience, JACK, La Jolla Playhouse, Guild Hall, Oakland Theater Project, and The Drama League. As a writer, they create kinetic, femme-centric stories that dance with the absurd, the imaginative, and the dystopian. Their play ‘Edit Annie’ premiered at The Vortex in 2022, followed by the West Coast Premiere at Crowded Fire Theatre (September 2023). Other plays include ‘fire work’ (LOM Ensemble Playwright Lab) and ‘ANARCHY’ (New Perspectives Theatre WWSP Lab/2021 Festival). In film-land: they were a Tribeca x Chanel THL Women’s Filmmaker, their first short film ‘Been So Good’ (writer/actor) premiered on the festival circuit in 2022, and they’re currently submitting their short film directorial debut ‘M∀GICKY’ to festivals. Mary Glen received their BA in Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity from Stanford University, and their MFA in Acting from UC San Diego.