Making Your Solo Show

A solo show gives the performer/writer an unparalleled opportunity to own and express their unique voice. It empowers actors to create work for themselves instead of waiting for permission to play "the great roles." It creates the kind of content that launches careers like Whoopi Goldberg's and Phoebe Waller-Bridge's. In this course, students will be guided through the process of creating original solo shows. Through lessons in acting, writing, self-exploration, embodied research, and devising, students will learn to discover the stories within and around them, and to give voice(s) to their burning issues in a theatrical form that is intimate, idiosyncratic, and deeply personal. By viewing examples of historical and contemporary live solo performances, students will gain lessons and inspiration from the work of solo performers like Anna Deveare Smith, John Leguizamo, Dario Fo, Edris Cooper-Anifowoshe, Spalding Gray, Danitra Vance, Ethyl Eichelberger, Whoopi Goldberg, and Bryony Kimmings. The course culminates in a public performance of students' 15- to 20-minute solo shows.