Family Plays: Writing Crucial Conversations

Join us on Zoom for a generative workshop and one-act play with Vanderbilt University’s Judy Klass.

Family Plays: Writing the Crucial Conversations

With screenplays, we’re told to cut to a new scene – a new location – every two pages, which equals every two minutes. With stage plays, we are often stuck with our characters in one location. Sometimes there is one set, and we never leave the house. This claustrophobic atmosphere can actually supercharge the tensions and pressures for the characters and make the story more dramatic. Long scenes are also wonderful for exploring relationships, in plays about families especially.

In this workshop we’ll look at scenes from family plays going back to the ancient Greeks. Students will have a chance to generate dialogue of their own, with writing prompts and acting/improv games. We’ll talk about avoiding exposition in dialogue when characters share a history. Theater scenes allow for how a person who’s strong in one moment can be weak in the next, and how someone who seems reasonable can become impossible. Family members can love and hate each other . . . and we’ll see how that can play out.

Followed by a reading of Klass’ original one-act play

The Trouble with Slimes

Margot has come to visit her mother, disturbed by recent changes in the world and in people she knows. But talking to her older brother Ted and to Mom does not calm Margot’s fears.

Judy Jackson is playing Mom. Jack E. Chambers is playing Ted. Olivia Shimkus is playing Margot.

About the Workshop Leader & Playwright Judy Klass

Judy is glad to be able to do this reading with some of her favorite actors. Eight of her full-length plays have been produced onstage. Cell was produced in Kentucky and is published by Concord Theatricals. After Tartuffe was produced in NYC and is published by Next Stage Press. Country Fried Murder won the SOPS competition, was produced at the Shawnee Playhouse in Pennsylvania, was produced online during the pandemic by Quarantine Players and is in press with Lazy Bee Scripts in the UK. Forty-two of her one-act plays have been produced onstage, many with multiple productions all over the US. A few have been produced in the UK, Ireland and Canada. A number of her plays, long and short, have been produced as podcasts. Three of her short plays are published as stand-alone scripts by Brooklyn Publishers. Others have appeared in publications like Seven Hills Review, Synkroniciti, Ponder Review and in anthologies like The Art of the One-Act. Judy teaches a number of things, including playwriting sometimes, at Vanderbilt University in Nashville.

Meet the Readers

Jack E. Chambers is thrilled to be a part of another new play project with Judy. Jack has lived and performed in Nashville for over 30 years, working with Nashville Rep, Nashville Shakespeare Festival, Actors Bridge, Boiler Room Theatre, The Darkhorse Theater, GroundWorks Theatre, PlayHouse Nashville, ACT I, Circle Players, Spaghetti Theatre, and many others. He recently appeared as King Henry II in The Lion in Winter with Circle Players, premiered his original show Calendar with Verge Theater Company, and was a part of the Nashville Symphony’s world premiere of  The Jonah People; other favorites include Byck in Assassins, Kerr in Chesapeake, The Old Man in A Christmas Story, Pastor Paul in The Christians, and Shannon in Night of the Iguana.

Judy Jackson is older than dirt and has been active in theater and film for more years than she cares to admit. Working with Judy Klass is always a treat, and I hope you enjoy our little show. Some of my theater roles: A Murder is Announced, Ms. Marple; The Odd Couple (Female Version), Renee; Over the River and Through the Woods, Aida; Dead Man’s Cell Phone, Mrs. Gottlieb; Steel Magnolias, Clairee. Living in Nashville she has appeared in numerous music videos. Some film credits: Holland, Michigan (post production), Camp Hideout, Clone Cops (post production, Potter’s Ground, Why We Breathe, the TV series, Still the King, and the online series The Complex.

Originally from New York City, Olivia Shimkus has lived, trained, and performed in Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and Portland before making Nashville her home.  She has performed in musical and dramatic productions at Clackamas Repertory Theater (Fanny Dashwood in Sense and Sensibility); The Lakewood Theatre Co. (Queen Elizabeth in Shakespeare in Love, Liz Essendine in Present Laughter, Karen Brown in Unnecessary Farce, Annabella/Margaret/Pamela in The 39 Steps); The Broadway Rose (Daisy in Adrift in Macao and Long Liz in Ripper); the 2014 Fertile Ground Festival (Dear Momma); Northwest Children’s Theatre (Willy Wonka, Seussical); the Magenta Theater (Illona Ritter in She Loves Me); Portland Actors Ensemble (Shakespeare in Song and Pericles); and the Portland Revels.    Regional theater credits include children’s theatre productions for the Bristol Riverside Theater and the Delaware Valley Community Theater, both in Pennsylvania. Film and Television credits include numerous short films and regional commercials. Voice Over work includes regional radio broadcast commercial spots, radio plays, and TV spots. Olivia graduated from Indiana University at Bloomington with concentrations in Opera Performance and Business. Additionally, Olivia serves as an Intimacy Choreographer for stage productions (www.facebook.com/oshimkusIC/). An active child performer, Olivia has performed professionally from the age of 8 and took part in many youth dramatic performances and musical competitions. As a mother of two, Olivia is passionate about Special Education and Autism awareness.