Writing Monologues for Healing & Transformation: Making the Leap from Page to Stage:  In this writing generative workshop, you will learn how writing for the stage differs from writing a memoir or personal essay. You’ll see how your personal experience of healing & transformation can be crafted into a short monologue to be performed as a theatrical experience that engages an audience. Stella Adler called theater the “seeing place”––the place we come to see the truth about our lives and social situation. And August Wilson was “fascinated by the idea of an audience as a community of people who gather willingly to bear witness.” One monologue writer from Kelly’s workshops has described the impact of memoir-inspired performance monologues in her own words: “To write a monologue where someone else can perform the story and the knowing of my lived experiences…well that is a transcendent experience."

Kelly DuMar is a poet, playwright and workshop facilitator from the Boston area. She’s author of four poetry collections, including jinx and heavenly calling, published by Lily Poetry Review Books in March 2023. Her poems are published in Bellevue Literary Review,Tupelo Quarterly, Thrush, Glassworks and more. Kelly teaches creative writing workshops, in person and online, and runs Play Labs with online performance showcases for the International Women’s Writing Guild and the Transformative Language Arts Network. For twelve years, Kelly produced the annual Our Voices Play Festival for Boston Women Playwrights at Wellesley College. Her plays are published by dramatic publishers and performed around the world. Reach her at kellydumar.com, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook