Epic, Funny, Sad, Strange, True: The Stories We Tell and Why We Tell Them
Kira Obolensky
Monday, 08 Apr 2019 at 8:00 pm – Pioneer Room, Memorial Union
Kira Obolensky is currently a Mellon Foundation Playwright-in-Residence with Ten Thousand Things, an award-winning theatre company based in Minneapolis. Obolensky has co-created and written seven plays for Ten Thousand Things that have been performed for audiences in prisons, shelters, community centers in rural and urban areas, psychiatric wards, immigrant and adult education programs, as well as to paying audiences in the Twin Cities. She will discuss her work with the company and share some techniques for thinking about stories as a way to engage collective imaginations. Obolensky attended Juilliard’s Playwriting Program and teaches at the University of Minnesota. Pearl Hogrefe Visiting Writers SeriesKira Obolensky’s recent non-Ten Thousand Things productions include Stewardess (History Theater), Why We Laugh: A Terezin Cabaret (international festivals in Prague and Terezin, Fortune’s Fool in Minneapolis), and Cabinet of Wonders (Gas and Electric Arts, Open Eye Figure Theatre).
She is a Guggenheim Fellow and the recipient of many awards and fellowships, including the Kesselring Prize and the Jerome Foundation grant. She is a core writer at The Playwrights’ Center in Minneapolis and is also on the faculty of Spalding University’s Low-Residency MFA in Writing Program.
Cosponsored By:
- MFA Program in Creative Writing and Environment
- Pearl Hogrefe Fund
- Theatre
- Committee on Lectures (funded by Student Government)
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