LIVING ROOM LOCAL
with
Forrest McClendon
TO BECOME A SEASON 10 MEMBER
Membership provides access to ALL Living Room Local events, $65 discounts on Writing for Stage & Screen classes and special invitations to readings presented throughout Season 10. In addition, Season 10 Members can view recordings of all Living Room Local events throughout the year.
Memberships start at just $49 (that’s less than $5/event!)
FOR MEMBERS
Season 10 Members, Patrons, Sponsors and Fierce Fund members of Local Theater Company have access to archival recordings of Living Room Local events.
Below, please find the link to the video recording of Living Room Local with Forrest McClendon. If you’ve misplaced your passcode, please email info@localtheaterco.org. We’re happy to help.
WHEN: Sunday, October 25 - 6pm MT, 8pm ET
WHERE: Forrest McClendon’s living room (a secure link to the private YouTube presentation will be sent Season 10 Members prior to this event)
ABOUT THE EVENT: Forrest McClendon (Flame Broiled. or the ugly play, Local Lab ‘19) returns for Living Room Local to discuss CHOICEWORK, his unique creative process originally designed to build character onstage, now being used to develop Reparations, his new autobiographical play about race and racism.
CHOICEWORK is dramaturgical detective work for storytellers—a series of questions from Age to Zodiac sign—that shape narrative and reveal character. Religion, ancestry, culture and ethnicity are a few of the biographical questions that can identify (for the actor) the lived experiences of the character, enabling a better understanding of another person’s narrative.
The same questions can also be revelatory offstage. They allow us as individuals to take a closer look at our identity and, moreover, spark transformative intergroup dialogue and discovery. This one-hour interactive salon offers viewers an opportunity to use CHOICEWORK to better see themselves and one another.
ABOUT OUR HOST: Tony® Award Nominee Forrest McClendon is a speaker, artist and educator, widely known for his performance in The Scottsboro Boys (Tony nomination, Best Featured Actor in a Musical), which he reprised in London (Young Vic/Garrick).
LEARN MORE: ForrestMcClendon.com
During this Living Room Local event, Forrest McClendon invited the audience to participate in CHOICEWORK by answering the POLL questions in the image to the left. Below, please see the audience’s responses.
If you wish to submit responses to this CHOICEWORK POLL, we invite you to do so by clicking the button below.
CHOICEWORK Question 2: Origin | Where were you born? Is that place a significant part of you?
”Buffalo, NY. Not especially” —S.P.M.
”New York City/absolutely.” —A.H.
”Huntington, NY. Bagels are in my blood.” —Anonymous
”Evanston Illinois-YES” —P.P.
”Evanston, IL. No it is not a significant part of me (neither the city nor the state).” —S.L.
”Hong Kong--yes it will always be significant--straddling two cultures (British/Chinese) and then becoming an Asian American.” —C.P.
”Chicago. Yes it is.” —Anonymous
”Born in New York State. My 'origins' are from Slovakia. Growing up I enjoyed the customs my grandmother brought with her from what was then Austria-Hungary.” —E.K.
”I was born in the extreme Northeast, on a river that leads to the ocean. Although I've grown to love the mountains, I will always miss the sea.” —Anonymous
”NYC. Yes.” —F.F.S.
CHOICEWORK Question 1: Politics | Is your political party important to you?
“Yes” —S.P.M.
”No/Not as much as the core beliefs and rights and responsibilities that I believe in.” —A.H.
”Yes” —Anonymous
”No” —P.P.
”Yes. Although I am an Independent, I identify with the ideals and concerns of the Democratic Party.” —S.L.
”It wasn't before; but it is NOW.” —C.P.
”Yes” —Anonymous
”No. When political parties (both) have more urgency involving a supreme court judge rather than helping those suffering from the pandemic, we are all on our own.” —E.K.
”No. Candidates are important to me. Policies are important to me. The parties, both of them, are for profit businesses that prevent the election of candidates who are not "mainstream" enough.” —Anonymous
”Yes” —F.F.S.
CHOICEWORK Question 4: Listen | What sound(s) give you comfort?
”My cat purring; the sound of falling rain; certain types of music” —S.P.M.
”ocean waves” —A.H.
”Forrest’s voice. :)” —Anonymous
”Waves on the beach” —P.P.
”Gurgling water.” —S.L.
”Laughter” —C.P.
”Music” —Anonymous
”BACH .... and musical theatre” —E.K.
”As a person who works backstage, I absolutely love the silence of an empty theatre, heard from the stage, looking out at the dark seats 2 hours before the show begins. It's full of all the theatre ghosts and charged with the lingering energy of all the shows that have happened in that space before ours.” —Anonymous
”piano music” —F.F.S.
CHOICEWORK Question 3: Love | Whose eyes light up when you walk into the room?
”(Don’t know)” —S.P.M.
”son and daughter” —A.H.
”My cat Jeff. My husband.” —Anonymous
”My two kids and my four best friends.” —S.L.
”Don't know....still searching for those eyes...for those light...” —C.P.
”Mine.” —Anonymous
”My husband's eyes” —E.K.
”My husband's eyes when I walk into a room. And these days, my mother's when I pop up on her screen in a zoom call.” —Anonymous
”My husband's” —F.F.S.
LIVING ROOM LOCAL is sponsored in part by
