Wendy MacLeod's play The House of Yes has been performed at Soho Rep, the Maxim Gorki Theater in Berlin, the Washington Shakespeare Company and the Gate Theater in London, where it was published in Plays International. It became an award-winning Miramax film starring Parker Posey, earning a Special Jury Award at Sundance. Women in Jeopardy! just premiered at Geva Theatre and the Cape Playhouse, directed by Sean Daniels, and her newest play Slow Food was done at the 2015 National Playwrights Conference at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center.
Juvenilia premiered at Playwrights Horizons, as did The Water Children, which was then done at L.A.'s Matrix Theater where it was cited as "the most challenging political play of 1998" by the L.A. Weekly and earned six L.A. Drama Critics Circle nominations.
Things Being What They Are has been done at Seattle Rep, Steppenwolf (where its sold-out run was extended twice), Bay Street Theater and was seen this spring at the Road Theatre in LA.
Her plays…
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Wendy MacLeod's play The House of Yes has been performed at Soho Rep, the Maxim Gorki Theater in Berlin, the Washington Shakespeare Company and the Gate Theater in London, where it was published in Plays International. It became an award-winning Miramax film starring Parker Posey, earning a Special Jury Award at Sundance. Women in Jeopardy! just premiered at Geva Theatre and the Cape Playhouse, directed by Sean Daniels, and her newest play Slow Food was done at the 2015 National Playwrights Conference at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center.
Juvenilia premiered at Playwrights Horizons, as did The Water Children, which was then done at L.A.'s Matrix Theater where it was cited as "the most challenging political play of 1998" by the L.A. Weekly and earned six L.A. Drama Critics Circle nominations.
Things Being What They Are has been done at Seattle Rep, Steppenwolf (where its sold-out run was extended twice), Bay Street Theater and was seen this spring at the Road Theatre in LA.
Her plays Sin and Schoolgirl Figure both premiered at the Goodman in Chicago, and HBO and Anvil Entertainment optioned Schoolgirl Figure for film.
Her prose has appeared in The New York Times, Salon, The Washington Post, McSweeney's Internet Tendency, The Rumpus, The International Herald Tribune, POETRY magazine, The Dramatist, the Kenyon Alumni Bulletin and on All Things Considered.
A graduate of the Yale School of Drama, she is the Artistic Director of the Kenyon Playwrights Conference, and the James E. Michael playwright-in-residence at Kenyon College.
Areas of Expertise
Playwriting, contemporary theater, writing TV pilots.
Education
1987 — Master of Fine Arts from Yale University
1981 — Bachelor of Arts from Kenyon College, Phi Beta Kappa
Courses Recently Taught
DRAM 111
Introduction to the Theater
DRAM 111
This course examines how theater differs from other arts and how theatrical artists go about their jobs in bringing a play to life on stage. This examination is accomplished through a series of performance or creative assignments. The class is divided into four sections, two meeting in the morning and two in the afternoon. Plays, problems and exercises are performed and discussed in the sectional meetings. Approximately every other week, sections are combined for lectures and demonstrations. The course explores what a play is and how it is structured. Assignments consist of a series of playwriting problems and one acting problem, which students perform in class working in teams. In addition, students read at least five plays and a series of essays about the theory and practice of the theater, complete a series of brief written assignments and take written examinations. As a culmination of the work, each student writes, directs and presents a final short play to the class, working with fellow students. Any student with a general interest in the theater will find this a challenging course, regardless of previous experience. Because this course is an introduction to the arts of the theater, it is a prerequisite to many other courses in the department. Required for drama or film majors. No prerequisite. Offered every year.
DRAM 231Y
The Play: Playwriting and Dramatic Theory
DRAM 231Y
Students will be given weekly exercises exploring dialogue, monologue, exposition, autobiography, writing for the opposite gender and fluid time. The class discusses the resulting short plays in a group critique, after which they are rewritten. In the first semester, students will finish with a collection of short plays that can later be developed into longer works. In the second semester, students will complete a one-act play, which will be performed as a staged reading. Students will keep a writer's notebook, do in-class exercises and read a variety of plays relevant to their weekly assignments, including plays by Harold Pinter, John Guare, Martin McDonagh, Caryl Churchill and Tarell Alvin McCraney. Students enrolled in this course will be automatically added to DRAM 232Y for the spring semester. This counts toward the elements requirement for the major. Prerequisite: DRAM 111. Offered every year.
DRAM 232Y
The Play: Playwriting and Dramatic Theory
DRAM 232Y
Students will be given weekly exercises exploring dialogue, monologue, exposition, autobiography, writing for the opposite gender and fluid time. The class discusses the resulting short plays in a group critique, after which they are rewritten. In the first semester, students will finish with a collection of short plays that can later be developed into longer works. In the second semester, students will complete a one-act play, which will be performed as a staged reading. Students will keep a writer's notebook, do in-class exercises and read a variety of plays relevant to their weekly assignments, including plays by Harold Pinter, John Guare, Martin McDonagh, Caryl Churchill and Tarell Alvin McCraney. This counts toward the elements requirement for the major. Prerequisite: DRAM 111. Offered every year.
DRAM 256
Contemporary Drama
DRAM 256
This course will focus on plays of the last 50 years by British and American playwrights, taught from the practitioner's perspective. Included are works by Harold Pinter, David Mamet, Sam Shepard, Caryl Churchill, Jez Butterworth, August Wilson, Annie Baker, Tracy Letts, Kia Corthron, Bruce Norris, Martin McDonagh, David Lindsay-Abaire, Kirsten Greenidge, Ayad Akhtar and others. Work will include papers, quizzes, reading scenes from the assigned plays and an active presence in class discussion. This counts toward the stage and its plays requirement for the major. Prerequisite: DRAM 111 or sophomore standing. Generally offered every third year.
DRAM 292
ST: Writing the Short Play
DRAM 292
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DRAM 333
Advanced Playwriting
DRAM 333
Students will develop a full-length play while simultaneously presenting exercises that explore nontraditional narrative: solo performance, found text and site-specific plays. Students will look at the work of such writers/performers as Bill Irwin, Spalding Gray, David Kodeski and Anna Deavere Smith, will analyze plays by contemporary playwrights such as Will Eno, Doug Wright, Anne Washburn, Caryl Churchill, and Bruce Norris while using their playwriting strategies, and will examine the reinvention of older plays by contemporary playwrights. The semester will culminate in a staged reading of the completed first act of a full-length play. This counts toward the elements requirement for the major. Prerequisite: DRAM 231Y–232Y or permission of instructor. Generally offered every other year.
DRAM 493
Individual Study
DRAM 493
Individual study in drama is reserved for students exploring a topic not regularly offered in the department's curriculum. Typically, the course will carry .5 unit of credit. To enroll in an individual study, a student must identify a member of the department willing to direct the project and, in consultation with him or her, write a proposal. The department chair must approve the proposal. The one- to two-page proposal should include a preliminary bibliography and/or set of specific problems, goals and tasks for the course; outline a schedule of reading and/or writing assignments or creative undertakings and describe the methods of assessment (e.g., a journal to be submitted for evaluation weekly, a one-act play due at semester's end, with drafts due at given intervals, and so on). The student also should briefly describe prior coursework which qualifies him or her for this independent project. At a minimum, the department expects the student to meet regularly with the instructor one hour per week and to submit an amount of work equivalent to that required in 300-level dance and drama courses. Students are urged to begin discussion of their proposed individual study the semester before they hope to enroll, so that they can devise a proposal and seek departmental approval before the deadline.
ENGL 291
ST: Travel Writing
ENGL 291
FILM 336
Writing the Television Pilot
FILM 336
So you've produced your first indie film, written a play that's gotten some attention, or paid your dues on a television writing staff. Now production companies are calling and asking if you've got an idea for a pilot. What makes for a good television show? How does television function differently from film or theater? How do the dramatic structures overlap? How do you develop your idea into a pitch that a network will buy? How do you get from there to getting a show on the air? Primarily focusing on hour-longs and half-hour single-cam shows, students will take an idea from pitch to treatment to pilot script. We'll watch and/or read and discuss the pilots of shows like "Transparent", "Girls", "Homeland", "House of Cards", "Friday Night Lights", "Flight of the Conchords" and "The Office." This counts toward the production and one screenwriting course requirements for the major. Submission of a short writing sample and permission of instructor required. Prerequisite: sophomore standing and DRAM 111 or FILM 111. Generally offered every third year.