Portland Center Stage logo
128 NW Eleventh Ave, Portland, OR 97209 · 503-445-3700 · www.pcs.org
Portland Center Stage logo

JAW Lab: Dealing with the Hard Sh*& in Our Writing Lives: Writing Around Trauma, Core Wounds, Violence, and Heartbreaks with JAW Playwright Anya Pearson

Event Details
The Armory: Vigeland Rehearsal Hall

This event's date or start time has passed.

View Upcoming Events
Refund Policy
JAW Accessibility: Wheelchair seating, accommodation for service animals, sign interpretation, sound amplifying devices, and large print programs are available. Learn More

In this workshop, we’ll explore how to dive into the depths, explore the darkest parts of our humanity, and emerge with/forge/create complex characters that feel authentic, alive, and vibrating with energy. How do you draw from or borrow or fictionalize personal experience in service of alchemy without retraumatizing or reopening your most deeply held wounds? What tools, tricks, safeguards, and ripcords can we put in place so that we can make the best possible art — art that changes the world — without costing ourselves too much.

Lab space is limited, so admission is by lottery. To enter the lottery, email education@pcs.org with your choice of labs in order of preference.

(She/Her)

Anya is an award-winning playwright, poet, producer, actress, and activist. She was recently named a Hodder Fellow at Princeton University’s Lewis Center for the Arts. Anya is under commission at PCS and on staff at Corporeal Writing, where she runs a BIPOC writing collective. She is currently finishing her debut collection of poetry, writing three pilots, interrogating what it means to make art through little square barriers on Zoom in new experimental project called COMMUNITY, and constantly plotting, planning, devising, creating, imagining, and revising visions of a better, more just world. Her plays include: The Measure of Innocence (The Kilroys List, Drammy Award for Best Original Script), Made to Dance in Burning Buildings (Showcase: Joe’s Pub, NYC; Shaking the Tree, Portland, OR), The Killing Fields (2018 Orphic Commission; Last Frontier Theatre Conference; Seven Devils New Play Foundry; Great Plains Theatre Conference), Three Love Songs (Play at Home Initiative, PCS). Memberships: Linestorm Playwrights, Dramatists Guild, Couch Film Collective, Actors’ Equity Association. Find her on TwitterInstagram, and anyapearson.com.

Anya Pearson is a PCS -Commissioned Playwright.

Portland Center Stage is committed to identifying & interrupting instances of racism & all forms of oppression, through the principles of inclusion, diversity, equity, & accessibility (IDEA).

Learn More

Season Superstars

Season Supporting Sponsors

Season Producing Sponsors

Guardians of the Arts