Beau O'Reilly

Biography

Beau O'Reilly is a Chicago playwright, a professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago's Writing Program, a frequent teacher at the Iowa Summer Writing Program, and a working artist with more than 40 years of experience. Beau’s past work includes stories on “This American Life,” performance events at the Poetry Foundation and Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, and as front man for the rock n’ roll cabaret band Maestro Subgum and the Whole. Beau is a co-founder of the Curious Theatre Branch, a curator of the Rhinoceros Theater Festival, and  a member of the folk-cabaret band The Crooked Mouth. Beau’s play, “One Boppa; Two Acts” appears in the anthology Curious Plays (2022), and a volume of his own work is forthcoming from JackLeg Press.

Events

Beau O'Reilly photo

Completing the New Play

When
-
Event status
Scheduled
Presenters
Short Description
Any prose work benefits from sharpening the major tools of playwriting: monologue, dialogue, and silence. We will look at your draft of a new play, and engage in a workshopping process: reading aloud, then discussing edits and rewrites to align your work with your intentions and objectives. Over the course of the week, you will hear your script come alive, and you will be challenged to bring it to completion through daily input and rewrites. Please plan to send Beau your initial draft by the last week of June, if possible (if you register later, now worries! We will adapt). Any length is welcome, but please keep it to one project/script.

In this workshop, we will provide feedback on writing you produce in our week; critique writing you bring from home.
Beau O'Reilly photo

The Writer As Performer

When
-
Event status
Scheduled
Presenters
Short Description
This is a “doers” workshop, designed to address the problems that present themselves to the writer faced with a public performance or presentation of their own work. We will investigate tactics and techniques essential for making those presentations stronger. How do I take the stage? How do I use my voice well? How do I relax in front of people? What do I wear? Do I use a prop? Do I memorize? How do I hold the text? Can I have fun?

We will look at these questions, working through the presentations of every student in the class. We will begin with a monologue, essay, group of poems, or short story that you have chosen from your own writing. Suggested length is ten to twenty minutes when read aloud.

Please plan to send your work to Beau two weeks before we meet in Iowa City, if possible (if you register later, no worries! We will adapt).

In this workshop, we will provide feedback on writing you produce in our weekend; critique writing you bring from home.
Beau O'Reilly photo