"Word for Word's brilliant inventiveness in performance, choreography, and staging, has created a new art form, and a deeply affecting experience."
— Tobias Wolff
Join us for an indulgent evening of word-pleasure: a brilliant short story theatrically performed on stage by the prize-winning San Francisco theater company, Word for Word. Author Julie Orringer, a former Stegner Fellow at Stanford, will return to campus for this performance, which will be introduced by Stegner Program co-chair and fellow novelist Tobias Wolff (whose stories have also been performed by Word for Word).
Word for Word Performing Arts Company brings books to life on stage, performing every word the author has written. It's like being read to, and then
some. While their performances are fully literary in content, they are completely theatrical in form.
Julie Orringer's debut collection of short stories, How to Breathe Underwater was published in 2003 to international acclaim. Orringer's characters—all of
them submerged by loss, whether of parents or lovers or a viable relationship to the world in general— struggle mightily against the wildly engulfing forces
that threaten to overtake us all.
The story from this collection which Word for Word has chosen to perform is "Note to Sixth Grade Self." In this haunting story a band of popular girls exerts its social power over an awkward outcast. It is a daring and funny tale about surviving the insecurity and longing of adolescence.
A dessert-reception for Julie and the touring company will follow the performance. All are welcome.
Registration is appreciated - seating is limited; please arrive early.