WORDTheatre is a non-profit organization founded in 2003 that champions literature by staging live readings of contemporary short stories and curating original themed productions in Los Angeles, New York, and London.
These performances, both live and recorded feature well-known authors, actors, and musicians.
WORDTheatreUK was recognized with charitable status by the UK Charity Commission in the fall of 2023.
History
WORDTheatre was founded in 2003 by Cedering Fox, producer, theatre director, and voiceover artist who still serves as the organization's Artistic Director.[1] Fox is the daughter of the Swedish-American award-winning poet, writer, and artist Siv Cedering. In 1989, Fox was asked to partner with Darrell Larson, on The Great Writers Series: Literary Evenings at The Met in Los Angeles. The series featured authors Sam Shepard, Peter Matthiessen, James Ellroy and actors Ed Harris, Holly Hunter and Bill Pullman, among others, and ran for three years. It was broadcasting weekly on NPR’s KCRW. The station then hired Fox to direct seven and a half hours of Isak Dinesen stories performed by an all-star cast and scored by composer Jonathan Sacks. Realizing her passion for the form, Fox launched WORDTheatre in 2003 at the Canal Club in Venice, California. Later that year, WORDTheatreUK debuted in London[2] with co-founder and creative partner, Kirsty Peart, herself a writer of animation for film and television.[3] Their ongoing collaboration has resulted in hundreds of bespoke productions in the US and the UK.
From 2010 to 2016 WORDTheatre was associated with the UK’s Sunday Times EFG Private Bank Short Story Award, “the world’s richest short story prize,”[4] with performers reading the six shortlisted stories to live audiences annually in London, England.[5][6][7][8] WORDTheatre also headlined the Literary Arena at the Latitude Festival for seven consecutive years.[9][10] In 2013, WORDTheatre debuted its original space exploration-themed production, "In the Cosmos", with a 44-piece orchestra at Wilderness Festival,[11] UK, which was labeled by MTV as the “Most Dynamic And Extravagant Act.”[11] "In the Cosmos" was restaged to acclaim at The Ford Amphitheater in Los Angeles on August 26, 2017.[12] Beginning in 2015 WORDTheatre created a show centered around the history of Jazz with James Pearson on piano which was presented at the London Jazz Festival. The show has evolved and been presented most recently to great acclaim at The Ford Amphitheater[13] in July 2023 where it was titled Jazz Re-Evolution. In 2016 WORDTheatre performed H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine at the famous Southbank Centre in London with actors Christopher Eccleston, Emma Hamilton, and Nikki-Amuka Bird. In 2018 WORDTheatre debuted Emily Wilsons translation of The Odyssey at Southbank Centre with Danny Sapani as Odysseus and Marianne Jean-Baptiste as Penelope. This was the first female translation of The Odyssey translated by Emily Wilson and adapted by Claire Alfree. Beginning in 2020 and all throughout the pandemic WORDTheatre continued to hold events through virtual live streams, with events often being an author Q&A with a virtual performance, authors such as Richard Bausch, and Petina Gappah, Kamila Shamsie, Kit de Waal, and Guy Ware participated. Since 2021, in person events started up again in London, Los Angeles and New York to celebrate authors around the world. In 2023, WORDTheatre celebrated their 20-year anniversary with fundraisers for WORDTheatre Campus held in Los Angeles, London, and New York. Actors like Brenda Strong, Cassidy Freeman, Carla Gugino, James Cromwell, Juliet Stevenson, Ian Hart, Rhashan Stone, Michael Boatman, and Ron Perlman were among the performers with authors such as Lore Segal, David Means, Sidik Fofana, and Joyce Carol Oates in attendance.
Collaborations with MacArthur 'Genius' grant recipient John Edgar Wideman have resulted in several notable productions including 2012's 'Storytales' at the John Anson Ford Theater featuring such notable actors as Sterling K. Brown, Lorraine Toussaint, Keith David, Marla Gibbs, Brent Jennings, Omar Dorsey, and Nicki Micheaux, to name a few; and the John Edgar Wideman Experience which was staged in two different incarnations at Pittsburgh's August Wilson Theater in 2017 and the Hall of Liberty in Los Angeles in 2018. In 2022 the work of Randall Kenan was celebrated at the Brooklyn Center for Fiction in New York. In 2024 Randall Kenan will be honored again at the event Black Folk Could Fly: On the Wings of Randall Kenan[14] held in Los Angeles.
Annually WORDTheatre hosts a Writers Workshop & Retreat. For the first 10 years it was held in Edale, England (United Kingdom) and in 2022 it moved to Sommières France.
WORDTheatre Campus, formerly known as WITS is a non-profit organization. In addition to championing contemporary literature through live and recorded performances, it has its own education outreach program WORDTheatre in the Schools (WITS).[42][43] Since its inception in 2011 the WORDTheatre Campus program has served many Los Angeles Title 1 Schools.[44] Many of the same actors and authors who perform at WordTheatre's main events volunteer their time to participate in the WTIS program, including JK Simmons, Bellamy Young, Toni Trucks, Jason Isaacs, Sterling K Brown, and Ryan Michelle Bathe.[45][46] In 2015 WordTheatre expanded the WTIS program internationally to also include under-resourced schools in the United Kingdom.[47]
WORDTheatre is also known for their benefit work, curating and performing original themed productions for charities such as Autism Speaks,[48]NARSAD,[49] the One Billion Rising movement dedicated to ending rape and violence against women,[50] Anaphylaxis[51] and The Parkinsons Appeal[52] for Parkinsons disease in the UK.[53]
WORDTheatre began staging bi-annual benefits for the Pushcart Prize,[54] honoring literary excellence, in East Hampton, New York, in 2006.[55][31]
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