Learn to improvise at Shelton library workshop

Dora Lanier's mother and grandmother both wrote columns for the community newspaper in Tomah, Wisconsin. Lanier began crafting her writing and editing skills proofreading her mother's column, while also developing her theatrical skills performing in plays.

Now living in Seattle, Lanier shares those talents at her "Intro to Improvisation" workshop at 4:15 p.m. Feb. 10 at the Shelton Timberland Library, 710 W. Alder St. Anyone 12 and older is welcome. Admission is free.

In an email response to questions from the Journal, Lanier wrote that the improv workshop will include introductory theater games and activities.

"Some will be active – as much as the participant is able – and some will be written," she wrote. "No one will be forced or expected to perform or do anything they do not feel comfortable with. This is a drop-in class – so the expectation is that people will drop in, to try something new, or something they haven't done in a while, or to try it out again with a different group of people."

Lanier is writing a play called "Erasing Ophelia" as an artist in residence at Hypatia-in-the-Woods" outside Shelton.

"I am attracted to Hypatia-in-the-Woods and Holly House because when I read the experience of other residents, when I look at the pictures, when I think of what I want to do, the word 'gentle' comes to mind," she wrote. "I know I can create work if I make goals, check off lists, push myself, and strain. But I want to find a gentler way, in part because the story I want to tell with this play has a gentle and quiet quality on the surface."

"Erasing Ophelia" is about a famed wellness coach "who gets erased as she loses touch with current technology and becomes an elder," Lanier wrote. "When I was in my 30s and 40s I started to hear my older female friends and my husband's older friends talk about how they felt invisible. I remember we were so shocked because to us these women were vibrant, alive, with so much wisdom we both needed."

Lanier didn't become a journalist like her mother and grandmother.

"Early on, I found I liked fiction more because I had more control over what the people would do, say and think," she said.

Lanier began performing community theater as a child. She studied theater at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. When she came to Seattle, she founded Unexpected Productions, an improv group at the Pike Place Market.

"As an actor I use and am hired to perform improv in many ways other than a comedy club or theater so at the end of the workshop we'll have some Q&A about that," she wrote. "And maybe even brainstorm ideas how improv might be used in the participant's personal work and activities."

IF YOU GO

WHO: Actor/writer/director/teacher Dora Lanier

WHAT: "Intro to Improvisation" workshop

WHEN: 4:15 p.m. Feb. 10

WHERE: Shelton Timberland Library, 710 W. Alder St.

ADMISSION: Free