Morag Shepherd

Morag Shepherd is a Scottish playwright, screenwriter, and director.

Morag Shepherd
Born1979
Edinburgh, Scotland
OccupationPlaywright, Director, Professor
EducationBrigham Young University (MA)
Notable awardsAssociation for Mormon Letters (2016)
Children2

Biography

Shepherd was born in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1979, and raised in rural Halkirk, Scotland[1] and England before moving to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in her teenage years.

She later attended Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah where she wrote her Master's thesis on Edward Albee and the American absurdist tradition.[2]

She has two children.

Career

Shepherd's plays have been produced in the western United States as well as New York.

In 2015 Shepherd co-founded Sackerson, a Salt Lake City-based theatre company. She has been Sackerson's writer in residence since that time.[3]

Poppy's In The Sand

Shepherd's one-act play Poppy's in the Sand opened to critical acclaim in 2015 in Salt Lake City.[4] It later moved to a run in San Diego at the San Diego International Fringe Festival.[5] Poppy's tells the story of a family dealing with the emotional fallout from a traumatic event and the text grapples with themes of faulty and unreliable memory.

The Worst Thing I've Ever Done

In 2016, The Worst Thing I've Ever Done, a play written by Shepherd and other Utah playwrights, premiered in Salt Lake City. The presentation of the piece was considered experimental as the play was performed for only a single audience member at a time in a wooden box about the size of an elevator that was constructed specifically for the production. The piece was well reviewed. [6] [7] Originally debuting in March, the piece was revived later that year in August as part of the Great Salt Lake Fringe Festival. [8]

Burn

Shepherd's next play, Burn, debuted at Sackerson in September 2016. The play follows Allison, a mother, as she struggles to simultaneously balance her sense of self, her mental health, her familial relationships, her loss of faith and a skin condition that leaves her susceptible to burns. The play was well received[9] [10] and its original run was extended several times.

Shepherd later was awarded the 2016 AML award for Drama for Burn.[11]

Not One Drop

In 2017 Shepherd won the Plan-B Theatre grant from the David Ross Fetzer Foundation for her play Not One Drop, which debuted at Plan-B in March of that year.[3] The Salt Lake Tribune called Shepherd's writing "clever, pithy, and poetic."[12]

Not One Drop was also nominated for an AML award in the drama category.[13]

Do You Want To See Me Naked?

Shepherd wrote and directed 2017's Do You Want To See Me Naked? which opened to wide acclaim[14] [15] in Salt Lake City before moving on to runs in Tucson, and New York City.[16][17] The one-woman show about self-doubt and self-acceptance also played in Provo, Utah as well as being later revived in Salt Lake.

During its initial run at The Great Salt Lake Fringe Festival, it was awarded Best One-Person Show as well as the Critic's Choice award. Critics praised Shepherd's writing as being "constantly sharp and compelling".[18]

How Long Can You Stand On The Train Tracks? : A Game For Two Sisters

2017 also saw Shepherd's play How Long Can You Stand On The Train Tracks? : A Game For Two Sisters onstage in a co-production from Salt Lake City theatre companies Flying Bobcat Theatrical Laboratory and Sackerson. The play premiered at The University of Utah's Babcock Theatre.[19] Part of the impetus for the play originated in childhood games she and her siblings would play on train tracks in rural Scotland. The piece was called "haunted and fiercely playful". [20]

Hindsight

Shepherd's next play, Hindsight, premiered in Salt Lake City in 2018. Produced by Sackerson, the piece followed a budding relationship between a young man and woman while literally navigating the streets of downtown Salt Lake City. During the performance audience members moved throughout the city using buses, the city's light-rail system, as well as their own feet. [21] [22] The play's original run lasted for four months and was entirely sold out.[23] It received nearly universal acclaim. [24] [25]

A Brief Waltz In A Little Room

A Brief Waltz In A Little Room : Twenty-Three Short Plays About Walter Eyer, co-written and co-directed by Shepherd, was produced in 2019. The play ran for six months between August 2019 and January 2020. [26] It opened at The Gateway (Salt Lake City) in a series of dressing rooms in the back of an art gallery that had formerly been an Anthropologie clothing store. [27] A Brief Waltz In A Little Room put audience members in the titular role of Walter Eyer and played with themes of identity, love, secrets and double existences. [28] The piece made multiple 'Best Of Utah Arts' lists in 2019. [29] [30]

Other work

Shepherd made her screenwriting debut with Blue Door, directed by Sohrab Mirmont, nephew of Abbas Kiarostami.[31][32]

In 2015 her audio play, Before The Beep, was produced by Sackerson in Salt Lake City. The play was performed entirely by voice messages, allowing audiences to phone in to listen to daily scenes over 30 days.[33]

Her children's play, Flora Meets A Bee, was commissioned and produced by Plan-B Theatre in 2019. The play toured elementary schools throughout Utah from October 2019 to February 2020. Originally scheduled to tour until May of 2020, the play's schedule was ended early due to COVID-19.[34]

Works

Full-Length Plays

  • Roofsliding (2008) [35]
  • Burn (2016)
  • Not One Drop (2017)
  • How Long Can You Stand On The Train Tracks? : A Game For Two Sisters (2017)
  • Hindsight (2018)
  • A Brief Waltz In A Little Room (2019) (Co-Authored)
  • Cherry Wine In Paper Cups (2020)

Other Works

  • Blue Door (2011) - Screenplay
  • Before The Beep (2015) – Audio Play
  • Poppy's In The Sand (2015) – One Act Play
  • The Worst Thing I've Ever Done (2016) (Co-Authored) – Short Play
  • Do You Want To See Me Naked? (2017) – One Act Play
  • Flora Meets A Bee (2019) - Children's Play
  • The Distance Of The Moon (2019) [36] - Contributed Material
  • Thank You, Theobromine (2019) [37] - Contributed Material

References
  1. "Train Spotting" The Salt Lake Tribune, Ellen Fagg Weist. Retrieved 2020-09-13.
  2. Tribune, Ellen Fagg Weist The Salt Lake. "The enigma of what's real in Plan-B's absurdist tragicomedy 'Not One Drop'". The Salt Lake Tribune. Retrieved 2017-05-02.
  3. "morag shepherd | New Play Exchange". newplayexchange.org. Retrieved 2017-05-02.
  4. "POPPY'S IN THE SAND is unexpected treasure at the Fringe". Utah Theatre Bloggers. Retrieved 2017-05-02.
  5. "Poppy's in the Sand - Sackerson". Sackerson. Retrieved 2017-05-02.
  6. "The Worst Thing I've Ever Done" The Herald Extra, Derrick Clements. Retrieved 2020-09-13.
  7. "Seeing Worst Things Is One Of The Best Things" Utah Theatre Bloggers, Julia Shumway. Retrieved 2020-09-13.
  8. GSL Fringe Festival 2016 Brings The Magic To Salt Lake The Gephardt Daily, Daisy Blake. Retrieved 2020-09-13.
  9. "Engulf Yourself In Sackerson's Burn" Utah Theatre Bloggers, C.T. Lewis. Retrieved 2020-09-13.
  10. "Essential A&E Picks" Salt Lake City Weekly. Retrieved 2020-09-13.
  11. "Dawning of a Brighter Day:Twenty-First Century Mormon Literature". Association For Mormon Letters. Retrieved 2020-09-13.
  12. Tribune, Barbara M. Bannon Special To The. "'Not One Drop' asks pithy questions about who we are and where we're going". The Salt Lake Tribune. Retrieved 2017-05-02.
  13. "2017 AML Finalists" Dawning Of A Brighter Day. Retrieved 2020-09-13.
  14. "You Really Should See 'Do You Want To See Me Naked?'" Utah Theatre Bloggers.
  15. "Naked Is A Poignant, Beautiful Experience" Front Row Reviewers Utah
  16. "You Should...Want To See Naked" All About Solo.
  17. "Do You Want To See Me Naked?" United Solo New York.
  18. "'Naked','Curie' Wow At GSL Fringe Festival" The Salt Lake Tribune, Barbara Bannon. Retrieved 2020-09-13.
  19. "Train Tracks" Theatre.utah.edu. Retrieved 2020-09-13.
  20. "Train Spotting" The Salt Lake Tribune, Ellen Fagg Weist. Retrieved 2020-09-13.
  21. "Downtown SLC Becomes Unique Stage for Hindsight" The Utah Review, Les Roka. Retrieved 2020-09-13.
  22. "Hindsight Is A Very Different Kind of Play" The Deseret News, Court Mann. Retrieved 2020-09-13.
  23. "Hindsight" Sackerson.org.
  24. "Hindsight - Review" Salt Lake City Magazine, Jeremy Pugh
  25. "Hindsight" Front Row Reviewers Utah. Retrieved 2020-09-13.
  26. "A Brief Waltz In A Little Room"Sackerson.org. Retrieved 2020-09-13.
  27. "Intimate Salt Lake City Play Is Staged In A Closed Anthropologie"The Salt Lake Tribune, Scott D. Pierce. Retrieved 2020-09-13.
  28. "Essential A&E Picks"Salt Lake City Weekly, Lee Zimmerman. Retrieved 2020-09-13.
  29. "Excellence In Utah Theatre - A Brief Waltz In A Little Room"Utah Theatre Bloggers, Tara Hass. Retrieved 2020-09-13.
  30. "Top Ten Moments Of The Utah Enlightenment For 2019"The Utah Review, Les Roka. Retrieved 2020-09-13.
  31. Grames, Renny; Huntington, Tod; Hertford, Brighton; Ostler, Savannah (2015-01-16), Blue Door, retrieved 2017-05-02
  32. "Sohrab Mirmont". IMDb. Retrieved 2017-05-02.
  33. Tribune, Ellen Fagg Weist The Salt Lake. "New Salt Lake theater company experiments with 'dial-a-scene' phone serial". The Salt Lake Tribune. Retrieved 2017-05-02.
  34. "Flora Meets A Bee" planbtheatre.org. Retrieved 2020-09-13.
  35. "Take The High Road" The Herald Extra, Cody Clark. Retrieved 2020-09-13.
  36. "The Distance Of The Moon" Sackerson.org. Retrieved 2020-09-13.
  37. "Thank You, Theobromine Is Fascinating, Enigmatic" The Utah Review, Les Roka. Retrieved 2020-09-13.
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