Forrest McClendon

Forrest McClendon Visiting Artist 2020

Actor and Educator

Tony Award-nominee Forrest McClendon is an artist and educator, widely known for his performance in THE SCOTTSBORO BOYS, which he reprised in London (Young Vic/Garrick). A recipient of the Lunt-Fontanne Fellowship for top regional stage actors in the United States, Forrest will return to Broadway this spring in THOUGHTS OF A COLORED MAN. He has taught master classes throughout the U.S, Canada, and the U.K. Forrest was recently a Visiting Associate Professor of Practice at the University of Miami, and is currently Distinguished Visiting Professor at the Hartt School and Master Teacher at the National Theater Institute at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center. 
 

Engagement Information

McClendon is conducting a series of student-focused acting workshops for TS 145S throughout the semester. He will present a workshop on October 16 to discuss CHOICEWORK, his unique, creative process originally designed to build characters onstage, now being used to develop REPARATIONS, his new autobiographical play about race and racism.  

What makes a character compelling? How does R.A.C.E. (religion, ancestry, color and ethnicity) define a character? Where do actors turn for inspiration? The same questions McClendon uses to build characters onstage can also be revelatory offstage. Join award-winning actor and teacher Forrest McClendon virtually for this one-hour interactive salon that offers you an opportunity to use CHOICEWORK to better see yourself and others.
 
CHOICEWORK is dramaturgical detective work for storytellers—a series of questions from age to zodiac sign—that shapes narrative and reveals character. Religion, ancestry, color, and ethnicity are a few of the biographical questions that can identify (for the actor) the lived experiences of the character, enabling a better understanding of another person’s narrative.