Holy Week Zoom Theatre Retreat: “Our Town”

We’ll explore the spiritual dimensions of theatre by creating a Zoom-community through telling a story together.

Each night we’ll do a workshop reading of one act from Wilder’s three act play.

• We’ll begin with prayer and warmups.
• We’ll read through the act (no memorization needed).
• After reading through the play together, we’ll hold a short period of silent meditation and/or private journaling, reflecting on how those themes speak to us in our own lives or questions.
• If time allows, we’ll have a brief period of discussion to share what resonated with us.
• Closing meditation

Renée Darline Roden is a graduate of Notre Dame twice over. She has an undergraduate Bachelor of the Arts in theatre and theology (with a minor in Catholic social thought) and a graduate degree in theology. She has taught theatre for nearly two decades, to preschool thespians, high school students, college students and seminarians. She has directed productions at the University of Notre Dame and off-off-off-off Broadway in New York City. She is a playwright whose work has appeared at staged readings and festivals in Milwaukee (“Pedro & Galileo”), New York City (“The Last Hurricane”; “Genna the Goldfish Solves it All”), Chicago (“Cali-for-No-One”), at the Catholic Imagination Conference (“Is the Internet in Color?”) and has been produced in New York City (“SHE”).

Renée is a graduate of Columbia Journalism School. Her first book, “Tantur: Seeking Christian Unity in a Divided City” is available for pre-order at Liturgical Press. Her writing has appeared in The Nation, Religion News Service, The Associated Press, Sojourners, America and U.S. Catholic, among others. In 2022, she led a team of journalists in reporting on maternity leave policies in Catholic dioceses across the United States for FemCatholic. You can learn about that reporting and more at her website reneedarlineroden.com. You can also visit her literary test kitchen at Sweet Unrest on Substack.