July 5 – 9, 5 – 8 pm
Playwright, performer and great, great, great granddaughter of Herman Melville, Elizabeth Doss will lead writers through a playful expedition of generating new work for the stage. Participants will explore and experiment making stories and characters come alive in Melville’s historic home, Arrowhead.
On the final evening, the public is invited to join family and friends for a staged reading of the new plays in progress. A reception will follow.
Fee for the workshop is $500 – Pre-registration is required; use the BOOK NOW to reserve your spot.
About Elizabeth Doss
Elizabeth Doss is a writer, performer, director and playwright based in Austin, Texas. She is a Co-artistic director of the theatre collective Paper Chairs, which has produced world premieres of her original plays Murder Ballad Murder Mystery, Hillcountry Underbelly, Mast, Poor Herman and Catalina de Erauso. Paper Chairs has also produced her translation/ adaptations of Federico Garcia Lorca’s, The Audience and The Divine Narcissus by Sor Juana Inez de la Cruz. Her play Slumber Party, was featured as part of the UTNT new theatre festival in March 2017 and Theatre En Bloc produced her play Severe Weather Warningat the Long Center in May 2019. Doss holds a BA in Spanish and an MFA in Playwriting, both from the University of Texas at Austin. She played herself and Herman Melville in Mark Blumberg’s film, The Act of Reading. And her personal essay, “What Poor Herman Means to Me” was published in Leviathan in 2022. Most recently, Paper Chairs co-produced Poor Herman at Arrowhead 2024 which played to sold- out audiences. As a performer she performs with Austin companies including Salvage Vanguard (Cry Pitch Carols, Americamisfit), Rude Mechs (Dionysus in ‘69, B Beaver Animation, Fixing TImon of Athens) Theatre en Bloc (The Totalitarians.) She’s currently developing a new solo work, Do You Need to Read the Confidence Man?, which will premiere in Austin and the Berkshire summer 2026.
This event is sponsored by Massachusetts Cultural Council and Housatonic Heritage.