Gwyneth Forsythe is a writer, educator, and theatre artist. In 2019, she graduated from the University of Iowa with BAs in Theatre Arts and History and received her MFA in Writing for the Stage and Screen from Northwestern University in 2021. At Northwestern, she won the Krevoy Screenwriting Prize and worked in development for an LA-based production company. Gwyneth has produced several theatre productions and worked as a freelance writer and adjunct faculty for the Chicago City Colleges. She is a semi-finalist for the Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center’s National Playwrights Conference, 2024. Her play “The Posthumous Trial of Giulia Tofana” was produced in partnership with the Perfume Passage Museum at the Music Hall of the San Filippo Estate. She works in arts outreach and youth advocacy, teaching and developing educational programming with the Iowa Youth Writing Project. Currently, Gwyneth is based in Iowa City and Chicago, writing plays, spending time with her pets, and working with the IYWP. .
As a writer and researcher, I believe my work can and must inspire empathy, allowing the reader or audience to see the characters on stage, screen, or page as people we can identify with on a basic, human level. We resonate with their experiences. I want those who see my work to gain a fresh and honest understanding of the human experience. My role as a playwright, screenwriter, and author is to tell stories that matter to me in such a way that they will matter to the audience. To succeed, the stories must interest the people who need them. They must resonate with them in a way that is memorable. They must reflect the world back to them, so as to engender new understanding and deeper feeling.
When in the midst of a new project, I thrive in a (semi) controlled chaos. Between my story notes and research, I find myself surrounded by quickly scrawled notes, dog-eared books, with far too windows and tabs open on my laptop.
As an educator, I believe that by creating fun, imaginative, and immersive educational activities, students are encouraged to learn and try new things.
My main objective is to teach and nurture students as they figure out their identity and their unique voice as human beings by fostering their empathy and curiosity. I work to empower the students I work with, giving them the tools they need to become strong self-advocates through building their confidence with increased knowledge and ability. My teaching, while based on my own academic experiences, adapts and changes all the time. Even when I’m teaching the same material, the students aren’t the same, nor is the culture the same as when I first taught. The world is always turning. So are the worlds of theatre, film, and television. What students respond to in one class will not be the same in another. It’s important to be aware of the needs of all my students, so I can adapt to them, to figure out what helps them learn, and thereby understand the content of the course. This flexibility valuable is especially when the course involves creative writing or other artistic endeavors where the fostering of the students’ unique voices is paramount to their success. The most rewarding part of teaching for me is watching a student develop their artistic views, their taste, and style, as they are exposed to, and engage with, new works of media, in a meaningful, structured and developmental way. Working closely with students as individuals, I learn what they are passionate about and can then find a way for them to best incorporate their passion, not only into their work for class but also into their lives as artists, students, and as people going off into the world.
If I'm not falling down a blackhole of Wikipedia and JSTOR articles late a night, or plotting out my next script, you'll find me with my cats, Whitman and Holly. I'll probably be listening to old records, and drinking too much coffee.
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