Bio
Wendy Gourley loves to explore hidden voices and the power of story. Her play, The Story Stone, inspired by the Palestinean-Isreali conflict, was a 2011 Bonderman semi-finalist. Her scene, Mochi, from a longer play-in-progress about the Topaz WWII internment camp, is a Kennedy Center American College Theatre regional finalist. Wendy Gourley came to playwrighting through storytelling and a background in musical theatre. She was on the teaching staff at the Egyptian Theatre in Park City, Utah where she was the founder and co-director of VocalWorks, a musical theatre program for children, grades 2-12. She developed curriculum,wrote and directed many of the children’s productions, and acted and musically directed for the main stage. Wendy was also the music and drama teacher at the Colby School.
Wendy is graduating with a degree in Theatre Arts with an emphasis is playwrighting from Utah Valley University in April 2012. At UVU, she learned story analysis from Katherine J. Farmer and now consultes on other writing projects. She is also the analyst on staff at Rock Canyon Literary agency. As a storyteller, Wendy performs and presents at festivals, concerts, schools and conferences. In 2005, She was a featured regional teller at the Timpanogos Storytelling Festival, the second largest festival in the United States and has performed at other festivals in the Western region. One of her career highlights is when she opened for Michael Feinstein, one of her favorite singers, in 2007.
Wendy is the program director for the Timpanogos Storytelling Conference held every year at Brigham Young University. She is a past president of the Utah Storytelling Guild and is a national columnist for the Storytelling Magazine.
Wendy is the resident playwright and dramaturg of Resonance Story Theatre, a non-profit corporation that funds story work with at risk populations. Resonance tours on-going productions to Utah schools and other venues. www.resonancestorytheatre.com