Kathleen Russo, Widow of Storyteller Spalding Gray, Offers a Memoir Writing Workshop

Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts

Spalding Gray

​Before his death in 2004, celebrated writer, actor, and storyteller Spalding Gray took to the stage with a collection of his beloved and irreverent autobiographical monologues.

Gray was at the forefront of spoken word theater in the '80s, and now his work is coming back to the stage in "Spalding Gray: Stories Left to Tell," a play  co-conceived by his widow, Kathleen Russo and director Lucy Sexton.

And bonus: Russo's holding a memoir writing workshop before the play hits the local stage at Scottsdale Center for the Arts.

The two-part workshop will be on Jan. 19 from 5 to 9 p.m. and on Jan. 22 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., and will be an opportunity to work with the play's director and Gray's widow on the essentials of memoir writing. Cost is $65.

For more information and to purchase tickets, call (480) 994-ARTS (2787), ext. 2, or visit the center's website. There, you can also see more information on the play, which weaves some of Gray's most popular stories with unpublished letters and journal entries.

The center will present "Spalding Gray: Stories Left to Tell" on Friday, Jan. 21, at 8 p.m.