Reflective Writing Workshop: The Qualities of Mercy

Discover the power of contemplative looking and reflective writing with Mary Hall Surface. Inspired by six sculptural figures above the Cathedral’s High Altar in the reredos, we will reflect on acts of compassion and moments of grace in our lives, communities and world. These figures invite and challenge us to consider how we might serve the greater good in our common life together.

Designed for everyone, not just “writers,” the workshop embraces close looking at art and inward looking through reflective writing for personal and spiritual growth. Space is limited for this in-person only workshop. Please register in advance.

about the leader

Mary Hall Surface is a playwright, director and teaching artist who presents writing workshops through the Smithsonian Associates, the National Gallery of Art and museums nationwide. She is the founding instructor of the NGA’s popular Writing Salon, as featured in The Washington Post. A nine-time Helen Hayes Award nominee, including four for the Charles MacArthur Award for Outstanding New Play, she received the 2002 Outstanding Director of a Musical for her Perseus Bayou. Her plays have been produced across the US, Europe, Japan, Taiwan and Canada, including eighteen Kennedy Center productions. She leads workshops for educators as a National Teaching Artist for the Kennedy Center and was a six-summer faculty member of Harvard’s Project Zero Classroom. She is the proud founding artistic director of the Atlas INTERSECTIONS Festival, where she curated over 600 all-arts performances and events from 2009-2015.