Annika Nori Ahlgrim
Writer . Theater Practitioner . Artist
Annika Nori is a theater practitioner, artist, scholar and writer. She is also a graphic and website designer. She is based in the San Francisco Bay Area.
She tells stories in many forms, and always has.
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My passions rest primarily in the written word, and the histories on which we build our lives. I love the act of creation, and whether of theatrical, written, or visual art, it's all a form of storytelling. I believe that art, and stories, must engage an audience through their souls so that society and the individual can become aware of and acknowledge themselves. I create both original and adaptive work, on the computer screen, on paper and on stage. We can learn so much when adapting old stories in our modern day, updating themes to support the stories that need to be told today. We can find the important threads of a tale, tug them free and adapt a story that we want and need to tell. My original work grows from my imagination and I am often inspired by my dreams, which give me intriguing characters and situations that ignite in me the desire to write. I pull from my own life experience as a queer, disabled woman and incorporate everyday magic into my process.
Annika Nori is an internationally produced playwright, director and performer. She has worked in professional theaters, great halls and black boxes, and has worked collaboratively and individually to devise and develop plays. She is a storyteller who loves the psychological discovery of roles, the collaboration of theater and the simple joy of performing, directing and writing for a live audience. Her experience as an actor comes in handy as a director, where she guides the actor through exercises and coaching to discover the character beneath the words. She is also interested in professional experience in writing, directing and acting for film and television.
She has a B.F.A. in Theater and Original Works: Play-Writing and Directing from Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle Washington.
She received her M.A. in Shakespeare & Creativity from the University of Birmingham and the Shakespeare Institute in Stratford-Upon-Avon, and has worked at the Royal Shakespeare Company.
She continues to study Shakespeare and take play-writing classes, educating herself endlessly and everyday through books, databases and podcasts.
In The Works
Classes
I am beginning to plan classes and workshops, for theater, playwriting and the exploration of Shakespeare's words. These workshops and classes will be for people of all ages and all backgrounds. They will likely be located in the Morro Bay, CA Central Coast area. Please check back for more information at a later date.
I will also be offering after school tutoring in the humanities, theater and Shakespeare for middle and high school students. This will include acting and voice and text coaching for actors and students. Although I am happy to work remotely, I will probably be located physically in the Morro Bay, CA Central Coast area.
Current Projects
Plays, Novels &
Writing Projects
The Winters Tale: A modern-day retelling of Shakespeare's classic and ambiguous so-called romance. In 1993, a small law firm in San Francisco welcomes a second baby into one of their title families. The stress brings out the worst in some, leading to heartbreak, desolation and death. 25 years later, in Winters, CA, a young law-student fights for the love of her life while battling the justice system. 7m, 7f, 1 trans woman, 1 boy.
I Am Helena: An 11 year old American girl is sent to live with her father, a man she has never met, in England, having lost her mother before receiving the answer to the question she most wants answered: Why did you name me Helena? As she grows up, she finds her life entangled with the lives Shakespeare created centuries ago, and she struggles to remove the curse.
The Tower: More than a century from now, a young woman named Sally spends her days maintaining the technology and Artificial Intelligence that upholds The Tower's Resident's luxurious lifestyle. By doing so, Sally plays an integral role in maintaining the expansive and insidious lie on which their lives are built.