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My name is Hannah Honey Shepard. I went to 8 different elementary schools, 4 different middle schools, and luckily only one high school. Being a military child has shaped me into the person I am today. I crave movement: adventure, change, new things. I think this has helped me become flexible and deepened my connection with the earth. As I moved around, I began to value people and experience over objects and places and things. Thus, I fell in love with the human spirit and exploration and imagination. Art that grabs me is art that connects with the human spirit: that encourages belonging, connection, community, gratitude, joy, adventure. I enjoy art that drives, motivates, and spiritually strengthens people.

I graduated high school and college at the same time through Washington State's "Running Start" Program. I was able to graduate from Steilacoom High School with my diploma and walk the stage at Pierce College Fort Steilacoom with my Associate of Arts within the same month. Afterwards, I took two gap years in Wiesbaden, Germany teaching Kindergarten. From there I went back to school at the University of Texas at Austin where I graduated with a Bachelor of Arts Honors in Playwriting and Directing in the Spring of 2023. The next steps for me include a lot of freelance writing, adopting a tortoise and applying for Masters Programs for Playwriting or Screenwriting.

I have never necessarily done things "in order." My gap years are just one example of my prompt-breaking habits. (I mean this in the way of societal conventions and meaningless expectations of order). This is how I view my art. My collaborations should break societal conventions, ask difficult questions and inspire and nurture the human imagination and desire for exploration. My goal is to pry at the noggins of our own expectations for one another and plant seeds of color that fester and take over. :)

"To see the world\
Things dangerous to come to
To see behind walls
Draw closer
To find each other
And to feel

That is the Purpose of Life"
-The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

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Seeking to Understand, otherwise known as "Curiosity" hatches in many different ways within my process and my work. It holds a great significance to me.

Within my process, especially within collaboration, seeking to understand goes usually hand in hand with other people's thoughts, feelings and ideas. I am constantly wondering about perspective. What is true to me may not be true to others, or it may be true to them but in a different way. That is all still truth, regardless of rightness or wrongness. I am fascinated by this - remembering that truth exists outside of myself. I could be the villain in someone else's story - or the hero, but that is not for me to say. But it is, too. I am just as much in charge of my opinions about myself as other people are - it's all truth. I long to understand what others' truths look like, feel like, sound like. I want my stories to maintain an openness to difference, different truths, different perspectives.

In terms of general curiosity, I think I am drawn to things that do not altogether make sense. Anything confusing, anything that requires picking apart. Puzzles, the puzzle of imagination, the puzzle of adventure: what makes people go? What keeps people from going? Remaining curious is pivotal to my work.

I think remaining vigilant in the face of my own assumptions is a huge factor in creating the kind of art I want to see. Listening and taking in the perspectives of others in a way that inspires imagination and adventure is something I am incredibly drawn to.

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Example to Support Seeking to Understand

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Example to Support Seeking to Understand

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In my class: devised work, but obsession was belonging. All semester I had to present on belonging and how to make it an interactive devised piece. I spent a lot of time sharing with my class things that help me feel like I belong. Things like poetry and connecting with your inner child. However, because of this prescriptive nature of my shares, I neglected those of my classmates who do not connect with poetry, or their inner child. My work could not be completed because I was trying to help everyone find a path to belonging, but I was neglecting a large section of my class. I noticed this, and began to change things and inspire people to find keys to belonging within themselves. Things like video games and working out (things that I do not connect with, but are still truths).

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A monumental part of my art as well as my personhood is serenity and enjoyment. I strive to find peace in everything I do. To reflect. To find meaning.

I think a massive part of this is defamiliarizing and practicing gratitude. Oftentimes, I feel like everyone around me is walking on railroad tracks that take them to their next destination - every single day reliving the same thing over and over again.  Suddenly everything feels like such a task. Why? Why does everything have to be a task? Can we not enjoy? Practicing gratitude and defamiliarization looks like this: if you walk the same way to work everyday, pay a little closer attention to the cracks in the sidewalk. What can you see growing there? What critters and bugs can you see thriving in the undergrowth? How does it make you feel?

People say "I wish everyday were the weekend." Why? Because you have nowhere to be on the weekend? Everyday can be the weekend if you change your outlook on what you're doing. Everyday is a chance to do good, to see new things to try new things. Every single day is a chance, a gift, a future memory - make it good. And when it isn't good, let it be not good. This isn't toxic positivity, it's a shift in mindset. Gratitude. Defamiliarizing the weight that tasks hold, deciding for yourself how to feel about doing laundry instead of the way everyone else decides to feel about doing laundry.

It is my desire to convey this mindset in my characters that I write. I'd like to show this weird way of life in the stories I write - just to see how people may respond to them. Are they realistic? Do they hold any truth? Have they already been thought about for years beyond me? I reckon yes and no.

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Example to support Serenity and Enjoyment

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Example to support Serenity and Enjoyment

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The cast of "Squid Kid," by Ben Cervantes got mini squids as a symbol of our pride and joy for the show. We really connected, valued each other and the story we were telling. Instead of letting the routine and work of rehearsals weigh down on us and crush us - we were able to be uplifted by one another and our adoration for the quirkiness we were working with.