April 2026
Join us on Saturday, April 18th, 2026, from 10:00 am to 12:00 pm. As usual, we will meet at the Devonshire Senior Center, 2802 E. Devonshire Avenue, Phoenix, Arizona 85016, to connect and catch up on club activities.
For April, we will be hearing from member Peggy Orloff who will share her insight into writing dialogue:
LET THEM TALK! Writing Compelling Character Dialogue
Introducing the characters in our stories usually leans toward physical descriptions, current and lifelong desires, and reactions to situations. Their unique voices will reveal so much more. Don’t put words in their mouths! Let them talk!
Penny Orloff is a professional arts journalist, content editor, newsletter editor, book doctor, playwright, and opera librettist. She has taught academic writing at the college level and edited more than two dozen successful psychology dissertations. The author of Art as Lifework, Life as Artwork—a creativity seminar and workbook offered nationwide since 1991—she is a regular contributor of stories to the Chicken Soup for the Soul series of books, and continues to procrastinate on her upcoming book, Who Would You Be If You Had Nothing to Bitch About? Penny was a working actor and dancer in Los Angeles when a Juilliard scholarship took her to New York, where she sang more than 20 Principal Soprano roles for New York City Opera and played featured roles on Broadway. In a career spanning over 50 years, she starred in 100+ productions off-Broadway, regionally, and internationally. Symphony, theater, and opera engagements took her all over the US, Europe, and the former Soviet Union. Penny’s one-woman show, Jewish Thighs on Broadway—based on her best-selling, award-winning comic novel—toured the US for a decade, including a successful run off-Broadway. She is currently touring in a new one-woman show, Songs and Stories from a Not-Quite-Kosher Life.
