Hop For Pop
Press Kit
Solo Play · Sketch · Improv
Winnie Stack
At ten she became completely obsessed with Pam from The Office, and wrote about it in her journals for years without the language for what she was actually feeling. Half of her solo play, she says, she wrote twenty years ago.
Works in
Solo theatre · Sketch · Improv
Known for
at jenna
Format
Autobiographical solo play built from her childhood journals
Performing since
Age five
Interview
27 min · Hop For Pop · 2026
“What is the most honest I can be? If that comes off as embarrassing and uncomfortable, that’s because it is the most honest it can be.”
Winnie Stack — Hop For Pop
Ready-to-use copy
Biography
236 words — lift as-is, no rewriting required
Winnie Stack has been performing since she was five, when a director let her cross her eyes on stage as a mouse in Country Mouse, City Mouse and the laugh made her decide she was into this. She grew up doing school plays and comic roles, and later sketch and improv — including a parody of Desperate Housewives called Desperate Princesses, written by the theatre teacher who now appears as a character in her own show.
At nine she started journaling, religiously, and in detail, half-aware she would read it all back one day. At ten or eleven she saw Jenna Fischer as Pam in The Office and became completely obsessed — while everyone else her age was into Zac Efron. The journals track her going from an inkling of a feeling she had no words for to understanding herself a little better as she got older. She also confided in a tree in her backyard, the only living thing that knew how she really felt.
Reading excerpts on the live podcast Mortified Live around 2021 made her realise the journals could sit inside a larger story. The result is at jenna, her first play: a theatrical solo show with the tree as a character, an actor delivering lines off stage, and dancing. She has performed it for several years and took it to the Edinburgh Fringe in 2026.
The part other press kits leave out
What you should know before you book her
Winnie Stack is a performer who wrote one play, about herself, largely using words she wrote as a child. What makes it work is that she refuses to tidy it up.
A solo play, not stand-up
She is explicit about it: theatrical, structured, with a second actor off stage speaking into a microphone and a tree that is a character. Programme it as theatre.
Half of it is primary source
The show embeds her real childhood journal entries, drawings and all. The cringe is authentic, which is exactly why it lands.
A coming-of-age story with a wide reach
It is a very specific story about a very specific crush, and she is clear it touches something universal about growing up and understanding yourself.
Honesty over polish
Her working rule: aim for the most honest version, and if that comes out embarrassing, trust it. The first time she performed it she felt she had revealed far too much.
Still gets stage fright
Before every show, particularly this one, since she is the only person on stage telling something so personal. She is fine once she is in it.
The dancing is the release
Her favourite part of the show. It gets her out of her own head and reminds her, and the room, that it is supposed to be fun.
For press · cleared for use with attribution
Quotable
01
“I remember being like: I’m into this.”02
“It was fun to know that I was making my parents laugh in the audience. That always felt special.”03
“I still get such stage fright before every show.”04
“Being the only one on stage telling a story that’s so personal to me is definitely still terrifying.”05
“I think I knew when I was writing them that I would look back on them one day. I didn’t know that I would write a show about them.”06
“Half of the show I wrote twenty years ago, because they’re all from my childhood.”07
“It’s been fun, and completely cringy and embarrassing and insane.”08
“I was obsessed with a 30-year-old woman on TV, whereas everyone else was into Zac Efron.”09
“I was too young to have the language to describe what was happening for me.”10
“The journals very much track me understanding myself a little better as I get older.”11
“A tree that lived in my backyard, that I told everything to. The only living entity that knew my true, honest feelings.”12
“My initial feeling was: oh my God, I’ve revealed too much.”13
“Then I realised the point of the whole show is embracing that.”14
“Because it is so vulnerable, it does feel empowering and cool — and also still cringy and embarrassing.”15
“What is the most honest I can be?”16
“I hope it helps them feel more seen.”17
“The dancing helps me get out of my body, and remind myself that it’s just fun and it’s supposed to be fun.”
Attribution: Winnie Stack, speaking to Hop For Pop, 2026.
Career
Selected credits
Solo work
- at jenna — writer and performer; autobiographical solo play; Edinburgh Fringe 2026
- Performed for several years before the Fringe
Background
- Reader on Mortified Live, the live journal-reading podcast
- Sketch comedy, improv and theatre since childhood
- Desperate Princesses — childhood stage parody of Desperate Housewives
This kit was produced by Hop For Pop. The interview and quotes are drawn from Hop For Pop × Winnie Stack, recorded 2026. Winnie Stack and their representatives are free to use any part of this document — the biography, the quotes — for booking, press and promotion, with credit to Hop For Pop for the interview material.
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