Rewriting Your Play
$225 members, $250 non-membersAt The Playwrights' Center 2301 E. Franklin Ave Minneapolis, MN 55406
February 18, 2009 through March 25, 2009
Wednesdays, 6-8:30pm (6 weeks)
Instructor: Victoria StewartWe’ll be looking at larger structures and arcs. You don’t have to start with a finished play but should have several scenes written. We’ll workshop large sections of plays in class but also there will be writing assignments to push and prod your writing in new directions. A great class if you have a completed play that you feel hasn’t made the jump or if you have a play you’ve always wanted to finish.
Register online now:
Learn from the Masters,
or Steal from the Best
$300 members, $325 non-membersAt The Playwrights' Center 2301 E. Franklin Ave Minneapolis, MN 55406
April 8, 2009 through May 27, 2009
Wednesdays, 6-8:30pm (8 weeks)
Instructor: Deborah SteinThis course is intended for writers who want an active, hands-on, multifaceted approach to writing for the stage. The course is driven by the belief that good writing is founded on a combination of practice, imagination, and experimentation. The first four weeks of the workshop will be devoted to reading play excerpts and writing short exercises based on the reading. Rather than lecturing, I will start each class by reading aloud together and discussing techniques to use/borrow/steal, followed by in-class exercises based on the reading. For the final four weeks, we will work on developing longer pieces based on one or more of the formal experimentations. Students who complete all the assignments will have a finished draft of a one-act or full-length play, as well as a number of short provocations for further writing. Primarily a workshop, much of our early work will be founded in a conversation between reading and writing plays. Together we will read samples of a wide range of dramatic writing, not for its literary value per se but in order to unlock other writers’ secrets to making two-dimensional text vibrant in three dimensions. We will focus on developing a rich vocabulary of theatrical forms and traditions, of both novel and classic approaches to fundamental building blocks of theatre, including plot, character, dialogue, and spectacle. I approach playwriting from a perspective of writing for a “total theatre.” In other words: I use acting exercises to discover character, directing exercises to teach spectacle, and poetry to explore language. As the course progresses, I hone in how to translate these theatrical elements to the written page: structure, character, language, and spectacle.
Register online now:
