Through scene work, simple exercises, and writing prompts, playwrights will learn how writers and actors can better serve each other, how actors approach a script, and what actors need from playwrights. This workshop is designed for playwrights only, with no acting experience, and will provide a safe and fun environment where playwrights can explore the art and craft of acting by experiencing the process first hand. No experience necessary!

Your play will only be as enticing, ruthless, provocative, arresting and startling as the characters who inhabit it and create each moment on stage. Through analysis and writing assignments, this one-of-a-kind class will focus on developing the characters in the plays that participants are currently writing. Characters from established plays will be used for example and comparison. This is a class for playwrights with works-in-progress of any length.

This is a workshop for writers who want to develop a script on which they have already begun work. This may include anything from a short scene to an entire draft of a play. The class will explore the skills and qualities of effective dramatic writing by reading and discussing participants' scripts in a supportive and challenging environment, with the goal being to ready their plays for production. (NOTE: Participants are asked to e-mail a PDF or DOC copy of their work-in-progress, when they register.)

Taught by DOUGLAS POST

Spring 2012
Thursdays for seven (7) weeks [Sign up now!]
6:30 pm - 9:30 pm
Starting on 4/5/2012
Price: $280

Through lecture, discussion, group exercises, and assignments, participants will learn to apply two new and original techniques for uncovering the deeper meaning of their story and charting its truest course. One technique will help writers identify what their main character truly wants and how that affects the structure of their story. The other technique will help writers discover the underlying meaning of their story and express it with utmost clarity through the plot. Participants will also learn to combine the techniques to generate new stories from scratch. This class is designed for all levels of playwrights, beginning and experienced. Participants should come to the first session prepared to share and work on an active personal project (any stage of development, length, style, or genre).

How do you get a theatre to produce your playundefinedor even consider it? Between the writing and the production is the critical step, which many playwrights procrastinate over or can't figure out: the marketing. This class is intended to help playwrights get produced.

Winter 2012
One session [Sign up now!]
Sunday, 1:00 pm - 5:00 pm
On 2/26/2012
Price: $100

This unique, weekend intensive offers step-by-step writing exercises, group feedback, and actor support to trigger and guide the development of a new short play. Arrive on Saturday morning with absolutely nothing prepared and take a creative leap. By Sunday afternoon, writers will have not only written a new play but heard it performed by professional actors! Perfect for out-of-town playwrights, this workshop is designed for writers with some playwriting experience or confident beginners. It also offers a boost for those who feel blocked, rusty, or just want a writing change of pace.

Spring 2012
(Not offered)

Designed to support book writers, lyricists, and composers, this course offers guidance and feedback for collaborators who have a good understanding of craft principles. Writing teams are encouraged to take this course together to receive maximum benefit for their projects.

PREREQUISITES:
MUSICAL THEATRE WRITING - STORY INTO SONG (I) and MUSICAL THEATRE WRITING - STORY INTO SONG (II).

This class will be held at Cheryl Coons' studio in Old Town.

This lyric writing lab offers participants a solid grounding in the craft of lyric writing for musical theatre and cabaret. Using principles and examples from masterworks, participants will gain tools for analyzing lyrics, developing ideas effectively through a song and score, and structuring theatre songs lyrically and musically for maximum impact. Participants will present their own lyrics for group discussion and constructive feedback in a supportive atmosphere.

This class will be held at Davenport's Cabaret at 1383 North Milwaukee Avenue.

Successful musicals depend on more than solid dialogue and inspired songwriting- in the most effective shows, the moments carried in song actually focus the dramatic action. In this interactive class, participants will learn about dramatic structure in musicals, a method of mapping the action and the score to help the writer(s) keep a "big picture" focus, keys for deciding which moments of the story are carried in song, and the elements of successful musical theatre book, lyrics, and music. Participants share their own work in class, in addition to studying examples from musical masterworks, current and past. Flexible weekly assignments allow participants to use the class presentation time in the way that is most valuable for them, by sharing work from existing projects, completing suggested exercises, or presenting revisions of previous work for response.

In this interactive class, participants will receive advanced tools for plotting and scoring musicals, including developing love stories as subplot or main story action, manipulating time perception through music, and deepening meaning through principles of mythic structure. Participants share their own work in class, in addition to studying examples from musical masterworks.  Flexible weekly assignments allow participants to use the class presentation time in the way that is most valuable for them, by sharing work from existing projects, completing suggested exercises, or presenting revisions of previous work for response.

PREREQUISITE:
MUSICAL THEATRE WRITING - STORY INTO SONG (I)

This is a workshop for writers who want to develop a script on which they have already begun work. These may be either partial or full drafts of a play. The class will explore the qualities of effective dramatic writing through reading and discussing participants’ scripts in a supportive and challenging environment, with the goal being to advance their work toward production readiness. The final week of the session will consist of 30-minute, one-on-one meetings between individual students and the instructor.

(NOTE: Participants are asked to e-mail a PDF or DOC copy of their work-in-progress, when they register.)

Spring 2012
Saturdays for seven (7) weeks [Sign up now!]
10:00 am - 1:00 pm
Starting on 3/31/2012
Price: $325

This class is designed for beginning playwrights and also for more experienced writers looking to hone their basic skills. Through a variety of in-class writing exercises, at-home writing assignments, class discussions, and in-class readings of participants' work, writers will learn the essentials of good playwriting, including character motivation, plot structure, dialogue, dramatic conflict, as well as proper formatting and the submission process. Writers will have the opportunity to share their work in a supportive and challenging environment.

This popular workshop is designed as an ongoing salon for experienced playwrights who are currently working on a play or about to begin one. Each week offers a guided writing exercise to explore character and story ideas, and the opportunity to hear scene work from home read by professional actors and discussed by the group in a supportive setting. As a result, writers don't have to wait until they complete a whole draft of a play to hear their characters off the page and to get input from other writers.

Selected scenes from the Fall 2011 and Winter 2012 quarters will be presented in a Scene Shop Showcase on June 11, 2012.

Spring 2012
Saturdays for seven (7) sessions [Sign up now!]
10:00 am - 1:00 pm
Starting on 4/7/2012
(Class will not meet on 5/5, 5/26, and 6/2)
Price: $325

Wednesdays for seven (7) sessions [Sign up now!]
6:30 pm - 9:30 pm
Starting on 4/11/2012
(Class will not meet on 5/2 and 5/30)
Price: $325

Thursdays for seven (7) sessions [Sign up now!]
1:30 pm - 4:30 pm
Starting on 4/12/2012
(Class will not meet on 5/3 and 5/31)
Price: $325

This class offers a workable map for anyone aspiring to penetrate the thickets of Hollywood with their screenplay or with as little as a story idea. Through lecture and discussion, writers will learn the basics of screenwriting, with a particular emphasis on character and finding that great hook that will cause a producer to shout, "That's a movie!" There will be ample time allotted to in-class writing assignments such as clarifying story ideas, developing plot outlines, and script critique.

This class is designed for actors, playwrights, solo artists, and storytellers of all levels, from those who are thinking about writing a one-person play to those who are in the final stages of polishing their own solo show. This hands-on workshop will focus on: 1. The ten styles of solo pieces. 2. Finding your voice and the Voice of the story. 3. Designing the solo story plot structure. 4. Techniques to manipulate the storyteller/audience relationship. 5. Character development and writing multiple character scenes. 6. Creative and nontraditional use of timelines, plotlines and stories.

Participants may bring to the first session: 5-7 minutes of their solo show, or a story they think may become part of a solo show, or even just an idea for a solo show.

This class will take an in depth look into the dramatic elements of four plays: “The Glass Menagerie” by Tennessee Williams, “The Heidi Chronicles” by Wendy Wasserstein, “Yellowman” by Dael Orlandersmith, and “Freed” by Charles Smith. By examining the building blocks of these plays, participants will create an outline and bring pages to class of brand new full-length plays. Participants will break down the building blocks of award-winning plays to create their own new works.

Participants are asked to obtain the plays on their own, prior to class.

Enhance your dialogue through a two-day workshop of exercises, discussion and practical application. The ability to write vibrant, cohesive, character-based dialogue is one of the key elements that separates good playwrights from mediocre ones. Intended for both beginning and more experienced playwrights, this workshop is designed to strengthen writers’ skills in scene work, dialogue and “voice.” Participants will receive feedback on their work in a supportive environment, and learn to solve common playwriting problems such as: avoiding clunky exposition-clogged beginnings, creating viable subtext, dramatizing exposition through conflict, and differentiating among character voices. This workshop also offers writers the opportunity to hear their work read by professional actors.

Spring 2012
(Not offered)

Created by Chicago Dramatists' Resident Playwrights to serve members of The Playwrights Network, this annual, team-taught weekend workshop is offered only to Network Playwrights - first come, first served. The Master Class will provide writers with time, space, and resources to create new work and explore new methods. Playwrights will hear segments of their work read by professional actors, followed by supportive group discussion. The Master Class is an opportunity for Network Playwrights from Chicago and around the nation to come together for a summer weekend and share their diverse experiences, visions and skills.

What’s a Pigeon Sister? A Mini-Play? A Torvald Moment? A DQ? The Triangle Principle? Designed for intermediate and/or advanced writers, these and others are some concepts and useful tools to use in making your play more effectively constructed and more interesting. Some lecture, some exercises, some games. Prior to the workshop, writers will receive a workbook that will define these concepts and tools, and provide some exercises to be used in the workshop. It will also include a short two-character play that will contain examples to be discussed during the session.

Spring 2012
(Not offered)

This workshop will provide playwrights with tools to awaken the lyricism and theatricality in their writing, as well as heighten the six senses in their audiences. Writers will learn basic NLP (neuro-linguistic psychology), and how to use key words to elicit emotional responses and awaken sense memory from an audience. Writers will put these skills to use in a brief writing exercise.

Spring 2012
One session [Sign up now!]
Sunday, 1:00 pm - 5:00 pm
On 4/29/2012
Price: $100

This workshop is for playwrights who want to explore new areas of inspiration and imagery. It will examine a variety of cultural and literary archetypes from various traditions: Fairy Tales, Greek Myth, Tarot, Native American stories, etc. Participants will complete writing exercises using this range of narrative, creative imagery, and cultural memory. Writers will then shape their raw material into a loose play idea/form, identifying the dramatic elements of character, plot and catharsis. Final sessions will include readings of student work by professional actors. This workshop is open to both beginning and experienced writers.