Intro to Playwriting: Multi-Week (with Kira Rockwell) - ONLINE
Do you have a great idea for the theatrical stage? Curious to try your hand at playwriting? Maybe you need refresher in the company of a supportive community. Over the course of five weeks, you will have the opportunity to immerse yourself in the art of playwriting. With craft-based lessons, writing exercises, generative writing, group discussions, and breakout rooms to get to know your fellow cohort better. There will be weekly out-of-class reading assignments of plays by a collection of diverse (both in identity and style) contemporary playwrights such as Charly Evon Simpson, Kristoffer Díaz, and Qui Nguyen. In this class, you are sure to develop a stronger hand at world building, character development, plot, dialogue, and all the magic that is theatre. By week three, you will have the opportunity to hear your work read aloud by your peers, receive both on-the-spot feedback as well as extensive feedback from your instructor. You should also expect to have a one-on-one meeting with the instructor to talk about your work as well as answer any questions on an individual level. By the end of the course, you will come away with a collection of monologues, scenes with stage directions, and a final draft of a ten-minute play. In parting, you will receive a list of curated resources for dramatists to keep you moving forward, as well as a non-exhaustive list of submission and development opportunities for your work. Limited to 8 writers.
WHEN: 6 Weeks: Wednesdays, Nov. 8 - Dec. 20 (6 - 8pm EST)*
WHERE: Online, via Zoom video conference
*No class on 11/22
ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR
KIRA ROCKWELL is a neurodiverse playwright and educator. She is an Artist Fellow in Dramatic Writing with the Mass Cultural Council, a Recipient of Judith Royer Excellence in Playwriting Award, an Elliot Norton Nominee, and more. Selected plays include OH TO BE PURE AGAIN (Actor's Express); THE TRAGIC ECSTASY OF GIRLHOOD (Boston Playwrights’ Theatre); and WITH MY EYES SHUT (Original Works Publishing). Her work has been developed with The Kennedy Center, National New Play Network, Great Plains Theatre Commons, among others. Commissions with Ensemble Studio Theatre and Moonbox Productions. BFA in Theatre Performance from Baylor University. MFA in Playwriting from Boston University. As an educator, Rockwell has taught at Brandeis University, Wheaton College, and centers across New England. Before graduate school, Rockwell worked at the intersection of mental health and arts education. Through a trauma-informed, healing-centered lens, she aims to nurture communal spaces that disrupt passivity and empower agency. www.kirarockwell.com
WORKSHOP GOALS
- Learn the fundamentals of playwriting.
- Understand what makes a play a play vs a tv show, movie, or novel.
- Experiment with the magic of theatricality in exciting ways.
- Toggle the balance between realism and naturalism and every style in between.
- Develop a stronger hand with character, setting, plot, and arcs.
- Participate in a supportive community.
- Practice how to give and receive feedback from your peers.
- Learn how to read with an eye for analysis of craft and content.
- Gain a clear, realistic, understanding of how to get your work out into the world of theatre.
WEEKLY WORKSHOP OUTLINE
WEEK ONE: Fundamentals of Playwriting: Review the necessary elements of the page for the stage. You will learn script format and craft vocabulary such as monologue, dialogue, stage directions, structure, arcs, etc.
WEEK TWO: Character and Dialogue: We'll talk about how to create dimensional characters. Ensembles. And even characters outside of traditional realism.
WEEK THREE: Structure/Plot: Structure is simply how a story is organized. Plot is what happens. This week will focus on those two distinctions. It will equip with techniques for both plot driven, and character driven writers, and even push you to write in the middle of that binary.
WEEK FOUR: Arcs, Beats, and Action: Most contemporary plays these days are limited to 10 minutes, 90 minutes, and 120 minute structures. You will learn which arcs and structures are best for the stories you want to tell, and how to pace each effectively.
WEEK FIVE: Theatricality: Lean intro writing for the stage, actors, designers, and what it means to write for a living, breathing audience.
Between Week 5 and Week 6: Individual one-on-one meetings with the instructor.
WEEK SIX: Revision Techniques: Best revision practices. Collaborating with actors, directors, designers, and theaters. Submission process. The road to production.
RECEIVING THE ZOOM LINK: For one-day workshops, we send out the link to attend the Zoom session 1 - 2 days before the event, via email. For multi-week workshops, you should receive info and the link about a week before the first meeting. Please mark your calendars and look for our emails. If you don't see the email in your inbox on the day before the event (or a few days before, in the case of multi-week workshops), please check your spam and junk mail folders (and search all folders) for an email from joy@pioneervalleywriters.org. We have found that very often our emails end up in those folders. This is based on your own email settings, and you can prevent this by adding our email as a contact.
ONLINE SESSIONS happen remotely, via Zoom video conference. All you need is a laptop, computer, or phone with functioning audio and a webcam. Those who RSVP receive directions and a link to "join" the session via email (please see above note about receiving the Zoom link). All online instructors will log on to the video conference 10 minutes before the start of the session, to help anyone with technical issues, so please plan to log on early if you'd like assistance! We'll do everything in our power to help you get comfortable with this new format, though when the session begins, we will not be able to assist with technical difficulties.
REFUND & CREDIT POLICIES AT PVWW
If you withdraw from a workshop ten days or more before the start of the class: You'll receive full credit toward another workshop OR a full refund (minus automatically-deducted 4% service charge we must pay Square). If you withdraw from a workshop nine days before the start of the class up until 48 hours before: You'll receive a refund minus 20%. If you withdraw from a workshop less than 48 hours before the start of a class or after the class has begun: We are not able to offer you credit toward another class or a refund. In the case of medical emergency, please contact us directly and this will be handled on a case-by-case basis. If you are absent on the day of your workshop or miss it for any reason, we are unable to offer any kind of refund or credit. However, if we have to cancel a class you have paid for, you will receive a full refund, without the service charge deducted, or if you choose, credit in the amount of your payment to be used for any future PVWW class. Anyone who does not specify whether they would like a refund or a credit for a cancelled class will automatically receive credit, which will automatically receive credit. Please contact Joy (joy@pioneervalleywriters.org) for all matters concerning credit and refunds.