CLASSES

Four Spring and Summer classes including brand new workshops with favorite artists Kate Douglas and Benjamin Benne

FIVE WEEKS TO A FIRST DRAFT

With Sarah Mantell
Beginning Tuesday June 2nd

The sold-out class returns! Join me for a whirlwind playwriting workshop. Working through a series of prompts, timed exercises, and madcap ideas, we'll come out with a rock-and-roll first draft by spring. This class is designed to help you step into the strangest, funniest, scariest, wildest parts of your brain and find the play that only you can write.

Sliding Scale Available.

Sarah Mantell is the recipient of the 2023 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize for In the Amazon Warehouse Parking Lot (Playwrights Horizons). Their other plays include Everything That Never Happened (Baltimore Center Stage, The Folger, Boston Court Pasadena), The Good Guys (Second Stage, Oregon Shakespeare Festival), Tiny (Seven Devils, Seattle Rep), and Fight Call (Artists Repertory Theatre, Breaking the Binary) They have been first-runner up for the Leah Ryan Award, finalist for the Lambda Literary Award, nominated for the Pulitzer, and longlisted for the Bruntwood Prize. Sarah is also a two-time MacDowell fellow and Yaddo resident.

THE ART OF REVISION

With Sarah Mantell
Beginning Monday August 3rd

Do you have a messy first draft? Or part of a first draft? Do you want a supportive, energizing space to rewrite it? In this workshop you will hone your first impulses without losing what makes them beautiful and weird and wild. We will rewrite through the lens of character, structure, dialogue, design, and impulse. Writers with any level of experience are welcome as long as you're ready for a fast-paced adventure. 

Sliding Scale Available.

Sarah Mantell is the recipient of the 2023 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize for In the Amazon Warehouse Parking Lot (Playwrights Horizons). Their other plays include Everything That Never Happened (Baltimore Center Stage, The Folger, Boston Court Pasadena), The Good Guys (Second Stage, Oregon Shakespeare Festival), Tiny (Seven Devils, Seattle Rep), and Fight Call (Artists Repertory Theatre, Breaking the Binary) They have been first-runner up for the Leah Ryan Award, finalist for the Lambda Literary Award, nominated for the Pulitzer, and longlisted for the Bruntwood Prize. Sarah is also a two-time MacDowell fellow and Yaddo resident.

WRITING YOUR OWN ROLES

With Kate Douglas
Beginning Monday June 8th

This workshop is designed for performers who want to write new roles for themselves in theatre.

We will experiment with a range of exercises to carve new generative pathways. We’ll also incorporate writing from the body through physical exercises/explorations.You will leave this workshop with a range of tools to continue to generate new and challenging work.

Come write the work that excites you! If you're writing fiction or autobiography, this class is for you. If you're creating solo material or work for multiple actors, this class is for you. If you're writing a play, a musical, or a solo show, this class is for you. 

Sliding Scale Available.

Kate Douglas is a writer, performer, and composer based in New York City. Her play The Apiary was the New York Times Critic’s Pick and Outer Critics Circle Award nominee. Other work include If I Forget Thee O Earth (Next Forever Commission: Princeton/The Civilians), My Dog is Dead (Ancram Center for the Arts), Tulipa (NY Stage & Film), and The Ninth Hour starring opposite her co-star Shayfer James (The Met Cloisters). Most recently, she received the Jonathan Larson Award for music and lyrics. Kate is an alum of the BMI Musical Theater Writing Workshop and the Dramatists Guild Fellows Program.

WRITING THE TWO-HANDER

With Benjamin Benne
Beginning Wednesday August 5th

How do we craft a relationship between two characters with enough depth, dynamic, and drama to sustain a full-length? I was initially drawn to writing the two-hander because it felt like a real challenge but now that piece is my most produced play and I keep coming back to the challenge and fun of this form. In this class, we’ll use new tools, exercises, and readings to explore the many ways to craft this elusive form.

Sliding Scale Available.

Benjamin Benne (beh-nay, he/him) was named part of "LA Vanguardia: The Latino innovators, instigators, and power players breaking through barriers" by the Los Angeles Times. His produced plays include Alma (Center Theatre Group's Kirk Douglas Theatre, American Blues Theater, ArtsWest Playhouse, Curious Theatre Company, Central Square Theater, The Spot, Chance Theater, Passage Theatre Company), In His Hands (Mosaic Theater Company, First Floor Theater), Manning (Portland Stage), Wave After Wave (Actors Theatre of Louisville), and What / Washed Ashore / Astray (Pillsbury House Theatre)