Monthly Archives :

November 2017

Text & Subtext: Building Layers of Conflict and Meaning Within Your Scenes

 1024 704 Play Penn

Popular theater artist and legendary Fringe writer/director Bruce Walsh returns to Philadelphia for one weekend only!

Class Description

This workshop grapples with the relationship between surface conversations and the deeper needs of characters — how interesting characters use the topic at hand to cajole, tempt, distract, insult, manipulate, gaslight, obfuscate, and otherwise create complexity and layered conflicts.

Perfect for writers of all experience levels!

Free Reading of YOUR New Play

If you register for a PlayPenn class by January 14, 2018, then you can apply for the opportunity to have your unproduced full-length plays given a public, professional staged reading. PlayPenn will produce one student’s play as a reading with a professional director, professional actors and a PlayPenn Dramaturg in Philadelphia, PA in the spring/summer of 2018. The play many not have had a professional production. PlayPenn will cover the costs of the reading, but the student is responsible for their own housing and transportation. If you register for a class by the deadline then additional details will be emailed to you after January 14, along with a submission form.

Dates & Times

June 9, 2018

Noon to 4 p.m.

Where

Philadelphia Young Playwrights Learning Lab, 1219 Vine Street, Floor 2, Philadelphia, PA 19107

Bio

Bruce Walsh recently earned a MFA in Playwriting from Indiana University and is now a traveling writer and teaching artist. His full-length play, Berserker, was recently presented at the Kennedy Center. He’s best known in Philadelphia for his hit collaborations with FringeArts. His fascination with sacredness infuses all of his writing. But not in the ways people sometimes expect. He has no interest in prescribing moral codes. His characters are bold, queer, angry, ridiculous, joyous, deeply sexual beings. Bruce writes most often about people he encountered in many day jobs, working for companies like UPS, Trader Joe’s, a porn video warehouse (seriously), and a slew of downsizing newspapers. He is endlessly enthralled by those that seek the “courage to be” – a sacred meaning or purpose – even amidst a culture and economy with very little capacity to foster those needs. Recent honors include: The Gary Garrison National Ten Minute Play Award, Seven Devils Playwrights’ Conference (finalist), Heideman Award (finalist), and the Clubbed Thumb Biennial Commission (semi-finalist).

$100

Tuition

Register Here

Click the link below to visit our Reservation Page, where you can view all classes, select, and register for this class using our new checkout feature. For questions or to inquire about payment plans, please email classes@playpenn.org.

 

*Students must register for a class by January 14, 2018 in order to be eligible to submit for the free spring Education reading.

Registration for this class is closed. Click here for other events!

“When you leave a PlayPenn class, your brain is so full of ideas and new tools, and your heart is full from this new network of collaborators you have just met. Old ideas are revived by the teachers, the tools, and the people in the room. I always leave the class ready to work.”

-Jamie, 2017 Student

“PlayPenn classes inspire me to write more, and help build my confidence in my writing ability.”

-Mark, 2017 Student

New Play Dramaturgy

 1024 681 Play Penn

with Michele Volansky

PlayPenn Conference Lead Dramaturg Michele Volansky offers a class with a focus on the unique needs of new play dramaturgy.

Class Description

Join PlayPenn Conference Lead Dramaturg Michele Volansky for a class with a focus on the unique needs of new play dramaturgy. What kinds of questions to ask, how to think about structure and ways your point of view might impact the script’s development will all be covered, along with an opportunity to work on excerpts of a few new plays, and receive feedback on your approach.

Perfect for dramaturgs, directors and actors, as well as other theater artists who want to learn to use dramaturgical tools in their exploration and creation of new work.

Public Reading of YOUR New Play!

If you register for a PlayPenn class by January 14, 2018, then you can apply for the opportunity to have your unproduced full-length plays given a public, professional staged reading. PlayPenn will produce one student’s play as a reading with a professional director, professional actors and a PlayPenn Dramaturg in Philadelphia, PA in the spring/summer of 2018. The play many not have had a professional production. PlayPenn will cover the costs of the reading, but the student is responsible for their own housing and transportation. If you register for a class by the deadline then additional details will be emailed to you after January 14, along with a submission form.

Dates & Times

June 3, 2018  2pm-6pm (EST)

and

June 4, 2018 6-10pm (EST)

Where

Online. We will use Zoom.us. It is a very simple system. You will receive a link prior to class. You click the link and are taken to a site that has multiple boxes (like The Brady Bunch opening credits) where you can see and chat with everyone in the class. You must have a working internet connection and a computer that has both speakers (so you can hear the teaching artist) and a microphone (so they can hear you; be advised, some computer systems require you purchase a headset to use the microphone). If you would like to investigate the system before registering for the class, check out: www.zoom.us. PlayPenn covers the cost of using the system but you are expected to participate independently. We will not be recording these sessions.

Bio

Michele Volansky is Chair and Associate Professor of Drama at Washington College (MD), from which she earned a B.A. in English. She has worked on nearly 200 new and established plays in her professional career, developing new works by such writers as Sam Shepard, Daniel Stern, Warren Leight, Jeffrey Hatcher, Bruce Graham, Tina Landau, Charles L. Mee and Bruce Norris, along with many others. Her work on Shepard’s rewrite of Buried Child (directed by Gary Sinise) and Dale Wasserman’s One Flew OverThe Cuckoo’s Nest (directed by Terry Kinney and starring Gary Sinise) earned her two Broadway credits and participation in the Tony Award for Best Revival of Cuckoo’s Nest. She has guest dramaturged at the Arden Theater Company, South Coast Rep, the Atlantic Theatre Company, Victory Gardens and Next Theatre, in addition to her staff time at Actors Theatre of Louisville (1992-95), Steppenwolf Theatre Company (1995-2000) and Philadelphia Theatre Company (2000-2004). Her own play Whispering City was produced as part of the Steppenwolf Arts Exchange Program in the Fall of 1999. Since its inception, Dr. Volansky has served as Conference Dramaturg and Associate Artist for the Philadelphia-based new play development conference PlayPenn. She has served as an artistic consultant for the TCG playwright residency program, a reader for the Eugene O’Neill Center’s National Playwrights Conference and the New York Shakespeare Festival/The Joseph Papp Public Theatre’s Emerging Voices Program, as well as a grants review panelist for Philadelphia-area arts organizations. She is the 1999 inaugural co-recipient of the Elliot Hayes Award for Dramaturgy and was the President of LMDA, the Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas (2002-2004). Volansky’s book on playwriting and collaboration with Bruce Graham entitled The Collaborative Playwright was published in March, 2007 by Heinemann Press. She holds an M.A. from Villanova University and a PhD from the University of Hull (England); her dissertation explores the politics and advocacy of the critics Kenneth Tynan and Frank Rich.

$200

Tuition

Register Here

Click the link below to visit our Reservation Page, where you can view all classes, select, and register for this class using our new checkout feature. For questions or to inquire about payment plans, please email classes@playpenn.org.

 

*Students must register for a class by January 14, 2018 in order to be eligible to submit for the free spring Education reading.

Sign Up

“The PlayPenn faculty members were well-organized, focused and extraordinarily helpful in their critiques. I am looking forward to learning even more in future PlayPenn classes.”

-Jane D.

“I take PlayPenn classes because I’m eager for inspiration and creative challenges, which the classes provide in a positive, nurturing environment.” 

-Mark C.

Turn Your Play Into A Screenplay

 960 748 Play Penn

with Chris Canaan

Join this Emmy Award-winning writer to find out how to take your work from the stage to the screen!

Class Description

Join Emmy Award-winning writer Chris Canaan to learn how to turn your stage play script into a screenplay! Perfect for writers of any experience level with at least one play (of any length) that they wish to adapt into a screenplay.

Public Reading of YOUR New Play!

If you register for a PlayPenn class by January 14, 2018, then you can apply for the opportunity to have your unproduced full-length plays given a public, professional staged reading. PlayPenn will produce one student’s play as a reading with a professional director, professional actors and a PlayPenn Dramaturg in Philadelphia, PA in the spring/summer of 2018. The play many not have had a professional production. PlayPenn will cover the costs of the reading, but the student is responsible for their own housing and transportation. If you register for a class by the deadline then additional details will be emailed to you after January 14, along with a submission form.

Dates & Times

May 5 and May 6, 2018 10am-2pm

Where

Philadelphia Young Playwrights Learning Lab, 1219 Vine Street, Floor 2, Philadelphia, PA 19107

Required Prep

Bring a hard copy of the play that you want to adapt into a screenplay, if you have it.

Bio

Christopher Canaan (playwright/screenwriter/performer) won an Emmy with Michael Mann for the mini-series, “Camerena: Drug Wars.” He has written and produced movies and mini-series for CBS, NBC, ABC, The Family Channel, Fox, USA, Showtime, Hallmark and Starz Encore, including “Cries Unheard,” with Hillary Swank, “Robinson Crusoe,” starring Pierce Brosnan, and Dashiell Hammett’s “The House On Turk Street,” starring Samuel L. Jackson. Additionally he was co-creator of the CBS series, “Walker Texas Ranger.” He developed a contemporary version of “The Prince and he Pauper” for Prince Edward of England, and “Project Millennium” for George Lucas. His screen adaptations include novels by Elmore Leonard, Ann Rice and Robert Ludlum. Canaan holds an MFA in Theater from the University of California, San Diego. He also studied theater history and criticism at NYU and was a student at the Stella Adler Studio. Canaan has performed in regional theater at the Old Globe Theater, the Los Angeles Music Center where he performed with Charlton Heston in “Crucifer of Blood.” He also performed he professional repertory companies at Tulane University in New Orleans, Dartmouth College, and Tufts University. For the last several years, Canaan has taught screenwriting for the Writers Program at UCLA Extension and has lectured at various universities, including the University of California, Berkeley, USC, and California Lutheran University. Canaan is a member of the faculty at the Academy of Cinema in Athens, Greece, where he taught the Michael Chekhov Technique and creative writing.

$300

Tuition

Register Here

Click the link below to visit our Reservation Page, where you can view all classes, select, and register for this class using our new checkout feature. For questions or to inquire about payment plans, please email classes@playpenn.org.

 

*Students must register for a class by January 14, 2018 in order to be eligible to submit for the free spring Education reading.

Sign Up

“Chris Canaan is a phenomenal instructor who possesses unmatched passion for teaching and sharing his love for movies, screenwriting, and life. He taught me to dig deep into myself and into the story I want to tell. His class is educational and his charm and wit make it entertaining as well. My writing has improved considerably since taking his class.”

-Jason Ancona, UCLA

“Everything I know about screenwriting, I know because of Chris Canaan. He broke down the barriers and demystified the myths of screenwriting by applying his “real world” knowledge and years of experience in the business in his teaching. He makes screenplay structure understandable, and taught me how to apply structure to the story I want to tell. He has taught me to probe the depths of character, making me see and create characters that are unique and compelling. My characters now have a beating heart, all because of Chris. Also, Chris has given me the tools to change my destiny. I am now a student at the American Film Institute, getting my Masters in Screenwriting. I attribute my success at the AFI because of what Chris has taught me. His knowledge was a foundation that has made me competitively light years ahead of my classmates. I thank him so much for everything I have achieved.”

-Melissa Nowak, UCLA

“Chris Canaan, while reminding us of the classical elements of drama, insisted that a screenplay, no matter how well-structured, must come from the writer’s heart. By sharing his own experience of writing successful scripts, Chris created a safe environment in which screenplays grew from vague ideas to vivid, credible scripts. I can’t wait to take his class again.”

-Wesley Harris, UCLA

Writing and Revising 10-Minute Plays

 541 700 Play Penn

with Tammy Ryan

Join award-winning playwright and teacher, Tammy Ryan, for a one day Master Class in writing and rewriting the 10 minute play. Perfect for writers of all experience levels!

Class Description

Often 10 minute plays are the way that writers introduce themselves to the world, so we want to help you put your best foot forward.

In the morning Tammy will discuss what makes a great 10 minute play and then through a series of writing prompts get you started writing yours.

During an extended lunch break you can eat and write a new 10 minute play or revise an old one.

In the afternoon, you will share new pages with Tammy and receive feedback.

You will leave class prepared to finish or revise your new 10 minute play.

Public Reading of YOUR New Play!

If you register for a PlayPenn class by January 14, 2018, then you can apply for the opportunity to have your unproduced full-length plays given a public, professional staged reading. PlayPenn will produce one student’s play as a reading with a professional director, professional actors and a PlayPenn Dramaturg in Philadelphia, PA in the spring/summer of 2018. The play many not have had a professional production. PlayPenn will cover the costs of the reading, but the student is responsible for their own housing and transportation. If you register for a class by the deadline then additional details will be emailed to you after January 14, along with a submission form.

Dates & Times

April 21, 2018 10am-6pm

Where

Philadelphia Young Playwrights Learning Lab, 1219 Vine Street, Floor 2, Philadelphia, PA 19107

Bio

Tammy Ryan won the Francecsca Primus Prize for her play Lost Boy Found in Whole Foods.  Her plays have been performed around the country as well as internationally in Canada, Turkey and Japan.  She’s held residencies at the Sewanee Writers Conference, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Hambidge Center, LaMama Umbria International Playwriting Residency and the New Harmony Project. She teaches playwriting at Point Park, Duquesne and Carnegie Mellon University as well as freelance workshops.  For more information go to: www.tammyryan.net

$175

Tuition

Register Here

Click the link below to visit our Reservation Page, where you can view all classes, select, and register for this class using our new checkout feature. For questions or to inquire about payment plans, please email classes@playpenn.org.

 

*Students must register for a class by January 14, 2018 in order to be eligible to submit for the free spring Education reading.

Sign Up

“PlayPenn has the ability to cultivate artists from the angles of playwright and actor. … It is a great organization which connects artists and allowing them to hone their craft.”

-Iman A.

Taking a PlayPenn Class you quickly realize how many talented playwrights and creative, generous artists are writing in Philly, and your own work benefits from the experience of working among them tremendously!”

-Joe
John Yearley

Playwriting Try-It Workshop Session #2

 640 433 Play Penn

with John Yearley

Popular PlayPenn Teaching Artist John Yearley returns for a special three hour, one-time session to unlock the playwright inside of you!

Class Description

If you ever wanted to try playwriting, or get back into it, this workshop is meant for you. John will give you an opportunity to try playwriting through a few short writing exercises as well as talk about the art, craft and industry of what’s involved in the work.

Perfect for those interested in trying writing and beginning writers!

Public Reading of YOUR New Play!

If you register for a PlayPenn class by January 14, 2018, then you can apply for the opportunity to have your unproduced full-length plays given a public, professional staged reading. PlayPenn will produce one student’s play as a reading with a professional director, professional actors and a PlayPenn Dramaturg in Philadelphia, PA in the spring/summer of 2018. The play many not have had a professional production. PlayPenn will cover the costs of the reading, but the student is responsible for their own housing and transportation. If you register for a class by the deadline then additional details will be emailed to you after January 14, along with a submission form.

Dates & Times

April 8, 2018 5-8pm (EST)

Where

Online. We will use Zoom.us. It is a very simple system. You will receive a link prior to class. You click the link and are taken to a site that has multiple boxes (like The Brady Bunch opening credits) where you can see and chat with everyone in the class. You must have a working internet connection and a computer that has both speakers (so you can hear the teaching artist) and a microphone (so they can hear you; be advised, some computer systems require you purchase a headset to use the microphone). If you would like to investigate the system before registering for the class, check out: www.zoom.us. PlayPenn covers the cost of using the system but you are expected to participate independently. We will not be recording these sessions.

Required Prep

Light reading from the instructor in advance of class.

Bio

John Yearley

John Yearley is the author of The Unrepeatable Moment (Barrow Group), Leap (Kaplan New American Play Prize, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park), Antigone (adaptation, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park), Ephemera (Gassner Award, Summer Play Festival), and Another Girl (PlayPenn, Naked Angels). His plays All in Little Pieces and A Low-Lying Fog are published by Samuel French. He is currently writing for the PBS Kids show Arthur and worked as a script doctor for New Line Cinema. He’s a member of the Writer’s Guild of America, the Dramatists Guild, and twice a MacDowell Fellow.

$75

Tuition

Register Here

Click the link below to visit our Reservation Page, where you can view all classes, select, and register for this class using our new checkout feature. For questions or to inquire about payment plans, please email classes@playpenn.org.

 

*Students must register for a class by January 14, 2018 in order to be eligible to submit for the free spring Education reading.

Sign Up

“This class was amazing and it was such a pleasure to take.”

-Malika, 2017 Student.

“Your class further ignited my passion for writing and encouraged me that I could do this. You gave me the building blocks needed to understand playwriting. I look forward to using the materials and writing exercises again to boost my creativity.”

-Tashara, 2017 Student

Creating Compelling Characters

 650 433 Play Penn

with Lori Fischer

Join NYU Professor Lori Fischer for an online class combining in-class-exercises, lectures, reading and writing assignments to learn how to create detailed, compelling characters for your plays. Perfect for writers of all experience levels!

Class Description

What do Hamlet, Troy Maxon, Pee Wee Herman, Electricidad, Michael Corleone and Blanche DuBois all have in common? They are all great characters.

Whether you are a playwright, screenwriter, novelist or television writer, the ability to create compelling, unforgettable characters is key. Ultimately, it is the recognizable yet surprising and unique character that draws in readers and audience members and leads them forward. Join NYU Professor Lori Fischer for an online class combining in-class-exercises, lectures, reading and writing assignments to learn how to create detailed, compelling characters for your plays.

Public Reading of YOUR New Play!

If you register for a PlayPenn class by January 14, 2018, then you can apply for the opportunity to have your unproduced full-length plays given a public, professional staged reading. PlayPenn will produce one student’s play as a reading with a professional director, professional actors and a PlayPenn Dramaturg in Philadelphia, PA in the spring/summer of 2018. The play many not have had a professional production. PlayPenn will cover the costs of the reading, but the student is responsible for their own housing and transportation. If you register for a class by the deadline then additional details will be emailed to you after January 14, along with a submission form.

Perfect for writers of all experience levels!

Dates & Times

March 7-April 11, 2018 (Wednesday Nights)

7pm-9pm (EST)

Where

Online. We will use Zoom.us. It is a very simple system. You will receive a link prior to class. You click the link and are taken to a site that has multiple boxes (like The Brady Bunch opening credits) where you can see and chat with everyone in the class. You must have a working internet connection and a computer that has both speakers (so you can hear the teaching artist) and a microphone (so they can hear you; be advised, some computer systems require you purchase a headset to use the microphone). If you would like to investigate the system before registering for the class, check out: www.zoom.us. PlayPenn covers the cost of using the system but you are expected to participate independently. We will not be recording these sessions.

Bio

Lori Fischer received her M.F.A. from the N.Y.U. Dramatic Writing Department. She is the author of multiple plays and screenplays including the critically acclaimed musical Barbara’s Blue Kitchen, which played at The Adirondack Theatre Festival, Cincinnati Playhouse and Off-Broadway at The Lamb’s Theatre (published by Samuel French). Lori’s musical comedy The Sparkley Clean Funeral Singers is also published by Samuel French and her feature film Chasing Taste is available on Amazon Prime. Lori’s work has been seen at the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival, the Stonestreet Film Festival, the RipFest Film Festival, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park and The Adirondack Theatre Festival. She teaches at NYU and is currently working on her next musical.

$225

Tuition

Register Here

Click the link below to visit our Reservation Page, where you can view all classes, select, and register for this class using our new checkout feature. For questions or to inquire about payment plans, please email classes@playpenn.org.

 

*Students must register for a class by January 14, 2018 in order to be eligible to submit for the free spring Education reading.

Sign Up

“PlayPenn classes offer a chance to take a break from the mundane, from the frenzy of the everyday, and to focus on your writing for a few hours, or a weekend, while gaining insight and inspiration from some truly excellent professional playwrights and teaching artists. PlayPenn’s opportunities are ones I feel lucky to be exposed to.

” -Mark C., 2017 Student

“The classes are a great opportunity for theater makers and theater lovers to gain useful insight to the playmaking process, as well as helpful tools to apply in any creative endeavor.”

-Andrew C., 2017 Student

One-Person Show Intensive

 1024 683 Play Penn

with Nilaja Sun

Obie award winning Nilaja Sun returns with a specialized intensive designed to facilitate students, who are working on their own solo pieces, in honing the craft of writing and performing a dynamic one person show.

Class Description

Students will discover how their body, voice and unique story telling abilities can set their solo pieces apart from rest. Be ready to move, create and get motivated to finally tell your story, inspire audiences and be the change you want to see in the world!

Read about her current one person show in The New Yorker Magazine. 

Perfect for writers/performers working on one person shows or looking to begin a new one!

Free Reading of YOUR New Play

If you register for a PlayPenn class by January 14, 2018, then you can apply for the opportunity to have your unproduced full-length plays given a public, professional staged reading. PlayPenn will produce one student’s play as a reading with a professional director, professional actors and a PlayPenn Dramaturg in Philadelphia, PA in the spring/summer of 2018. The play many not have had a professional production. PlayPenn will cover the costs of the reading, but the student is responsible for their own housing and transportation. If you register for a class by the deadline then additional details will be emailed to you after January 14, along with a submission form.

Dates & Times

February 17 & 18, 2018

1pm-5pm

Where

Wilma Rehearsal Space in South Philadelphia, Gerritt Street Studio, 1213 Gerritt Street, Philadelphia, PA.

Limited parking so arrive early to park. Public transit: The Broad Street Line has 2 stops within 3 blocks and the #45 bus runs down 12th street.

Required Prep

Come prepared to share a 15 minute excerpt from your one-person show or show-in-progress.

Bio

Nilaja Sun is the solo performer and writer of the Off-Broadway smashes No Child… and her new show, Pike Street. For her creation and performance of No Child… and its subsequent national tour, Nilaja garnered 21 awards including: an Obie Award, a Helen Hayes Award a Lucille Lortel Award, and two Outer Critics Circle Awards including the John Gassner Playwriting Award for Outstanding New American Play. Theatre credits also include The Commons of Pensacola, Einstein’s Gift, Time and The Conways, Huck and Holden, and The Cook. Tv/Film credits include Madam Secretary, Louie, 30 Rock, Law & Order: SVU, Unforgettable, The International, and Rubicon. As a solo performer, her projects include the critically acclaimed Blues for a Gray Sun (INTAR), La Nubia Latina, Black and Blue, Insufficient Fare, Due to the Tragic Events of…, and Mixtures. Nilaja was awarded the soloNOVA Award for Artist of the Year by terraNOVA Collective and was recently awarded a NYSCHA grant. A native of the Lower East Side, she is a Princess Grace Award winner and has worked as a teaching artist in New York City for over 15 years.

$250

Tuition

Register Here

Click the link below to visit our Reservation Page, where you can view all classes, select, and register for this class using our new checkout feature. For questions or to inquire about payment plans, please email classes@playpenn.org.

 

*Students must register for a class by January 14, 2018 in order to be eligible to submit for the free spring Education reading.

Sign Up

“PlayPenn classes offer a chance to take a break from the mundane, from the frenzy of the everyday, and to focus on your writing for a few hours, or a weekend, while gaining insight and inspiration from some truly excellent professional playwrights and teaching artists. PlayPenn’s opportunities are ones I feel lucky to be exposed to.

” -Mark C., 2017 Student

“The classes are a great opportunity for theater makers and theater lovers to gain useful insight to the playmaking process, as well as helpful tools to apply in any creative endeavor.”

-Andrew C., 2017 Student
John Yearley

Playwriting Try-It Workshop Session #1

 500 752 Play Penn

with John Yearley

Popular PlayPenn Teaching Artist John Yearley returns for a special three hour, one-time session to unlock the playwright inside of you!

Class Description

If you ever wanted to try playwriting, or get back into it, this workshop is meant for you. John will give you an opportunity to try playwriting through a few short writing exercises as well as talk about the art, craft and industry of what’s involved in the work.

Perfect for those interested in trying writing and beginning writers!

Free Reading of YOUR New Play

If you register for a PlayPenn class by January 14, 2018, then you can apply for the opportunity to have your unproduced full-length plays given a public, professional staged reading. PlayPenn will produce one student’s play as a reading with a professional director, professional actors and a PlayPenn Dramaturg in Philadelphia, PA in the spring/summer of 2018. The play many not have had a professional production. PlayPenn will cover the costs of the reading, but the student is responsible for their own housing and transportation. If you register for a class by the deadline then additional details will be emailed to you after January 14, along with a submission form.

Dates & Times

February 4, 2018

1-4pm (EST)

Where

Online. We will use Zoom.us. It is a very simple system. You will receive a link prior to class. You click the link and are taken to a site that has multiple boxes (like The Brady Bunch opening credits) where you can see and chat with everyone in the class. You must have a working internet connection and a computer that has both speakers (so you can hear the teaching artist) and a microphone (so they can hear you; be advised, some computer systems require you purchase a headset to use the microphone). If you would like to investigate the system before registering for the class, check out: www.zoom.us. PlayPenn covers the cost of using the system but you are expected to participate independently. We will not be recording these sessions.

Bio

John Yearley

John Yearley is the author of The Unrepeatable Moment (Barrow Group), Leap (Kaplan New American Play Prize, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park), Antigone (adaptation, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park), Ephemera (Gassner Award, Summer Play Festival), and Another Girl (PlayPenn, Naked Angels). His plays All in Little Pieces and A Low-Lying Fog are published by Samuel French. He is currently writing for the PBS Kids show Arthur and worked as a script doctor for New Line Cinema. He’s a member of the Writer’s Guild of America, the Dramatists Guild, and twice a MacDowell Fellow.

$75

Tuition

Register Here

Click the link below to visit our Reservation Page, where you can view all classes, select, and register for this class using our new checkout feature. For questions or to inquire about payment plans, please email classes@playpenn.org.

 

*Students must register for a class by January 14, 2018 in order to be eligible to submit for the free spring Education reading.

Sign Up

“This class was amazing and it was such a pleasure to take.”

-Malika, 2017 Student.

“Your class further ignited my passion for writing and encouraged me that I could do this. You gave me the building blocks needed to understand playwriting. I look forward to using the materials and writing exercises again to boost my creativity.”

-Tashara, 2017 Student
PlayPenn Conference 2016

Seven Week Workshop

 1024 681 Play Penn

with L Feldman

Join Bryn Mawr Playwriting Professor, Playwright, and popular PlayPenn teaching artist L Feldman for a seven-week exploration of your new work!

Class Description

Students are invited to begin a new play during this process or develop a work-in-progress. Sessions will begin with writing prompts and end with artist-driven feedback on student-written scenes. On the final meeting of the workshop, you will hear a 10-page excerpt of your script read by professional actors.

All genres and lengths of plays are welcome.

This workshop is limited to 12 students.

Free Reading of YOUR New Play

If you register for a PlayPenn class by January 14, 2018, then you can apply for the opportunity to have your unproduced full-length plays given a public, professional staged reading. PlayPenn will produce one student’s play as a reading with a professional director, professional actors and a PlayPenn Dramaturg in Philadelphia, PA in the spring/summer of 2018. The play many not have had a professional production. PlayPenn will cover the costs of the reading, but the student is responsible for their own housing and transportation. If you register for a class by the deadline then additional details will be emailed to you after January 14, along with a submission form.

Dates & Times

Thursdays: March 1, 8, 15, 22, 29, and April 5 from 5:30pm-8:30pm

Final Reading on Friday, April 13 from 5:30-8:30pm

Where

Smith classroom at Arden Theatre’s Hamilton Family Arts Center, 62 N 2nd St, Philadelphia, PA 19106

Required Prep

None. Students are invited to begin a new play during this process or develop a work-in-progress.

Bio

Lauren Feldman
L Feldman is a freelance playwright, deviser, professor, and a circus performer & dramaturg. She loves theater that is brave, physical, honest, loving, and slightly impossible. Her plays include A PEOPLE (upcoming Orbiter 3 production); TO THRIVE, OR WHAT YOU WILL; ANOTHER KIND OF SILENCE; AMANUENSIS; THE EGG-LAYERS; and GRACE, OR THE ART OF CLIMBING. She has been nominated for the Wendy Wasserstein Prize, Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, ATCA/Steinberg New Play Award, New York Innovative Theatre Award, and the Doric Wilson Independent Playwright Award. A graduate of the Yale School of Drama and the New England Center for Circus Arts, she is currently a New Georges Audrey Resident, a Foundry mentor, and a proud Orbiter 3 playwright. Hailing from Miami, she’s lived in seven cities and is now based in Philadelphia.
For more, visit her website.

$425

Tuition

Register Here

Limited Seats Remaining

Click the link below to visit our Reservation Page, where you can view all classes, select, and register for this class using our new checkout feature. For questions or to inquire about payment plans, please email classes@playpenn.org.

 

*Students must register for a class by January 14, 2018 in order to be eligible to submit for the free spring Education reading.

Sign Up

“PlayPenn has the ability to cultivate artists from the angles of playwright and actor…It is a great organization which connects artists and allowing them to hone their craft.”

-Iman A.

“Taking a PlayPenn Class you quickly realize how many talented playwrights and creative, generous artists are writing in Philly, and your own work benefits from the experience of working among them tremendously!”

-Joe

Help! Fix My Play: Tips and techniques to bring your writing to life

 650 433 Play Penn

with Robert Smythe

Join Guggenheim Fellow and Philadelphia Magazine’s “Best Professor” (“Best of Philly”) Robert Smythe for a workshop that helps you build a foundation for playwriting success. This class is perfect for new/emerging writers, as well as more experienced writers who want to add to their toolkit, or sharpen what’s already there!

Class Description

In this class, we’ll take the general themes and concepts that first led you to conceive of writing a play and make them specific.

We’ll work on getting the story out of your head and into a form that can be understood and interpreted by your future collaborators: the other artists who will eventually direct, perform, and design because they’re inspired by your words. By the time you finish the first five-minute exercise, you’ll be surprised at what you have inside you.

You’ll learn how to use tension and rhythm, and how to reveal states of mind through personal moments. You’ll write scenes and monologues. And love it. You’ll discover that, in addition, or even instead of all the other things you thought you were, you are a writer of plays. Not because someone told you that you are, but because you know you are.

In each class, you’ll spend time writing and then you’ll share what you’ve written with the rest of us. After you get feedback, you’ll continue writing outside of class for an assignment, or you might just want to continue writing because you’re so excited about getting stuff down on paper.

As we move through the course, we’ll explore how to write for the stage: not just how to write words for actors to speak, but how to make things happen: how to create excitement and surprises, and interest and emotion, so that when people act out your play or see it in a performance, they’ll understand exactly what you mean. And that is extremely satisfying.

Playwriting Technique 2, offered in future semesters, will use these skills to build structure, from crucial moments right to the end of the play.

Free Reading of YOUR New Play

If you register for a PlayPenn class by January 14, 2018, then you can apply for the opportunity to have your unproduced full-length plays given a public, professional staged reading. PlayPenn will produce one student’s play as a reading with a professional director, professional actors and a PlayPenn Dramaturg in Philadelphia, PA in the spring/summer of 2018. The play many not have had a professional production. PlayPenn will cover the costs of the reading, but the student is responsible for their own housing and transportation. If you register for a class by the deadline then additional details will be emailed to you after January 14, along with a submission form.

Dates & Times

January 16-February 6 (Tuesday Nights), 6pm-9pm

Where

Adrienne Theatre Rehearsal Room, 2030 Sansom St, Philadelphia, PA (parking and other info will be provided after registration)

Bio

Robert Smythe is an acclaimed theater artist and the founder of Mum Puppettheatre, the only regional theater in the United States dedicated to puppetry, serving as its Artistic Director for 23 years. During that time, he wrote, directed and performed over 20 original productions using puppets, masks and human actors, leading Mum on international tours on four continents. According to Philadelphia City Paper, Smythe’s work with Mum “sparked the Philadelphia theater renaissance that continues to this day.” Smythe has won numerous awards and honors, including Guggenheim, Pew, and National Endowment for the Arts fellowships, and six solo performer fellowships from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts; he’s won six Barrymore Awards for Excellence in Theater in areas ranging from education to choreography; and he was the first artist to receive a commission from the Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts: the resulting collaboration between him and the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, Stravinsky’s “l’Histoire du Soldat,” won the 2011 Barrymore Award for Outstanding Collaboration. Smythe is the founder of the Playwriting Program for the International Puppetry Conference at the Tony-winning O’Neill Theater Center. His ground-breaking application of narrative theory to puppetry, “Reading a Puppet Show: Understanding the Three-Dimensional Narrative,” was published in The Routledge Companion to Puppetry and Material Performance, and his work on motor contagion was been published in Acta Psychologica. He received his MFA in Playwrighting from Temple University, where he was a University Fellow. In 2010, in their annual “Best of Philadelphia” issue, Philadelphia Magazine named him “Best Professor”.

$175

Tuition

Register Here

Click the link below to visit our Reservation Page, where you can view all classes, select, and register for this class using our new checkout feature. For questions or to inquire about payment plans, please email classes@playpenn.org.

 

*Students must register for a class by January 14, 2018 in order to be eligible to submit for the free spring Education reading.

Sign Up

“An unbelievable environment of support and encouragement. Continuously encouraged growth of any idea that was presented in the class.”

-Tom, 2017 Student

“When you leave a PlayPenn class, your brain is so full of ideas and new tools, and your heart is full from this new network of collaborators you have just met. Old ideas are revived by the teachers, the tools, and the people in the room. I always leave the class ready to work.”

-Jamie, 2017 Student

“The classes are a great opportunity for theater makers and theater lovers to gain useful insight to the playmaking process, as well as helpful tools to apply in any creative endeavor.”

-Andrew C., 2017 Student
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