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!

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!

March 7-April 11, 2018 (Wednesday Nights)

7pm-9pm (EST)

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.

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.

“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