playwriting courses
for adults
Have a story to tell, but you're not sure where to start? Are you a playwright who's looking to learn from a fellow writer? These classes will sharpen your narrative skills and introduce you to new entry points into your story.
Each class is divided into two parts: a three-class WORKSHOP series (maximum 12 participants), and a one-hour lecture that includes a moderated Q&A. Each workshop and lecture will be conducted via a secure Zoom link.
No, this isn’t a class about how playwrights make themselves better human beings. It’s about the ways that playwrights can build sharp, distinct, and vivid characters to better inhabit their plays. From the rooter to the tooter, every aspect of writing a play allows a writer to tell an audience who each character is. Along with the obvious tools of dialogue and character description, we explore how props, costuming, stage directions, even the play’s title can do double duty to sculpt characterization.
DATES + TIMES
Lecture: January 13, 2025
6-7 pm MT
Note: this lecture is open to the public. If you are not a member of this class, but wish to view the lecture, RSVP HERE.
Workshops: January 27; February 3, 10, 2025
6-8 pm MT
LOCATION
Zoom
COST
SEASON 14 SUBSCRIBERS: $99*
NON-SUBSCRIBERS: $132
NOTE: This class is limited to 12 participants maximum.
*If you are a Season 14 Subscriber, your discount will be automatically applied when you login on the checkout page.
MEET MICHELLE TYRENE JOHNSON
Michelle Tyrene Johnson is a senior producer at Louisville Public Media, a writer, and a former attorney. As a playwright, Johnson’s plays have been staged nationally. Several of her plays have been in New York City festivals and readings. Other acclaimed plays by Johnson include Justice in the Embers, The Green Duck Lounge, The Green Book Wine Club Train Trip, and Coloring Between The Lines. Her commissioned play “Only One Day A Year” was selected for the Kennedy Center’s New Visions/New Voices Festival in 2020, was the recipient of a $30,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, and had its world premiere at Coterie Theatre in 2023. Johnson received her MFA in Writing with an emphasis on playwriting in May 2022 from Spalding University.
We’ve all heard the saying “write what you know,” but I think that this expression comes with an incredible amount of baggage. In this course we’ll explore what that saying is trying to get at. We’ll examine plays while investigating our own unique lived experiences. We’ll lay a foundation for our work and our mission as artists. And what it means to truly emotionally risk in our writing.
DATES + TIMES
Lecture: September 4, 2024
6-7 pm MT
Note: this lecture has passed. If you are student in this class, you can request a recording of the lecture from Co-Artistic Director Nick Chase.
Workshops: September 9, 23; October 7, 2024
6-8 pm MT
LOCATION
Zoom
COST
SEASON 14 SUBSCRIBERS: $99*
NON-SUBSCRIBERS: $132
NOTE: This class is limited to 12 participants maximum.
*If you are a Season 14 Subscriber, your discount will be automatically applied when you login on the checkout page.
MEET ANDREW ROSENDORF
Andrew Rosendorf’s work has been produced or developed at La Jolla, MCC, DCPA, KC Rep, Signature Theatre, Florida Stage, the National New Play Network, Unicorn Theatre, Curious Theatre Company, and Local Theater Company. He is the recipient of an Edgerton Foundation New American Play Award, a Venturous Theater Fund Grant, a MAP Fund Grant, and a NNPN Rolling World Premiere for REFUGE, which he co-created with Satya Jnani Chávez. He is an alum of Goodman's Playwrights Unit, NNPN’s Playwright-in-Residence program, and has been a fellow of SPACE on Ryder Farm and MacDowell. He was a previous McKnight and Jerome Fellow at the Playwrights’ Center as well as Core Writer. He is an associate artist with Local Theater Company and currently in development on a television pilot with Amblin at Peacock.
