September 15, 22, 29, October 6, 20, 27

Mondays from 7:00pm – 9:00pm ET

via Zoom

NEW STUDENT RATE: $320

RETURNING STUDENT RATE: $300

Whatever the project, the job of any creator is first rooted in the text. Being able to delve into and interpret a text regardless of genre is key to creating your work - and for a director, it gives a solid foundation that is then brought alive in the design and rehearsal processes.

This class might be for you if you:

• Are an artist of any discipline looking to better understand a director's perspective and approach in order to enhance your own craft.
• Wish to refine your technique as a director by focusing on the pre-work with the text that is required to create your vision.
• Have been interested in directing and want to try it out by starting from the foundation of the work.

In this class you will:

• Work on a different genre of text each week: Shakespeare, Moliere, Ibsen, Chekov, Beckett, Hnath.
• Prior to class, you will be given a play to read from that week's genre.
• In class, you will take one scene from that play and break it down together - looking both at how to break it down as a director within the scope of the work and also how to break it down for the actors that you are directing.
• Within the session, John will direct class members in the table work of this scene to elucidate how to break down the language.
• Discuss each week how to approach that specific genre of play so this work can be applied to any project.

By the end of this class you will:

• Understand how to effectively analyze and break down any text - both for the project as a whole and for the actors in the rehearsal room.
• Be able to focus on language in your table work - as a director communicating with actors, as an actor approaching the text, as a designer creating collaboratively, and as a producer looking to showcase the work.
• Know how to approach multiple genres of work, making you a more facile artist.
• Possess the tools to approach any pre-production process with confidence.

Learn more about John here.

September 18, 25, October 2, 9, 16, November 6, 13, 20, December 4, 11

Thursdays from 5:00pm – 8:00pm ET

via Zoom

NEW STUDENT RATE: $580

RETURNING STUDENT RATE: $560

Whether you're writing your first play or your hundredth, it's not always easy to set the creative wheels in motion. This 10-week class will guide you through the development of your first draft.

More about class with Caridad: This class is run as a writers’ workshop. Caridad believes in an equitable and respectful writing room, sensitive to each person’s respective process, but also one where a vigorous, rigorous, and intuitive approach is manifest in establishing a group atmosphere. The sessions will be structured around response to work turned in (on average 5 to 8 pages a week) with pieces read out loud in the virtual room live in class with peer and instructor response time after each sharing of work using the Liz Lerman approach. At the beginning of the semester, you will determine if everyone will share work at every session or every other session. There will be occasional in-class writing exercises, and homework will be limited to recommended reading, prompts, and/or viewings assigned. In other words, the focus will be on your generative process, and as such, homework will be minimal outside of that.

Caridad’s writing focuses on human and environmental rights from a Latinx feminist perspective for the most part, though her work also explores deeply the reconfiguration of classic and modern texts, gender fluidity, and porous borders aesthetically and formally. She has also adapted novels to the stage and sustains a parallel career as a theatrical translator, editor, and artivist. Caridad’s work is often labeled by others as “poetic realism” or “atomized realism.”

Learn more about Caridad here.

Learn more about First Draft here.

September 23, 30, October 7, 14 November 18, 25, December 2, 9
*Please hold December 16 as a potential make-up class

Tuesdays from 5:00pm – 8:00pm ET

via Zoom

NEW STUDENT RATE: $520

RETURNING STUDENT RATE: $480

This is a dramaturgically-inspired playwriting class. While forging ahead on your own works can be very fulfilling, sometimes the best way to forward your writing is through studying the work of others. Over the course of 8 weeks, Winter will guide you through play analyses and writing exercises, looking at great works from the outside in to strengthen your own writing.

This class might be for you if you are: 

• A writer who wants to employ the principles of dramaturgy to strengthen your scripts and engage with your collaborators more effectively. 
• Interested in sharpening the components of your writing rather than diving into a full-length play.
• Curious about how genre and style define the parameters (or don't) of your own play.

In this class you will:

• Read a play each week that Winter chooses, which you will discuss in class.
• Break down each play to examine structure, plot, character development, and dialogue from the outside in, looking at existing works and seeing why they succeed.
• After discussing each play, you’ll have an in-class writing prompt to write a scene in that writer's voice, perhaps a scene that was never in the play, but could have been.

By the end of this class you will: 

• Confidently approach a broad range of plays with an ability to identify a play's fundamental components and what makes it successful.
• Have a deeper understanding of your own writing through analyzing and emulating the writing of others.
• Break out of your patterns and habits and explore new facets of your own writer's voice.

Learn more about Winter here.

September 23, 30, October 7, 21, 28, November 4, 11, 18, 25, December 2

Tuesdays from 6:30pm – 9:30pm ET

via Zoom

NEW STUDENT RATE: $580

RETURNING STUDENT RATE: $560

Whether you're writing your first play or your hundredth, it's not always easy to set the creative wheels in motion. This 10-week class will guide you through the development of your first draft.

More about class with Matthew: Matthew believes in putting the playwright in charge of their own process, with each writer asking questions regarding what they were working on specifically or are needing support with, as opposed to giving prescriptive notes. In the beginning, students will bring in 8-10 pages to share each week, and depending on the needs and wants of the group, this may evolve into students alternating weeks to bring in larger sections of work. As a class, we’ll read the work, give space for the playwright to ask questions, then share our experience with the pages and (if useful to the playwright) offer neutral questions/opinions. Though the class is primarily focused on bringing in pages, you might be encouraged to write for sake of discovery – such as writing exploratory scenes that would never be in the final play, trying exercises on your scene to see what it unearths.

Matthew most often writes in a theatricality where the rules of naturalism don’t necessarily function in the way we are used to. He does a lot of research for his work, so some of his historically-driven plays use realism, but the world of the play is still often very theatricalized.

Learn more about Matthew here.

Learn more about First Draft here.

September 24, October 1, 8, 22, 29, November 5, 12, 19, December 3, 10

Wednesdays from 6:00pm – 9:00pm ET

In-Person at ART/NY South Oxford Space, located at 138 S. Oxford St. in BROOKLYN

NEW STUDENT RATE: $580

RETURNING STUDENT RATE: $560

STUDIO FEE: $40

Due to the increasing cost of studio space, our in-person classes will now include a $40 studio space fee to help us offset these costs.

Whether you're writing your first play or your hundredth, it's not always easy to set the creative wheels in motion. This 10-week class will guide you through the development of your first draft.

More about class with Michael: This class is run in the spirit of a dramaturg running a workshop for playwrights. The class relies on students generating pages outside of class and attending each class. You will read each other's pages out loud and follow that with structured feedback led by Michael. Peer-to-peer conversation is central, along with hearing from Michael each week about your writing. Playwrights will be encouraged to write as many pages each week as they feel inspired to, and you'll commit to actively reading and discussing around 12 minutes of writing per student per week (typically 10-15 pages). The feedback Michael leads aims to illuminate what the pages have already accomplished, and not predict what you should do next. Weekly participation will keep you on the path toward a complete first draft. Michael will help you articulate the style and structure that your particular play wants to be told in by meeting you on your own turf and reflecting back to you what he sees in your writing—where it may want to push ahead, where it may be losing steam or clarity, and where certain playwriting tools (such as character, reversals, language, song, and physical action) may push a scene to the next level.

Learn more about Michael here.

Learn more about First Draft here.

This class will be fully digital for sharing and reading pages. All pages will be shared via a class Google Drive folder, and we will use devices in class to read each other’s pages. Please come to class with a device (laptop, tablet, etc) and a charger/power cord for your device. If you are unable to bring your own device, please contact ESPA Administration.

September 24, 1, October 8, 15, 22, 29, November 5, December 3, 10, 17

Wednesdays from 7:30pm – 10:30pm ET

via Zoom

NEW STUDENT RATE: $580

RETURNING STUDENT RATE: $560

As soon as you finish your last line of dialogue, the need for rewrites begins. This 10-week class will help you tackle the revision process and develop a stronger version of your play. Open to new and returning students located anywhere in the world, this class will be run just like a real-life writing room, interacting with your instructor and classmates live via Zoom. 

More on taking class with Stefanie: This class is geared toward empowering writers to guide their own play development process. Writers will begin by articulating their goals for their new draft. Then, writers will present sections of their plays (20-30 pages) every other week. Writers receive feedback and responses to the work from the group, filtered through a series of prompts given by Stefanie. These prompts are designed to respect the process of new play development, so each writer develops the tools and confidence to solve the problems of their play, and empowers them to steer conversations that are productive and helpful. Occasionally writers will be asked to complete writing exercises to help support, scene by scene, imagery and themes that emerge in their work.

Learn more about Stefanie here.

Learn more about Rewriting Your Draft here.

October 1, 8, 15, 22, 29, November 5, 12, 19

Wednesdays from 6:00pm – 9:00pm ET

via Zoom

NEW STUDENT RATE: $520

RETURNING STUDENT RATE: $480

Whether you're writing your first play or your hundredth, it's not always easy to set the creative wheels in motion. This 8-week class will guide you through the development of your first draft. Open to new and returning students located anywhere in the world, this class will be run just like a real-life writing room, interacting with your instructor and classmates live either in person or via Zoom.

More about class with Calamity: This course is designed for writers looking for a supportive, enthusiastic, and collaborative environment to put their playwriting fundamentals to the test. Being run as a true writer’s workshop, this course asks that playwrights enter the space with an idea for their new play. Together with Calamity, you’ll develop living documents for each of your works that will help you navigate your way through your individual creative processes along with developing road maps for your dramatic works. Playwrights will be expected to complete weekly writing exercises for character development in addition to generating new pages for your first draft. By the end of this course, you will have a better understanding of your individual process, the confidence to enter a workshop space within the industry itself, and most importantly - a complete first draft.

Learn more about Calamity here.

Learn more about First Draft here.

Thursday, November 20

from 6:00pm – 7:30pm

via Zoom

Join Primary Stages Artistic Director Erin Daley to go behind the scenes for what it takes to bring a new play from the page to the stage.

For our upcoming production of Laowang by Alex Lin, you will read the script and watch the production in advance of class and then delve into the work with Erin with an eye toward dramaturgy and the new play development process. You’ll explore how an idea evolves into a cohesive production, fueled by inquiry and collaboration. Beyond getting a deeper understanding of Laowang, you'll be able to incorporate dramaturgical practice into your work as a writer, actor, producer, or director.

This workshop might be for you if you:

• Would like the ability to translate what you see on stage to your own work.
• Are a theater artist seeking to refine your analytical skills when talking about live theater.
• Are a theater lover who would like a new perspective on what you see.

In this workshop you will:

• Read the script and watch a performance of the Primary Stages production of Alex Lin's Laowang. (Tickets will be provided for students at no additional cost.)
• Meet with your class after viewing the production. Erin will facilitate a class discussion about the production, exploring the questions of why this play, in this place, at this time.
• Discuss what it means to be a dramaturg, how new play development works, and how you can incorporate dramaturgical practice into your work no matter your role in a production.

By the end of this workshop you will:

• Have a better understanding of new play development and dramaturgy.
• Be able to bring dramaturgy into your work as a writer, actor, or director.
• Be equipped to see any production with a more discerning eye.

Learn more about Erin here.