Tuesdays from 6:00pm – 9:00pm ET

In-Person at ART/NY Studios Midtown, located at 520 8th Avenue. 

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. Open to new and returning students, 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 Gina: Gina believes that the classroom is a place to get to know yourself, your process, and your creative language as a writer. Class sessions will include a combination of writing exercises and sharing sessions, where you read each other’s pages out loud and respond to that work. Writers will bring in sections of their play (12-18 pages) every third week as a way to delve into larger sections of storytelling. Gina will encourage you to think outside of chronological order when writing, embracing the energy of what is most exciting to you instead of creating a set course for yourself. As a way to set up strong habits as a writer outside the classroom, Gina will give writing assignments every week to help develop a creative routine between sessions. This class is an opportunity for writers to continue expanding both your creative practice and practical practice in the exploration of your work.

Learn more about Gina here.

Read 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 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.