June 24, July 1, 8, 15, 22, 29, August 5, 12

Tuesdays from 5:00pm – 8:00pm

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.

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.

July 29, August 5, 12, 19, 26

Tuesdays from 6:00 – 10:00pm

In-Person at ART/NY Studios at 520 8th Ave.

NEW STUDENT RATE: $400

RETURNING STUDENT RATE: $380

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.

Regardless of the genre, playwright, or period, the director’s job is to create a unified vision for a production that inspires collaboration among the artists and a transformative experience for the audience. This 5-week class is for directors of all levels to actively and collaboratively refine their approach to contemporary text, explore the rehearsal process, and experiment with form in a safe environment.

This class might be for you if you: 

• Are an experienced director wanting to expand your versatility and refine your technique as a director by working on your feet with actors.
• Are a newer director looking to get experience, but don't have a venue or opportunity to safely experiment.
• Want to create work guided by John in a safe environment where exploration and experimentation are encouraged.
• Are ready to dedicate at least 3 hours of out-of-class time per week to rehearse with your actors. 

In this class you will:

• Focus on communicating with the actor, creating relationships that will bring out their best possible performances and the best representation of your vision for a piece.
• Spend the first class session delving into a scene together, provided by John, where he will demonstrate how to conduct scene study and you’ll discuss how to approach contemporary text.
• Prior to the first class, receive audition self-tapes from actors that you should watch before the first class session. Cast actors and create a rehearsal schedule for each of your pieces, using actors from the audition self-tapes or that you bring in from your own community of artists. 
• Each director will choose and work intensively on two contemporary scenes over the course of the class. The limited class size of 8 means that you will show work every other week in order to incorporate notes and feedback on your feet with your actors when you present.
• Give constructive feedback to your fellow directors (as led and modeled by John), honing your ability to analyze what is working well and what is not working so well in a scene.

By the end of this class you will: 

• Understand how to effectively discover and communicate your artistic vision in the rehearsal room.
• Be able to focus on the actor in any project, knowing that the success or failure of a piece is predicated on your relationships with your actors.
• Possess a foundation for approaching contemporary text, and the tools to approach any rehearsal process with confidence.

 Learn more about John here.