Primary Stages ESPA

February 28, March 6, 13, 20, 27, April 10, 17, 24, May 1, 8

Wednesdays 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. 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 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 to 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.

Learn more about Matthew here.

Read more about First Draft here.