Primary Stages ESPA

March 14, 21, 28, April 4, 11, 18, 25, May 2, 16, 23

Thursdays from 6:30pm – 9:30pm

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

NEW STUDENT RATE: $580

RETURNING STUDENT RATE: $560

For playwrights who are in process with a first draft or ready to embark on a rewrite, this 10-week class with playwright, director, and dramaturg Mêlisa Annis will encourage you to focus not on an end product, but on what your play needs to deepen in this moment. Run like a professional playwriting group, this class will give you the community and support you need to move your play forward.

This class might be for you if you:

• Are a playwright who has already started on a new play, or a writer who may be embarking on a rewrite.
• If you are coming in with a new idea that you want to start writing, we would encourage you to take The First Draft.

In this class you will:

• Share pages every other week (apart from the first week where all writers will share the beginnings of their plays). This will allow the group more time to be in conversation with their plays and in turn have a more rigorous workshopping session. 
• Engage in in-depth discussions around the work, with comments and conversation shepherded by Mêlisa.
• Despite not sharing each week, as members of the group, your participation is essential, and you are expected to attend even when you are not sharing pages. Conversation about and around the text can be both illuminating and clarifying for the playwright; it can also be terrifying, and Mêlisa prides herself on creating a warm environment where playwrights can stretch their creative muscles while feeling supported and energized.

By the end of this class you will:

• Have made significant forward motion on your play, with a clear understanding of how to keep your work moving forward.

More on taking class with Mêlisa: Mêlisa believes that playwriting is very rewarding and can also be deeply personal – we all need to be good community members and support each other. This class will be a safe space to share, while also challenging each playwright to explore their subconscious, their subtext, and hopefully ultimately help them reach their goals. She will often send you essays on playwriting and theater, and suggest plays to read, all of which are optional but chosen to help you in your process. Mêlisa is always encouraging and supportive to any playwright who is brave enough to put words on a page, and hopes that anyone who joins this class is willing to support their colleagues in the room.

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.

Learn more about Mêlisa here.