INTERMEDIATE PLAYWRITING

Catalog description

This is an intermediate course for students with some playwriting experience. The central aim is to guide the students toward reinventing themselves as writers. In this process, students will learn to reappraise famous plays of the past and analyze the plays of their contemporaries, including their fellow students. Students initially are taught the process of playwriting (especially in relation to UK practice), from development to stage to printed page. Guest speakers for the course are drawn from British playwrights and/or other leading practitioners in the field. This overall approach will lead to a reexamination of the basic elements of playwriting, including the creation of story, character, and theme. Students complete this course with a clear idea of their interrelation and, more particularly, of how original stories can be invented, original characters created, and original themes put into dramatic harness. Along with the study of further dramaturgical elements, students are encouraged to look at their plays from the perspective of the actor, the director, the designer, and the audience. By the end of the semester, students complete the first draft of a freshly conceived, full-length play for the stage.