Playwriting Intensive

Catalog description

One hundred years ago, Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch famously advised writers: “Murder your darlings.” (The Art of Writing, 1916.) Harsh words, perhaps--but it is in the process of revision that the real writing begins. This course is a continuation of the principles learned in Playwriting Practicum I, with a special focus on the work-shopping and developmental process of a new work for the stage. A concern this semester will be with the process of DECONSTRUCTION—using a text’s assumptions of completion against itself. Class discussions and exercises will examine methods for improving dialogue, crafting satisfying reversals, generating material, enriching characters while maintaining consistency, as well as advanced structural considerations of the 3-act form. The semester begins with a radical re-treatment of a master work. We will attend, as a class, the Elevator Repair Service’s revision of THE SEAGULL at Skirball. A sustained analysis of methods of critiquing—both self and others—is an ongoing concern of the course. Students will emerge with a revised one-act or full-length play. PREREQUISITE: Please submit a writing sample to Professor Steven Drukman ([email protected]) for permission to enroll.