What moves you: an intro to PLAYWRITING
Description
Through a series of weekly writing exercises inspired by the freshest, most inventive plays of the 21st Century, aspiring playwrights will add skills to their storytelling tool belt while writing the first act of a full-length play. The class will culminate in a private reading of the playwrights' scenes by Steep Ensemble actors. Playwrights in the workshop will study plays by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Rajiv Joseph, Annie Baker, and Aleshea Harris—to name a few—paired with storytelling theory from Sarah Ruhl, Zadie Smith, Anna Deavere Smith, Simon Stephens, and more. The course asks writers to read like thieves, not like academics: does the play move you? Could you use this structure/technique in your own plays? What is your play doing to its audience? How? The application deadline is Monday March 7th.
Details
Instructor: Alex Lubischer
Dates: April 4 - May 23, 2022
Mondays, 6:30-9:30pm CST
Location: All class sessions will be hosted online.
Cost: $275* (see below for scholarship info)
Application Deadline: March 7, 2022, 11:59pm
Required Texts
In addition to the plays listed below, there will generally be at least one supplementary article or essay assigned each week.
Gloria by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
Guards at the Taj by Rajiv Joseph
Caught by Christopher Chen
What to Send Up When it Goes Down by Aleshea Harris
John by Annie Baker
X, by Alistair McDowall
Class Breakdown
Week 1, 4/4 – An Intro to An Intro to Playwriting
Week 2, 4/11 – Action & Subtext
Play: Gloria by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
Week 3, 4/18 – Conflict
Play: Guards at the Taj by Rajiv Joseph
Week 4, 4/25 – High Stakes!
Play: John by Annie Baker
Week 5, 5/2 – Who Is Your Play For?
Play: What to Send Up When it Goes Down by Aleshea Harris
Week 6, 5/9 – The Audience
Play: Caught by Christopher Chen
Week 7, 5/16 – Protect Your Impulse, Protect Your Play
Play: X, by Alistair McDowall
Week 8, 5/23 – Final Class; Scene Readings w/ Steep Actors
About the Instructor
Alex Lubischer is a Chicago-based playwright and screenwriter originally from rural Nebraska. His plays include You Deserve to Be Here (Goodman Playwrights Unit commission), Do Wasps Have Desires? (Milwaukee Repertory Theater), Bobbie Clearly (Roundabout Theatre Company, Steep Theatre, Jeff Award Winner: Outstanding New Play), Pivot (Yale School of Drama), Weird Kids (Haven Chicago), The Quonsets (Yale Cabaret, co-written with Majkin Holmquist), and Survey No. 5 (House of International Theatre, Copenhagen).
Lubischer was the 2017/18 Tow Foundation Playwright-in-Residence at Roundabout Theatre Company. He has developed new work at Playwrights Horizons, Atlantic Theater Company, Page 73, The Orchard Project, SPACE on Ryder Farm, Victory Gardens Theater, First Floor Theater, and Actors Theatre of Louisville. He has been a semifinalist for the P73 Playwriting Fellowship and a three-time finalist for the O’Neill National Playwrights Conference. Current writing projects include new play commissions from Roundabout and South Coast Repertory.
He teaches playwriting at Steep Theatre, the Goodman Theatre, and DePaul University in Chicago. Click here for his website.
To Apply
Please submit the following two items to alex.lubischer@gmail.com with the subject line AN INTRO TO PLAYWRITING, [Your Name]:
A 10-page writing sample, saved as a PDF. (A playwriting sample is preferable, but a screenplay or prose sample is fine, too.)
A PDF of your responses to the following questions. (Please limit your responses to no more than two pages in total.)
Have you ever written a play? If yes, why do you want to keep writing plays? If no, why do you want to start now?
Do you have experience with creative writing outside of playwriting? If yes, what is it?
What’s the last narrative work of art (play, movie, short story, or novel) you encountered that you loved and why?
What’s something you love to do that has nothing to do with writing or theatre?
Scholarship Application
*Tuition covers essential class supplies and supports the teaching artist. Because this is a particularly challenging time for many, scholarships are available. To request a scholarship, please complete the form below. These requests will be reviewed separately from class applications and will not influence the application review process.