ONLINE WORKSHOP: Playing with Form (Deeper Dive)

taught by Core Writer L M Feldman
Thursdays, March 30th through May 4th
Venue: 
Online via Zoom
Cost: 
$150 for Members, $175 for Non-Members

**REGISTRATION IS NOW CLOSED**

Class Modality: Hybrid Asynchronous - Alternates between online meetings and online lessons/assignments on your own via Google Classroom.

Class Type: Writing Craft, Writing Theory                         

Class Level: Intermediate/Advanced. However, there is space for beginners.

Class Dates: March 30th through May 4th

Thursdays, March 30th, April 13th, and May 4th (3 "in-person" online sessions total)

Class Time: 7:00pm - 9:00pm CT 

(5:00pm PT, 6:00pm MT, 8:00pm ET)

Where: Online via Zoom, check out this quick video on the process.

Structure: Discussion, Writing prompts, Breakout groups, Q&A

Questions: Email Alayna, Membership Programs Manager at alaynab@pwcenter.org

Captioning: For all sessions, we enable Zoom's auto-generated captioning. However, live captioning can be requested (with 2-weeks' notice) via the Membership Programs Participation Form shared in the detailed confirmation email.

Recordings: If you cannot attend a portion of the seminar, we have a Teaching Assistant and/or PWC facilitator taking in-depth notes. These written notes will be shared with all participants at the end of each session. (We record all of our sessions for internal use only. We do not share recordings with participants.)

Participants must register to join this class, Sign Up at the bottom of the page.


CLASS DESCRIPTION

In this interactive workshop, we'll do a deeper dive into three different kinds of nontraditional play forms, looking at specific examples of these dramaturgical structures that are bold, playful, artful, and potent. We'll examine HOW each play is crafted, HOW they architected their form in ways that keep the play as (or MORE) compelling & effective than "a Well-Made Play."  We'll explore the inseparable relationship between form and content (and perspective). 

While we won't be workshopping anyone's writing, we will invite you to share what observations, experiences, and questions you're encountering in bringing these tools and nontraditional play forms into your own work.

This Is the Class for You if You:

  • Are interested in exploring nontraditional structures & forms in any genre. (We'll be focusing on plays as our examples, but you're of course welcome to apply this to any genre you work in!)
  • A beginner up for the challenge of diving right in! (We won’t be covering traditional structure in class or playwriting fundamentals)

What to Expect:

  • Weeks 1-2: PLAYING WITH TIME
  • Weeks 3-4: PLAYING WITH PLAYWORLD
  • Weeks 5-6: PLAYING WTIH THEME & VARIATIONS
  • Each week there will be a pre-assigned play to read in advance
  • For the weeks we meet together:
    • We'll do a deep dive into the play example that we all read -- analyzing its structural craft, and how that supports its content
    • We'll discuss different ways of using that week's nontraditional form in our own work
    • We'll romp with a writing prompt inspired by our discussion
  • For the independent weeks:
    • There will be a menu of additional examples of that week's form for you to choose from (whichever calls to you most!)
    • You'll read or watch that second example that most drew you
    • I'll post questions you can chew on & share responses to in the Google Classroom stream: 
      • Invitations for comparing the two examples
      • For analyzing the craft of the second one
      • For sharing how your own writing is going / what questions are coming up for you
      • For envisioning new applications & possibilities in your own art
  • To participate in discussions and share work online via Google Classroom

Important Things to Note:

  • When you sign up, you will receive an auto-confirmation email. About a week before the first session you will receive a detailed confirmation email with important information about the seminar including (1) Membership Programs Participation Form (2) The Zoom link (3) Pre-assignments from the instructor and (4) Information about the PWC Membership and Education Team. If you have not received this email by the next business day, please check your spam folder or reach out to Alayna and she will make sure you have the information you need for the seminar or class.
  • All participants must complete and submit a Membership Programs Participation Form for each seminar or class they want to attend. A link to this form is included in the detailed confirmation email.
  • This class will be using Google Classroom. Therefore, you must have or create a Gmail account to fully participate in the class.
  • Payment plans are available as needed. Please contact Membership Programs Manager, Alayna Jacqueline Barnes, to discuss payment options.

NOTE FROM L

Form IS content.
How can we be visionary & courageous not only in WHAT we choose to write about, but in HOW we choose to write about it? How can we use FORM to reflect our voices, our values, our perspective, our politics, our experience of the world? HOW do we break from the traditional in ways that are artful, impactful, & resonant?

INSTRUCTOR BIO

L M Feldman is a queer, GNC, feminist playwright who writes theatrically adventurous, physically evocative, intimate, inquisitive, ensemble-driven plays. Plays that are dynamic, honest, brave, and the smallest bit impossible. Plays that transcend into an EXPERIENCE.

So far, her plays include THRIVE, OR WHAT YOU WILL [AN EPIC] (Lambda Literary Award Finalist, American Shakespeare Center, Kitchen Dog New Works Festival, New Georges Audrey Residency, Page 73 Residency, InterAct Core Playwrights); ANOTHER KIND OF SILENCE (Colorado New Play Festival, FEWW Prize Honorable Mention, Magic Theatre Play Festival, Sewanee Writers’ Conference, PlayPenn Conference, Playwrights Realm Fellowship); SCRIBE, OR THE SISTERS MILTON, OR ELEGY FOR THE UNWRITTEN (The Playwrights’ Center, Emerson Stage, Georgetown University, Northwoods Ramah Theatre commission); THE EGG-LAYERS (Jane Chambers Honorable Mention, New Georges/Barnard College co-commission); GRACE, OR THE ART OF CLIMBING (Denver Center, Brown Paper Box Co., Art House Productions, Nice People Theatre, ATCA/Steinberg New Play Award Nomination, Barrymore Nomination); A PEOPLE [A MOSAIC PLAY] (Terrence McNally Award Finalist, Orbiter 3, YiddishFest, Jewish Plays Project); and a TYA adaptation of TROPICAL SECRETS, OR ALL THE FLUTES IN THE SEA (Children’s Theatre of Charlotte; Kindness Project commission). 

L has been nominated for the Wendy Wasserstein Prize, Stavis Playwright Award, New York Innovative Theatre Award, Doric Wilson Independent Playwright Award, and twice for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. And she’s ongoingly grateful to have been a fellow at MacDowell, the Playwrights Realm, and the Dramatists Guild, and a Core Writer with InterAct Theatre, Orbiter 3, and (currently) The Playwrights’ Center.

An alum of both the Yale School of Drama and the New England Center for Circus Arts, L is also a contemporary circus artist. She has performed duo trapeze and other circus-theater at festivals around the world, and she’s a dramaturg for circus artists around the country. She loves theater that moves, and circus that delves.

L has lived in seven cities and is now based in Philadelphia, where she writes, teaches, devises, and handstands. Currently, she's working on an EST/Sloan commission – a three-part behemoth of a new play called THE MERCURY 13 GUIDE TO GETTING OFF THE GROUND [working title].


 Sign Up Below! 

Questions? Email Membership Programs Manager, Alayna Jacqueline Barnes, at alaynab@pwcenter.org

Headshot of L M Feldman, looking down with a bashful smile, sitting at an old wooden desk covered in papers and a laptop; L is white, is wearing a flannel yellow-and-blue-plaid shirt, and has super-short-cropped brown hair that’s graying. :)