***REGISTRATION IS NOW CLOSED***

CLASS DESCRIPTION

There are classes on beginnings. There are classes on endings. But what about everything in between? The middle of your play commits you to decisions, at least until you reach your ending and move on to the next draft. With guidance from C. Meaker, students will learn strategies to work their way through the mushy middle and act as their own dramaturg. 

• Have written yourself into a corner and can’t find a way out.
• Are feeling lost in your first draft.
• Do not want to wait for outside feedback before finishing a draft.
• Are searching for accountability.
• Are interested in learning more about C. Meaker’s work and approach to writing.

• Weekly readings of plays and writing exercises.
• Connecting and engaging with students and the instructor online via Zoom and Google Classroom.
• Accountability while producing and sharing pages.
• Sharing personal challenges in moving your play forward
• Learning how to identify your writing process.
• Learning several strategies for reading your work for clues to become a stronger dramaturg of your own work and the work of others
• To leave with several pages of text to help propel you through the tricky part of your play

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 within a week of the first session, 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 the Membership Programs Manager, Alayna Jacqueline Barnes, to discuss payment options.

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

Class Type: Playwriting craft, generative writing class                    

Class Level: All levels are welcomed

Class Dates: Every other Thursday, September 28th through November 16th

• 4 total "in-person" sessions: September 28th, October 12th, October 26th, and November 9th
   
• 4 total Google Classroom lessons: October 5th, October 19th, November 2nd, and November 16th

Class Time: 6:30pm - 8:30pm CT 

(4:30pm PT, 5:30pm MT, 7:30pm ET)

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

Structure: Lecture/presentation, Discussion, Writing prompts, Exercises, Breakout groups, Q&A, In-class readings

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.

NOTE FROM C. MEAKER

We leave ourselves clues in our plays subconsciously about where we want to go next in the story. But most of the time we need help figuring out how to find those clues. Sometimes we also need help to figure out where to go next through prompts that help us make unexpected choices and push us through that mushy middle. 

INSTRUCTOR BIO

C. Meaker’s plays have been performed and developed across the United States including the Kennedy Center and National New Play Network, Seattle Repertory Theatre, San Francisco Playhouse, Annex Theatre, About Face Theatre, Macha Monkey Theatre, the Sewanee Writers Conference, and the Playwrights’ Center. Meaker's plays have been published with Dramatic Publishing and Original Works. Meaker describes their work as "reality-adjacent" often playing with conventions outside of kitchen-sink realism that focus on queer characters and feminist themes that tend to be bleak and funny at the same time. They're a Stranger Award Genius Nominee and a Gregory Award Outstanding New Play Nominee. They're an alumna of Seattle Repertory Theatre’s Writers Group and previous Walter E. Dakin Fellow at Sewanee Writers’ Conference. They're a graduate of University of Iowa’s MFA Playwrights’ Workshop and a previous Jerome Fellow at the Playwrights’ Center.