How to write a play

Playwriting can be one of the purest and most liberating forms of writing, but for the uninitiated it can also be one of the most intimidating. This course, led by playwright Rebecca Lenkiewicz, will demystify the unique process of writing for the stage, and give you the confidence and tools you need to explore your ideas, start writing a play and embrace all the opportunities theatre can offer a creative mind.

Course description

Over the course of a weekend, we'll examine the fundamentals of playwriting through practical writing exercises and discussion. We'll start with the most important of all: ideas. In subsequent sessions we'll take a closer look at what makes writing for the stage different from any other form, and how you can shape your idea into characters, situations and settings that work theatrically.

By the end of the two days, every student will produce a scene, which they will have the rare opportunity to hear read by professional actors, to learn what happens to a playwright's words when they're lifted off the page and given life.

Other sessions will include:

• Ideas
• Beginning a playwriting
• Character
• Style
• Fuel/discipline
• Structure

This course is for you if...

You have an idea for a play but don't know how to start writing it, or you're passionate about writing and theatre and want to learn more about the art of playwriting.

Tutor profile

Rebecca Lenkiewicz has written for radio, television and film. Her plays include The Night Season and Her Naked Skin ( National Theatre), Shoreditch Madonna and That Almost Unnameable Lust ( Soho Theatre), The Painter (Arcola), and a recent adaptation of The Turn of the Screw at the Almeida and Ibsen's Ghosts and An Enemy of the People (Arcola and Manhattan Theatre Club, Broadway).

Full course and returns information on the Masterclasses website