Pen to Print: Playwriting Classes (Online)

Session Eleven: Short Plays

What makes a good short play and how to approach writing one. Short play structure, style and content. The importance of sending to scratch nights and short play competitions, and the topics to avoid.

Learning outcomes:

Students will engage with real short plays that have been successful on stage and screen, helping them to understand what a short play is, can be about, and can do. They will know the various options available to them in structuring a short play and how to approach coming up with ideas and styles appropriate for the short genre.

They will complete a fun written exercise where they choose aspects of their play randomly, through rolling dice, helping them to understand that creating a short play from scratch, complete with characters, a setting, props, etc. can be easy and immense fun. They will learn how ‘play’ can expel their self-doubts and is vital in sparking new and original, fun ideas that will delight audiences.

They will feel encouraged and empowered to submit their short plays to scratch nights and short play companies, therefore kickstarting their future careers as playwrights.

Course Outline:

This comprehensive 11-month course guides the aspiring playwright through all the fundamental important aspects of playwriting, from generating ideas and creating characters, to structuring a story for the stage. Each two-hour workshop explores one or more aspects in depth, including creating conflict and drama, developing themes and message, worldbuilding, engaging your audience throughout, how to format a play as a written script, and writing sparkling, purposeful dialogue which leaps off the page.

The course combines theory with practical advice and first-hand experience, covering full-length plays, short plays and monologues. Participants are encouraged to create work which will be producible by theatres in the real world. The workshops include written exercises alongside engagement with classic and recent play texts and performed scenes. Students are empowered to believe their unique, diverse voice is important and valuable to the world of theatre and are encouraged to get their work, along with their diverse characters, out into the real world.

Suitable for beginners and anyone who has previously tried writing a play.

Lucy Kaufman is an award-winning, professional playwright and writer with years of experience in teaching Playwriting and Screenwriting to people of all backgrounds and ages. Lucy is an adaptable storyteller and script consultant with a passion for nurturing writers and their work.

Please note there is a supporting Google Classroom for this course and the direct link to join can be found in confirmation email under the Additional information section.

If you have any accessibility requirements, please directly get in touch with us at pentoprint@lbbd.gov.uk

If you are not sure if this class is for you or would like more information, please contact us to discuss. Ask the organiser or email: pentoprint@lbbd.gov.uk

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NB: To make the most of the Playwriting Classes with Lucy Kaufman, please ensure that you book your place and that you are prepared to attend all the available sessions, there are 11 monthly sessions in total.

Tickets will be released in three-month blocks for the following dates:

• 13 September 2023
• 4 October 2023
• 15 November 2023
• 13 December 2023
• 17 January 2024
• 14 February 2024
• 13 March 2024
• 17 April 2024
• 15 May 2024
• 5 June 2024
• 10 July 2024

• NB: Content includes viewing films for illustration purposes which may feature content that some people may find upsetting, uses language or depicts scenes reflecting attitudes to race and sex that are no longer seen as acceptable

• Booking is essential. Pen to Print and our partners reserve the right to remove participants who are found not to have booked a place for a session

• Pen to Print and our partners reserve the right to unenroll a participant from a course and explore an alternative approach to supporting them on their writing journey, if we feel that a class is unsuitable for that participant

• Pen to Print reserves the right to cancel, delay or postpone the event for any reason, including adverse weather conditions, an emergency situation or unforeseen or unavoidable circumstances out of its reasonable control. In such cases, the event organiser will endeavour to inform participants as quickly as is possible