playwriting workshop in nyc

Voice & Vision’s Inaugural Playwriting Workshop for Women Playwrights
Wednesdsays, March 14 – May 2
6:30 – 9:30pm;
Location TBA
fee: $450

Voice & Vision Theater’s inaugural playwriting workshop, taught by Lisa D’Amour (OBIE award-winning playwright, and writer of the recentlyacclaimed STANLEY 2006), is designed to help all women playwrights, fromthe experienced to the beginner, make substantial headway on a full-lengthplay. An excellent opportunity if you have recently started or would liketo start a full-length play, this class will offer an encouraging,feedback-oriented forum within which to explore character, structure andstyle as you write.

Early on, the workshop syllabus will include short exercises to help explore the world of your play, the characters that live there, and thetheatrical frame of your script. In later weeks you will have the chanceto workshop portions of your play in class. As a class, we will read andanalyze two published plays, exploring their unique perspectives and formats. Additionally, this workshop will include guests who are an integral part of the theater industry, such as literary managers, directors and other playwrights who will talk about making one’s way as aplaywright in the theater community.

If you are a playwright who has a hard time finishing a play, or framing your ideas in order to get started, this workshop will provide the supportyou need to take risks, explore new theatrical languages, and writethrough to the end of your play.While admission is not competitive, previous theater experience, fictionwriting, and/or playwriting experience is highly recommended.

To apply please send a brief paragraph about your writing and/or theater background to: acooper@vandv.org, along with your full name, address, and contactphone number. Payments and enrollment will be processed after receivingapplications on a first-come, first-served basis. Inquiries may also besent to acooper@vandv.org.

Playwright Mentor Lisa D'Amour is an OBIE award-winning playwright, soloperformer and multidisciplinary artist. Recent projects include Tale of aWest Texas Marsupial Girl, a children's musical directed by WhitMacLaughlin (Children's Theater Company, 2007), STANLEY (2006), a soloperformance she created for her brother Todd to perform (HERE Arts Center,November 2006), The Cataract, a play directed by Katie Pearl at theWomen’s Project, LandMARK: 24 Hours @ the Stone Arch Bridge, a 24-hourcollaborative performance on the Stone Arch Bridge in Minneapolis; andNita & Zita, which received a 2003 OBIE Award and toured in 2005 to theContemporary Arts Center (New Orleans) the Walker Arts Center(Minnneapolis) and HERE Arts Center (NYC). Recently, she received aPlaywrights’ Residency Program grant from Theater Communications Group towrite Hide Town for Infernal Bridegroom Productions (Houston). Lisa hastaught playwriting and site-specific theater at many academicinstitutions, including the University of Texas at Austin, the Universityof Rochester, UC Santa Barbara and Smith College. She received her M.F.A.in playwriting from UT Austin. She is a core member of the Playwrights’Center and a recent alumna of New Dramatists.