The only requirement is the desire to learn the craft of the playwright.
There are few feelings more exciting than sitting in the back of a dark theatre watching live actors perform your words, while an audience laughs and cries or even shifts uncomfortably in their seats — and eventually bursts into applause. It’s like watching a chemical reaction that produces an incredible energy, an energy unique to the live stage. An energy that all begins with the playwright.
Whether you’ve never written anything before or you’re experienced in another kind of writing or you’re a playwright looking to sharpen your skills, “Introduction to Playwriting” offers clear, step-by-step guidance in the basics: character, conflict and structure, setting, dialogue and formatting. But that’s not all. Need to make that good script great? We’ll study more than a dozen elements you can use in the rewriting process to move your script up a level and then discuss what to do next in the development and submission process. And since many of the principles of playwriting apply to all forms of dramatic writing, taking “Introduction to Playwriting” is a great idea for screenwriters too. Not only will you come back to your screenwriting with fresh insight, but you might find that you like writing plays too.
Praise for Jon Dorf:
"Thanks a million for putting Playwriting 101 together and making it available to the struggling legions out here. I think it's the best thing on playwriting on the web" - Don Lemna
"As you know, having Cat On A Hot Tin Roof in your head is one thing, but turning it into a play and submitting it is quite another. Your nuts and bolts Playwriting 101 tutorial is a godsend and I doubt anyone could devise a better system of teaching another person to write a play" - James Gary Vineyard
There are no required materials.
Playwright and screenwriter Jonathan Dorf has had his plays produced in over forty-five states, as well as in Canada, Europe, Asia, Australia and New Zealand. He has been a finalist for the Actors Theatre of Louisville Heideman Award and has worked with such companies as the Walnut Street Theatre, Playwrights Theatre of New Jersey, Ensemble Studio Theatre - LA, Moving Arts and the Pittsburgh New Works Festival. He is published by Brooklyn Publishers, Eldridge Publishing, Meriwether, Original Works, Playscripts and Smith & Kraus, is the resident playwriting expert for Final Draft (for whom he created the playwriting "Ask the Expert") and The Writers Store (creator of Playwriting101.com), the co-chair of the Alliance of Los Angeles Playwrights and the former managing director of the Philadelphia Dramatists Center. He is also a member of the Dramatists Guild of America and the Los Angeles-based Ariadne Group. For screen, he has written a trio of produced shorts, as well as a number of feature scripts. He has taught playwriting workshops at schools and festivals across the country, and most recently served as Visiting Associate Professor of Theatre in the Hollins University (Roanoke, VA) MFA playwriting program and as US cultural envoy to Barbados. He holds a BA in Dramatic Writing and Literature from Harvard University and an MFA in Playwriting from UCLA.
Have a question? Read the Help page or call The Writers Store at 800-272-8927 (international callers dial 310-441-5151).
Great Class [Storytelling: How To Write Stories That Will Grab And Hold Your Audience]! This has been a super four weeks. I've learned tons. Your lectures are very clear and easy to apply to my writing. Thanks again.
- Pat