J.T. Rogers And Ayad Akhtar Come To PlayPenn Education

PlayPenn, the nationally-recognized new play development organization based in Philadelphia, is excited to announce their Summer 2019 Education Program courses. Curated by Director of Education Julia Bumke, the semester features a variety of courses and workshops designed for writers of all skill levels.

This year, PlayPenn is proud to present a special one-night only workshop with acclaimed playwrights J.T. Rogers and Ayad Akhtar titled "Political Theatre in the United States" on June 24, 2019 starting at 7PM at The Bluver Theatre at The Drake. Rogers (The Overwhelming, Blood and Gifts; Tony Award, Oslo, PlayPenn Conference, 2015) and Akhtar (Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award Nomination, Disgraced; The Who and the What, Junk) have transformed the American theater scene with their searingly political works, which have been produced all over the world. In this workshop, Rogers and Akhtar will cover everything from the nitty-gritty of playwriting to broader questions about the American and world theatre.

Playwriting for Playgoers with John Yearley: Any theatregoer can tell you about a play they saw that they'll never forget. But how much do even lifelong theatregoers know about the art of playwriting itself? Playwriting for Playgoers will mix the educational and the experiential so that students will really understand the practice and experience of playwriting. First, students will read and discuss a great play, breaking down how and why it works so well. Then students will do exercises to explore how to write for plays, how to write in the voice of other characters and create conflicts that reveal their deepest truths. After taking Playwriting for Playgoers, students will never look at a play the same way again. (July 10 and July 16, 6:30 - 9:30pm, Bluver Theatre at The Drake, $125)

Diving into the PlayPenn Conference with Michele Volansky: In celebration of PlayPenn's 15th Anniversary New Play Development Conference, join Associate Artistic Director and Conference Dramaturg Michele Volansky in an exploration of the six extraordinary plays in our 2019 roster. This course will meet to discuss each of the Conference plays during their second week of public readings, teasing out thematic links and talking through the Conference season as a whole. Students will also read the starting drafts of each script, examining how the projects grow and evolve over the course of the Conference. (Class: Tuesday, 7/16: 7-8pm (online) Reading: STRANGE MEN on 7/25 at 7pm Class: Thursday, 7/25, 9-10p Reading: THE PIPER on 7/26 at 8pm Class: Saturday, 7/27: 12:30-1:30pm Reading: INCENDIARY at 4pm and ARCHIPELAGO at 8pm on 7/27 Class: Sunday, 7/28: 11:30a-1:30pm Reading: CAVE CANEM at 2pm and WAYFINDING at 5pm on 7/28 Class: Monday, 7/29: 6-8pm (online), The Drake Theatre, $135)

21-Hour Summer Playtime Intensive with L M Feldman: Write, play, and discover with PlayPenn instructor L M Feldman in this immersive summer intensive. Students will spend each session in the spark and buzz that comes from writing a lot in a short period of time among a community of other writers who are doing it with them. Each time the class meets, students will have a prompt or two to run with, a hefty chunk of time to write, and then time at the end for half of the class to share their writing aloud and hear immediate responses on what's landing, what's exciting, and what we're hungry for more of. Prompts will be open-ended enough to use however is most useful to writers. (Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays at 5:30-8:30p: July 29, July 31, August 2, August 5, August 7, August 9, August 12, Rehearsal Studio at The Drake, $450)

Creating Character with Sheri Wilner: This weekend-long intensive is designed to help writers create lucid yet complicated three-dimensional characters. Together, Wilner and students work on multiple in-class and at-home writing exercises that help develop a deep understanding of a character's wants and needs, psychology and back stories and then how to transmit that understanding to audiences through action and dialogue rather than exposition. Wilner's class will deepen your knowledge of a writer's current characters and provide tools to create vivid, distinct, three-dimensional characters in future work. Whether you're revising a completed draft of a play, at the early stages of beginning a new one, or have a character but no story, the course's exercises and discussions will apply to you. (Saturday and Sunday, August 10 and 11, 1-5pm, Location in Center City Philadelphia TBA, $170)

Registration and more information can be found at playpenn.org.

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