Philly Playwright Wins Yale Prize and Programs Summer of Writing Classes

PlayPenn, Philadelphia's artist-driven organization dedicated to improving the way in which new plays are developed, has announced their Summer 2017 education offerings, including several opportunities to "binge learn" during curated packages created especially for ambitious students. Theatre artists and writers from the region and beyond are invited to register for the organization's various offerings, ranging from one-day master classes to multi-week courses for enthusiasts of all experience levels. Award-winning writer Jacqueline Goldfinger (recipient of this year's Yale Drama Series Prize) is PlayPenn's Education Director, and she has gathered a notable team of theatre artists as this semester's faculty, including PlayPenn 2017 Conference writer Christine Evans, Jeremy Stoller, Jack Tamburri, Jeremy Gable, Lauren Feldman, Liz Duffy Adams, Sheri Wilner, and John Yearly.

PlayPenn Education is offering two opportunities for students to immerse themselves with their highly-acclaimed faculty through curated packages of courses and experiences. The Staycation Package (July 8 through August 31) offers theater artists from around the globe the chance to learn with Liz Duffy Adams, Lauren Feldman, and Jeremy Stoller via PlayPenn's innovative online course management system. Or, artists can enroll in the Philly Fun Package (July 22-23), an intensive weekend featuring workshops with Sheri Wilner, Christina Evans, Jeremy Gable, and Jack Tamburri.

PlayPenn's online classes and workshops are the result of an extensive self-study where our educators worked, refined, and piloted a limited number of online courses until they felt that they "got it right." PlayPenn uses Zoom, a professional, high quality, stable online meeting service used primarily by business to hold meetings nationally and internationally. Zoom does not require the purchase of special software or a particular operating system. The classroom screen is arranged like The Brady Bunch credit sequence; students can see each person in the class, or they simply click one button to only see the speaker. This system has the intimacy of one-on-one instruction combined with the option to connect with all class members. All instructors are live and students can interact with them directly. They have crafted their curriculum specifically for PlayPenn to make best use of the online format and our system. It's like being in the classroom without having to leave your home (or your PJs!).

Of course, PlayPenn is also offering a host of face-to-face classes in Center City Philadelphia that are perfect for those who are interested in more of a conventional workshop setting.

A full list of PlayPenn's Summer 2017 classes is below. Pre-registration is required for interested students.

Class registration and further details can be found by visiting playpenn.org/classes, or by emailing classes@playpenn.org.

DETAILS AND CLASSES

Playwriting 101: Nuts and Bolts Four sections: June 24 from 1PM-6PM, July 11 and July 13 from 7PM-9:30PM, August 7-August 11 from 12PM-1PM, August 20 from 1PM-6PM, $75 online, Faculty: Jacqueline Goldfinger. Join University of Pennsylvania Playwriting Professor and PlayPenn Director of Education Jacqueline Goldfinger for a down and dirty, nuts and bolts five-hour exploration of the basics of the art and craft of playwriting. Whether you're a professional writer or haven't written a word, this class is great both for polishing skills and picking up new ones. We will cover: traditional well-made play structure, other structural alternatives, creating engaging characters, creating strong worlds, scene-work, monologue-work, and more. We will also do, and share, several short writing exercises. If you take this class, you receive a $10 credit towards one future full-price class at PlayPenn.

The Drawer Play: Rewriting and Reclamation July 8, 15, and 22, 1PM-5PM, $175, online, Faculty: Liz Duffy Adams. Join former PlayPenn Conference Playwright and Harvard Visiting Lecturer in Playwriting Liz Duffy Adams for a joyful and creative romp through an old text turned new. Students will bring in a "drawer play," something they wrote and abandoned, or haven't been able to finish, or just wrote and don't know what to do with next: short or long, fragments or full. Students will embark on an adventure of structure, language and character. They'll cut, expand, explode, rearrange, kill their darlings, and discover new landscapes until they have got something they are freshly in love with...or ready to let go for good, but with inspiration and new tools for the next play.

Navigating the Industry July 9 from 5PM-8PM or August 31 from 7PM-10PM, $75, online, faculty: Jeremy Stoller. This class is designed to offer transparency about how theaters select their seasons, and why simply sending out standard query emails and script samples probably isn't yielding the desired results. Learn ways to focus your outreach, grow your network of collaborators and champions, represent yourself clearly in queries and artist statements, and ultimately play a more active role in getting your plays where they are meant to be: in front of audiences. In order to target this to the specific needs of its participants, students will have the opportunity to raise questions and topics of interest in advance that they would like to see addressed in this class.

Writing for Performers: Plays and Screenplays July 11, 21, and 23, 6PM-9PM, $95, The Drake Theatre (302 S. Hicks Street, Philadelphia), Faculty: John Yearley. Join PlayPenn Conference Playwright/Performer and Screenwriter John Yearley for an exploration of how to use your performance skills to write plays and screenplays. So many performers want to write but are unsure of how to start. Others are intimidated. But why should that be? Some of our greatest playwrights started as actors. Many of the skills needed to be a good playwright - understanding of character, dialogue, and the structure of scenes - are very similar to the skills needed to be a fine actor. In this class, actors will learn how to use the skills they already have to write plays and screenplays. Learning to write can deepen your work as an actor and enrich your entire creative life.

Writing in Community: Creating New Work with Individual Collaborators, A Collective of Artists, or a Class of Students July 22-23, 9AM-12PM, $100, The Drake Theatre (302 S. Hicks Street, Philadelphia), Faculty: Jack Tamburri and Jeremy Gable. Often acts of community creation are the most exhilarating and meaningful! Come learn how to plan and execute communal creation so that both process and product are an inclusive, joy-filled and productive experience. Perfect for all theater artists, educators and enthusiasts!

Writing the Issue-Based Play July 22-23, 1PM-5PM, $130, The Drake Theatre (302 S. Hicks Street, Philadelphia), Faculty: Sheri Wilner. Join Boston College Playwriting Professor and PlayPenn Dramaturg Sheri Wilner for a weekend Master Class focusing on creating new work around a specific social or political issue that is important to you. These days it's nearly impossible to go online, watch TV, pick up a newspaper, or scroll through your Facebook news feed without becoming livid, terrified or despondent. Our feelings about such issues as the Trump Presidency; the Supreme Court; women, gay and transgendered rights; gun control; immigration reform; racial inequality; gender bias and countless other topics give rise to the same intense emotions that are not only embedded in great plays but have also brought forth such mobilizing works as The Laramie Project, Hamilton and The Normal Heart. In this master class, through writing exercises, classroom discussion, assigned readings, and a final creative project, we'll explore why specific news stories, issues, or conflicts evoke strong emotions in us; discover our personal connection to the issue; investigate the motivations and emotions underneath our opponents' opinions; and, ultimately learn how to transform our knee-jerk emotional responses into engaging works for the theatre that foster the kind of constructive and complex conversation these important issues deserve.

Working with Images and Objects July 22, 6PM-9PM, $75, The Drake Theatre (302 S. Hicks Street, Philadelphia), Faculty: Christine Evans. 2017 Conference Playwright Christine Evans joins us for one evening only to teach her popular "Working with Images and Objects" workshop. Take her class, then make sure to join us to see her play, Galilee, this summer at the PlayPenn Conference! Christine has taught playwriting at the Playwrights' Foundation in San Francisco and at universities including Brown, Harvard, Georgetown, and USF.

Inspiration and Perspiration: A Writing Prompt Workshop July 31, August 7, 14, and 21, 6:30PM-8:30PM, $125, online, Faculty: Lauren Feldman. Popular PlayPenn Teaching Artist and Conference Playwright Lauren Feldman leads you through a new writing prompt each week! The prompts will help get you/keep you inspired to write as well as offer a way to strengthen the craft elements in your playwriting tool kit. Each week we will focus on one specific craft element, and give a writing prompt to help you better understand and practice this element.

SPECIAL PLAYPENN PACKAGES

The Staycation Package: Hang out in your PJs and write from home with us in July and August. Register to take three online classes for only $325 - a savings of $50! - if you register by May 31. Includes The Drawer Play: Rewriting and Reclamation with Liz Duffy Adams, Inspiration and Perspiration: A Writing Prompt Workshop with Lauren Feldman, and Navigating the Industry with Jeremy Stoller.

The Philly Sun Package: Join us in Philadelphia for a full weekend on July 22-23 and take 3 unique in-person workshops for only $275 - a savings of $50 - if you register by May 31. Includes Writing with Community: Creating New Work with Individual Collaborators, a Collective of Artists, or a Class of Students with Jack Tamburri and Jeremy Gable, Writing the Issue-Based Play with Sheri Wilner, and Working with Images and Objects with Christine Evans.

ABOUT PLAYPENN: PlayPenn is a 13-year old artist-driven organization dedicated to improving the way in which new plays are developed, inviting playwrights to engage in risk-taking, boundary-pushing work free from the pressures of commercial consideration. The organization's flagship annual new play development Conference and year-round development workshops in cooperation with producing theatres result in staged readings of at least 10 new plays each year for over 1,800 artists, producers, and theatergoers. Additionally, PlayPenn's rapidly expanding educational programs-which include 15-17 in-person and online classes annually with notable instructors, application assistance, personalized dramaturgy services, plus The Foundry, a three-year membership group for emerging playwrights resident in Philadelphia-serve another 230+ playwrights from the region and across the nation. PlayPenn supports artists at all career stages across a broad spectrum of cultural, economic, ethnic, and gender experience. Since 2005, PlayPenn has helped to develop over 100 new plays from infancy to a state closer to production-readiness. Nearly 60% of these plays have gone on to more than 275 professional productions at esteemed institutions in the United States, Great Britain, and elsewhere around the world, including the London's National Theatre, National Theatre of Israel, English Theatre Berlin, Roundabout Theatre, Lincoln Center Theatre, Atlantic Theatre, Second Stage, Actors Theatre of Louisville, LaJolla Playhouse, Denver Center Theatre, South Coast Repertory, and a host of theatres in the Philadelphia region, in cities across the country and around the world. In 2017, PlayPenn has celebrated the first of its developed plays to hit a Broadway stage-JT Rogers' Oslo at the Vivian Beaumont Theater, which has been nominated for seven Tony Awards.

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