Playwrights Practice: Playwriting Made Easy

Playwrights Practice: Playwriting Made Easy, available at $79.99, has an average rating of 4.65, with 51 lectures, 1 quizzes, based on 148 reviews, and has 1519 subscribers.

You will learn about Learn the skills to create your own short stage plays from idea inception through polished final draft execution, ready for contests, readings, and workshops. Master short stage play structure. Discover formulas, shortcuts, methodologies and creative insights to help jumpstart your journey as a playwright. Identify and overcome major flaws found in both new and professional writers today. Understand what makes an idea right for theatrical exploration (versus cinematic exploration or literary exploration). Study and master the art of nuanced dialogue creation. Manage character and audience expectations. Create and manipulate rising tension. Uncover tips and tricks to help you avoid cliche in your writing. Demonstrate and duplicate proper stage play format. Enable you to examine and change your life through playwriting. Valuable feedback provided when you pay full price for this course. No feedback is provided when this course is purchased at a discount. This course is ideal for individuals who are This introduction to the craft of playwriting, along with its online table reading component, is designed to be helpful and beneficial to writers of any level. or Screenwriters can benefit from this course through mastery of the art of dialogue creation. Extensive exercises have been created to help you write brilliant, nuanced dialogue that stands out and gets noticed. or This course is ideal for Low Budget Filmmakers and Scripted Content Creators, anyone who wants or needs to improve their speech/dialogue writing skills, anyone interested in developing their writing through constructive criticism [for online table readings], anyone who wants an opportunity to examine and change parts of their life, anyone who wants to make an audience pay attention and influence opinion, or anyone who needs a better understanding of their place in the world. It is particularly useful for This introduction to the craft of playwriting, along with its online table reading component, is designed to be helpful and beneficial to writers of any level. or Screenwriters can benefit from this course through mastery of the art of dialogue creation. Extensive exercises have been created to help you write brilliant, nuanced dialogue that stands out and gets noticed. or This course is ideal for Low Budget Filmmakers and Scripted Content Creators, anyone who wants or needs to improve their speech/dialogue writing skills, anyone interested in developing their writing through constructive criticism [for online table readings], anyone who wants an opportunity to examine and change parts of their life, anyone who wants to make an audience pay attention and influence opinion, or anyone who needs a better understanding of their place in the world.

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Summary

Title: Playwrights Practice: Playwriting Made Easy

Price: $79.99

Average Rating: 4.65

Number of Lectures: 51

Number of Quizzes: 1

Number of Published Lectures: 51

Number of Published Quizzes: 1

Number of Curriculum Items: 52

Number of Published Curriculum Objects: 52

Original Price: $39.99

Quality Status: approved

Status: Live

What You Will Learn

Learn the skills to create your own short stage plays from idea inception through polished final draft execution, ready for contests, readings, and workshops.
Master short stage play structure.
Discover formulas, shortcuts, methodologies and creative insights to help jumpstart your journey as a playwright.
Identify and overcome major flaws found in both new and professional writers today.
Understand what makes an idea right for theatrical exploration (versus cinematic exploration or literary exploration).
Study and master the art of nuanced dialogue creation.
Manage character and audience expectations.
Create and manipulate rising tension.
Uncover tips and tricks to help you avoid cliche in your writing.
Demonstrate and duplicate proper stage play format.
Enable you to examine and change your life through playwriting.
Valuable feedback provided when you pay full price for this course. No feedback is provided when this course is purchased at a discount.

Who Should Attend

This introduction to the craft of playwriting, along with its online table reading component, is designed to be helpful and beneficial to writers of any level.
Screenwriters can benefit from this course through mastery of the art of dialogue creation. Extensive exercises have been created to help you write brilliant, nuanced dialogue that stands out and gets noticed.
This course is ideal for Low Budget Filmmakers and Scripted Content Creators, anyone who wants or needs to improve their speech/dialogue writing skills, anyone interested in developing their writing through constructive criticism [for online table readings], anyone who wants an opportunity to examine and change parts of their life, anyone who wants to make an audience pay attention and influence opinion, or anyone who needs a better understanding of their place in the world.

Target Audiences

This introduction to the craft of playwriting, along with its online table reading component, is designed to be helpful and beneficial to writers of any level.
Screenwriters can benefit from this course through mastery of the art of dialogue creation. Extensive exercises have been created to help you write brilliant, nuanced dialogue that stands out and gets noticed.
This course is ideal for Low Budget Filmmakers and Scripted Content Creators, anyone who wants or needs to improve their speech/dialogue writing skills, anyone interested in developing their writing through constructive criticism [for online table readings], anyone who wants an opportunity to examine and change parts of their life, anyone who wants to make an audience pay attention and influence opinion, or anyone who needs a better understanding of their place in the world.

Playwrights Practice: Playwriting Made Easy

“The act of playwriting feeds the soul unlike anything else in the theatre arts.” ~Unknown

This is a comprehensive course designed to teach aspiring playwrights the methods and skills necessary to create their own short stage plays from idea inception through polished final draft execution. We will reference and study theatrical masterpieces as examples.

Playwriting is about the journey of the play. That journey offers you the chance to change your life through examination. It enables you to take a problem and look at it in ways you may never have considered before. This can, in turn, present previously unseen options to you.

Herein, I offer to you the shortcuts, methodologies and creative insights taught to me during the first semester of MFA-level playwriting in Carnegie Mellon University’s Dramatic Writing program. These fuzzy memories have been married to a myriad of professional tips, tricks and secrets I’ve learned through the experiments, successes and failures of both myself and fellow alum during our journey into the businesses of theater, film and television.

If you follow this course through from beginning to end and execute all of the readings and exercises, you will be armed with the tools necessary to transform yourself into a short-form playwright of note while becoming a better writer and a more thoughtful human being.

You will learn about short play structure, writing formulas, various types and levels of dialogue creation, managing character expectations, managing audience expectations, rising tension, avoiding cliche, and proper stage play format … and in the process of practicing you will develop your own personal writing style and flare.

If you complete the instruction provided along with the assignments and optional online table reading, you will complete this course with a minimum of:

1) one ten-minute play, and
2) the foundation necessary to prepare you to write your first full length stage play for the purpose of winning notoriety, influencing people, mastering advanced structure, applying for a possible residency, or submission to short-form playwriting competitions.

This course is dedicated to the memory of my playwriting mentor, Milan Stitt, February 9, 1941 to March 12, 2009 (The Runner Stumbles).

Course Curriculum

Chapter 1: Course Overview

Lecture 1: Welcome New Playwrights!

Lecture 2: Tools of the Trade & Mining the World for Ideas

Lecture 3: There is no writer's block. Only procrastination.

Lecture 4: Preface About Plays

Lecture 5: Download: Preface About Plays PDF

Lecture 6: The Voyage of the Play

Chapter 2: The Bare Minimum: Everything You Need to Write Your First Draft

Lecture 1: A Note About Writing Assignments

Lecture 2: Reading Assignment: Tennessee Williams, "Summer & Smoke"

Lecture 3: Which medium is right for my idea? Movies vs. Novels vs. Theater

Lecture 4: What makes great theater? Can you define event, plot and story? The MDQ.

Lecture 5: MDQ Bonus Lecture

Lecture 6: 1st Impulses are Cliches (or "Your Kung Fu is not strong.")

Lecture 7: The Difficulty with Solutions

Lecture 8: Tell Me of My Problems: What Makes Good Criticism?

Lecture 9: Writing Assignment: Record and Transcribe Dialogue #1

Lecture 10: Cracking the One-Sentence Outline

Lecture 11: Unveiling One-Act Structure

Lecture 12: Writing Assignment: Draft One of 10-minute Play

Lecture 13: Download: Proper Play Format Example – 'Retribution' by Jack Sullivan

Chapter 3: Getting Better: Tackling the First Rewrite

Lecture 1: Reading Assignment, David Mamet, "American Buffalo"

Lecture 2: Lecture and Writing Assignment: Become Tennessee Williams

Lecture 3: Stage Directions: What They Are and Why You Don't Write 'Em

Lecture 4: Download: Cat On A Hot Tin Roof excerpt

Lecture 5: Download: Stage Overview Graphic

Lecture 6: The Trouble with Titles

Lecture 7: Rising Tension and Complications

Lecture 8: Download: Attack-Complications-Crisis "Rising Tension" Graphic PDF

Lecture 9: Rhythm is Key

Lecture 10: A Few Notes on Research

Lecture 11: Writing Assignment: Identify Your Play's MDQ

Lecture 12: Writing Assignment: Rechecking the One-Sentence Outline

Lecture 13: Writing Assignment: Record and Transcribe Dialogue #2

Lecture 14: Writing Assignment: The First Major Rewrite

Chapter 4: Defeating the Problems of the Pros: The Second Rewrite

Lecture 1: Reading Assignment: Harold Pinter, "The Caretaker"

Lecture 2: Reading Assignment: Samuel Beckett, "Happy Days"

Lecture 3: Levels of Dialogue 1: "American Buffalo"

Lecture 4: Levels of Dialogue 2: "The Caretaker"

Lecture 5: Levels of Dialogue 3: "Happy Days"

Lecture 6: Character Expectations

Lecture 7: Beats

Lecture 8: Download: 'It's Only A Play' Beats PDF

Lecture 9: Writing Assignment: Record and Transcribe Dialogue #3

Lecture 10: Writing Assignment: Identify Beats In Your Play

Lecture 11: Reality Check: 10-Minute Play page-by-page breakdown

Lecture 12: Writing Assignment: Play Draft Three – Enhance Your Character Dialogue

Chapter 5: The Final Draft. Now what?

Lecture 1: Listening Assignment: William Shakespeare's "Antony & Cleopatra"

Lecture 2: The Value of Historical Plays like "Antony & Cleopatra"

Lecture 3: Let's Get Specific

Lecture 4: Writing Assignment: Play Final Draft – Punch Up Specifics

Lecture 5: Now what? Opportunities moving forward…

Lecture 6: Stay In Touch. Share Your Success Stories.

Instructors

Jack Sullivan
Comedian-Writer-Educator-Web Technologist & Worker Bee

Rating Distribution

1 stars: 4 votes
2 stars: 9 votes
3 stars: 22 votes
4 stars: 44 votes
5 stars: 69 votes

Frequently Asked Questions

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You can view and review the lecture materials indefinitely, like an on-demand channel.

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Definitely! If you have an internet connection, courses on Udemy are available on any device at any time. If you don’t have an internet connection, some instructors also let their students download course lectures. That’s up to the instructor though, so make sure you get on their good side!

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