How do we connect to the present moment, or even the future, through playwriting? Why is it that some plays seem timeless while others are forgotten? By mining the subconscious and using all parts of our storytelling brain, scenes, monologues, characters, and settings emerge. When our playwriting is based in actual play, curiosity, and is in relationship to its environment, the elements of our plays make for lasting stories.
In this 6-week course, students will be given exercises and tools that encourage exciting, fascinating, raw first drafts and world-building. The class meets on October 8, 15, 22, 29, Nov.5, and Nov. 12, from 6:30-8:30 pm on Zoom. Students will then delve into structure, from the most traditional to the most experimental examples, taking into account the role the environment plays in some of the most famous theatrical works of all time. In the second half of the course, students will be given revision tools and exercises. Throughout, direct, uplifting feedback will be given from the instructor and from each other, culminating in an optional sharing of pages read out loud, as ultimately, our plays are meant to be heard.
Leslie Gauthier is a playwright and screenwriter. Her plays include Elsewhere (semifinalist Rattlestick’s Terrence McNally New Works Incubator, semifinalist LaMama Experiments in Playwriting), Cul-de-Sac (AFF second-rounder, Terrence McNally New Works semifinalist), and Greetings! From the Mojave (BAM, September 2024). She earned her MFA in Playwriting from Brooklyn College in 2024, and is a recent recipient of the Rona Jaffe Fellowship and Himan Brown award for creative writing. Her prose has appeared in The New York Times and Paste Magazine. Her screenplay, Buena Vista, is a semifinalist at Cascadia Intl Women's Film Festival, and her first feature, Grand Island is a quarter finalist in the ISA's Emerging Screenwriter's Drama Competition. Previously, Leslie attended Fordham University for acting and directing, trained at MXAT, and studied contemporary French theater with NYU in Paris. She's held residencies at SPACE on Ryder Farm (2017, 2019, 2022) and CourCommune in Voulx, Fr. (2019, 2023). She survived leukemia in her early 20's. She lives in Brooklyn with her partner, playwright and screenwriter, C.A. Johnson, and their rescue dog and kitten.
Price is 343.38