Fundamentals of Playwriting

Taking our cue from Aristotle’s six elements of drama—plot, character, thought, diction, music, spectacle—this six-week/six class course will anatomize the process of playwriting and isolate different ways of considering the writing process. Each week we will focus on one of these elements, taking it out of context and making it strange so that we may better understand how and why it works. We will look at a number of plays (drawn largely from the past 30 years) to see how different playwrights have used each element as a tool to shape their storytelling. And we will use this tool ourselves, responding to a handful of writing prompts and sharing our writing for feedback from the group.

“I like anything a word can do” –Gertrude Stein

In this multi-discipline art form, understanding the ways a playwright approaches his or her craft can enrich the actor’s ability to create organic, experiential behavior. The Maggie Flanigan Studio believes that exceptional actors have a passion for the medium in which they work: the script. Discovering an appreciation for the writer’s struggle also allows for a greater sense of artistic responsibility to honor another artist’s achievement.

At the end of this class, students will have a portfolio of 10-20 micro-dramas that could be developed into full works, a better familiarity with the major playwrights working in the American theater today, and a sensitivity to the art of playwriting that they can carry with them when they are next able to work in collaboration with a playwright.