THEATRE PLAYWRITING

Meet Melis Aker, get an overview of the final project and the Liz Lerman feedback method, and dig into the course's central question: what still needs to happen live, in a room, when everything else can happen on a screen?

• Final project overview: roadmap, Act One draft, playwright's packet
• Liz Lerman feedback method
• The 75–90-minute no-intermission play model
• The central question of the course

Explore the stage's constraints as creative strengths, and learn why "small" never means un-theatrical.

• Theatricality versus realism
• Stage limitations as imaginative pressure
• Audience suspension of disbelief
• Bodies, breath, silence, and shared attention
• Case study: Fairview by Jackie Sibblies Drury and White Rabbit Red Rabbit by Nassim Soleimanpour

Assignment #1: Theatrical Encounter
Observe a real-world live event and write field notes identifying who is performing, who is watching, and what could only be theatrical there.

Move from observation into premise, testing your material against the "why stage" and "why now" questions.

• Protagonist and central want
• Central conflict and inciting incident
• The theatrical engine
• The "why stage?" and "why now?" tests
• Case study: Guards at the Taj by Rajiv Joseph and A Doll's House, Part 2 by Lucas Hnath

Assignment #2: From Encounter to Premise
Generate three possible play premises from your observation, then choose one to develop for the rest of the course.

Master one-act, two-act, and no-intermission structures, and learn to treat time as a rule of your play's world rather than a late-stage detail.

• One-act, two-act, and three-act paradigms
• Structure as creative pressure
• The 75–90-minute no-intermission form
• Time as world-building: real time, memory, ritual, dream logic
• Case study: The Humans by Stephen Karam and Small Mouth Sounds by Bess Wohl

Build the world around your protagonist, treating secondary characters and settings as active forces rather than backdrop.

• World as pressure system
• Secondary characters as active forces
• Roles, hierarchies, and repeated behaviours
• Workshop: Social Ecosystem Study real-world encounter
• Case study: Barber Shop Chronicles by Inua Ellams and Cost of Living by Martyna Majok

Assignment #3: World + Time + Character Map
Build a character and world map for your play, plus a one-page structural roadmap covering protagonist, opposition, and major turns.

Learn to write dialogue as tactics rather than information, so every line of speech does something to the person hearing it.

• Dialogue as tactics: avoiding, seducing, testing, provoking
• Active speech versus on-the-nose exposition
• Writing from rhythm without transcribing real conversations
• Workshop: Overheard Tactics real-world encounter
• Case study: The Flick by Annie Baker and Heroes of the Fourth Turning by Will Arbery

Discover how silence, pause, and withheld truth can carry more weight on stage than dialogue ever could.

• Silence as action
• Pause versus avoidance versus withheld truth
• Cutting dialogue to make a scene more live
• Workshop: First table read of your opening pages
• Case study: Mary Jane by Amy Herzog and Girls & Boys by Dennis Kelly

Assignment #4: First Pages / Dialogue as Action
Write 10 pages of your play, including a two-character scene with at least three clear tactic shifts.

Learn to start scenes as late as possible and end them on a turn, using entrances and exits to shift power.

• Want plus obstacle equals conflict
• Entering late, leaving early
• Scene as event
• Workshop: Threshold Study real-world encounter
• Case study: The Effect by Lucy Prebble and Prima Facie by Suzie Miller

Assignment #5: Opening Scene + Subtext Revision
Write or revise your opening scene, then cut at least 20% of the dialogue from Assignment #4 and replace it with silence, gesture, or physical action.

Learn to deliver backstory through present-tense conflict, and hear directly from a guest speaker on pacing information for a live audience.

• Backstory as ammunition
• Information through objects, rituals, and contradictions
• What the audience needs now versus later
• Case study: Appropriate by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins and Is This A Room by Tina Satter

Treat stage directions and props as narrative tools, and discover how low-budget theatre creates spectacle through image and repetition.

• Stage directions as invitation
• Objects as memory, evidence, threat, or wound
• Physical action as information
• Workshop: Object Study real-world encounter
• Case study: The Welkin by Lucy Kirkwood and Is God Is by Aleshea Harris

Assignment #6: Backstory Through Conflict
Revise a scene so backstory emerges through present-tense conflict rather than explanation, and write a scene where an object or physical action carries information dialogue doesn't.

Learn how a play moves on stage once you understand your world's rules for time, using rhythm and image instead of blackouts.

• Transitions as active storytelling
• Stage rhythm across scenes
• Sound, gesture, and repeated image as connective tissue
• Workshop: Transition / Time Study real-world encounter
• Case study: Sweat by Lynn Nottage and Stereophonic by David Adjmi

Choreograph scenes with three or more characters, balancing focus, shifting alliances, and overlapping agendas.

• Balancing focus across multiple characters
• Crowd as character
• Shifting alliances and interruptions
• Workshop: Group Dynamics Study real-world encounter
• Case study: Pass Over by Antoinette Nwandu and Iphigenia in Splott by Gary Owen

Assignment #7: Multi-Character Scene
Write a 5–8 page multi-character scene in which each character enters with a different agenda and the power dynamic shifts at least twice.

Learn escalation as cost, identifying the false victory, the false defeat, and the point where a situation can no longer return to normal.

• False victory and false defeat
• Reversal, discovery, and betrayal
• The theme the play keeps forcing into the room
• Workshop: Stakes Study real-world encounter

Assignment #8: Midpoint / Point of No Return
Identify the midpoint or point of no return in your play, and write the scene where your protagonist makes or is forced into an irreversible choice.

Build toward a turn that's inevitable but surprising, one that changes the rules of your play's second half without resorting to an artificial cliffhanger.

• Building an inevitable but surprising turn
• How the first half changes the rules of the second
• Creating genuine dramatic consequence

Assignment #9: Revise Sequence Two / Part One Turn
Revise your second major sequence or first-half turn, clarifying what changes and why it's irreversible.

Hear your pages read aloud for the first time, in peer reading pods with TA-supported feedback, and practise listening to your own work objectively.

• Selected excerpts read in peer pods
• TA-supported feedback and short revision memos
• Listening for where the room leans in and where it drops

Learn revision as re-seeing rather than tidying up, testing every scene against your play's central dramatic question.

• Cutting dead air and sharpening character arcs
• Tightening dialogue and strengthening stage image
• Testing whether each scene changes the room
• Workshop: Return Encounter real-world exercise

Assignment #10: Final Revision Pass
Revise 15–25 pages of your draft with attention to theatricality, scene turns, dialogue as action, and stakes.

Build your professional playwright's materials and map out your next step, from a table read to an agent query.

• Title pages, loglines, and short synopses
• Writer's notes and development statements
• Talking about your play without flattening its mystery
• Curated opportunities list across the UK, Europe, and the US

Assignment #11: Final Submission Packet
Submit your full play roadmap, 30–45 pages of your first-half draft, logline, short synopsis, writer's note, and next-step plan.