Students enroll in both courses for a total of 6 points.
Summer Screenwriting
H80.0015 • 3 points
Summer Playwriting
H80.0016 • 3 points
The lectures given in this program explore the nature and principles of dramatic action, the relationship between character and circumstance, and how dramatic structure arises from these foundations. In the workshop sessions, students present their work, which is then reviewed, critiqued, and rewritten. In screenwriting, this process results in an outline and the partial scripting of a full-length screenplay; in playwriting, it culminates in a 10-minute play. Students work together as a repertory company to rehearse, critique, and rewrite their plays, and on the last day of classes, they perform their plays. In addition to the performance of the 10-minute plays, student monologues are directed and acted by professional actors and directors who work with the department on a regular basis. Readings of classic plays and screenplays and screenings of movies and tapes of important theatrical productions complement the course work. Students will also have guest lecturers in TV writing and several film story analysis sessions.
New York City itself becomes a lab in which students can train their ears for writing dialects and their eyes for observing character and behavior, as they take walks and see sites around the city and find inspiration in the amazing cross-section of humanity and history around them.
Access to computers is available at the University’s computer labs, but students are welcome to bring their own computers. Students enrolling in the program should come to the first class of each course prepared with three ideas for stories for their own work, to be developed and discussed in class.
