New Playwrights Group


	Playwrights! Get the feedback you need, develop your authentic playwriting voice. You know those times when: your play doesn't quite capture your vision, but you're not sure what to do? you have a reading, and you get feedback that leaves you confused? you're not sure what questions to ask to get the feedback you need? you've taken everyone's feedback, and your play doesn't seem like yours anymore? In this playwrights' group, you work on a process that helps you create the right questions to get the feedback you need to make your play speak in your authentic voice as a playwright. And for those times when you might not have someone to give you feedback right away, you work on your skills at evaluating your own plays by giving feedback on others' plays. For a starting point, we look at Liz Lerman's Critical Response Process, and the guidelines for developing questions created by David Rush at Southern Illinois State University. Do you have a feedback process you like? Bring it along! What We Do in the Group Anything that helps you get the feedback you need. For example: read something you've written (a short play, a scene, a couple of scenes, etc.) so you can hear it out loud answer your questions about your play help you develop questions to ask to get the feedback you need Other playwriting groups work on technical aspects of playwriting, telling you how to rewrite your play to get the result you want. So in this group, we concentrate on getting good feedback. Our only rule is, our feedback doesn't start with the words "You should..." Who This Group is For The group is meant for playwrights who are actively writing and looking for production opportunities for their plays. You don't have to have had a production yet, though that is a plus. Meeting Dates, Times, etc. The group will meet for six months, starting mid-January and ending mid-July. We'll take the rest of the summer off, then re-group in September to decide what we want to do next. The first meeting is Sunday, January 24th. Then we meet the 1st and 3rd Sundays of the month from February through June. The last meeting is July 11th (so we don't meet on the 4th of July weekend). The meetings are 3:00 to 5:00. When the days get longer, we can change this to later if everyone agrees, so we can all take advantage of the longer days. The group is limited to eight playwrights, so everyone gets lots of time. If you belong to another playwrights' group, you don't have to write new material just for this group (unless you want to). Bring what you've brought to other groups, get a different perspective. Meetings will be in and around Seattle, depending on where people live. Would you like to apply? Just e-mail me these things: Two plays in Word or PDF format, one play that you've worked on in the past six months, and one that you've worked on in the past year Your playwriting resume, or a list of the plays you've written, with name, length, genre (comedy, drama, etc.), and the year you last worked on it Your experience with playwrights' groups, if any What feedback methods you've used, if any Two or three sentences on what you'd like to get out of this group Send your e-mail to louisep@wonderworks.com. Deadline The deadline to apply is December 1st. I will let everyone know by January 4th, 2010. Want to know more about me before you apply? Here are my answers to the questions above. A play I've worked on in the past six months: http://www.wonderworks.com/louisep/ThePlatinumCrucible.pdf and one in the past year: http://www.wonderworks.com/louisep/NoMoreThanReason.pdf My resume is at http://www.wonderworks.com/louisep/LouisePenberthy.pdf I've been in a playwrights' group for nine months, and have visited two others. I also worked on giving feedback in the New Play Lab at Freehold this past summer. I use Liz Lerman's Critical Response Process, and the guidelines for creating questions in David Rush's paper. I would like to get, from this group, more skills in figuring out what questions to ask and how to ask them, so I get feedback that helps me write what I really am trying to write. I also want to practice giving other playwrights the same kind of feedback on their plays. If this group doesn't meet your needs... ... email me at louisep@wonderworks.com, and I can get you in touch with other groups in the area. Questions? Send me an e-mail: louisep@wonderworks.com.