Advanced Dramaturgy and Playwriting

The class will read plays by American playwrights, including  Thorton Wilder, Susan Glaspell, Eugene O'Neill, and Alice Chidress. Each great American playwright will be the focus of two class sessions. In the first one we will analyze their work and in the second one we will address their process creatively.

In the first session we will discuss and analyze the world of the play and the playwright as well as analyze the aesthetic and structure of a particular play. In this way, the class will become familiar with the dramaturgy of the play, entering into the writing process of the playwright as a dramaturg would encounter it. In the second session, the class will bring in original writing based upon a model of the aesthetic, structure and voice of the playwright we have just studied. In this second session we will read class works aloud and give playwright feedback about their work, once again analyzing its structure and process from a dramaturgical point of view. The plays we will read will be varied in gender, tone, and aesthetic.

The class will have an opportunity to hone their writing styles and dramaturgical perspective, both about their own work and the work of others. This class will culminate in a workshop presentation of An Evening of Short Plays in Homage to Great American Playwrights. The class will be taught by Dramaturg/Playwright, Maxine Kern.