New Play Development Lab

This advanced class will be modeled after a professional playwrights development lab. Each writer will focus on intensively revising 1-2 plays, with the goal of having these plays submission-ready by the end of the term. Writers will have several opportunities during the term to workshop their plays with actors from Dina Janis' New Play Development Ensemble class, which will run concurrently, with Dina also leading discussions on the new play development process. 

Work in this class will be both self-directed and communal. Writers will define their own revisions goals and reading lists. Everyone will participate in workshopping each others' plays with rigorous attention to questions of structure and style. We will also spend time discussing the current theatrical landscape, questions related to career and graduate school, and how to create a lifelong playwriting practice after Bennington. Professional guests will be invited to the class as time allows. We may also organize end-of-term readings of these plays for the Bennington community, if this is of interest. 

This class is open to those who have taken at least one 4000-level playwriting class at Bennington and are thinking seriously about continuing to write plays after graduation. You will finish this class with at least one substantially revised full-length play, practical experience collaborating with actors and workshopping your play with other writers, and a stronger sense of what life as an artist can look like post-Bennington.