WRIT22401 - Writing the Ten-Minute Play
Course Description
Course Description:
This course is designed for beginning or intermediate playwrights who want to explore and develop short form plays. Ten-Minute Play Festivals are happening all over the country. The course will explore the fundamentals needed to write solid short plays with compelling characters in complex situations where our people find they conflict with others and perhaps themselves. Explore how to use text as well as subtext in dialogue and writing clear, concise, and active stage directions. Over the course of eight weeks, assignments will focus on time, place, plot, structure, and language to see how these elements can be incorporated to achieve success in this most abbreviated of art forms.
Instructor:
This course is taught by Douglas Post, an instructor at the University of Chicago Graham School of Continuing Liberal and Professional Studies. Post is a founding of the Victory Gardens Playwrights Ensemble. His plays and musicals have been produced in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Canada, England, Wales, Germany, Austria, Russia, China, and South Africa. Post has received the L. Arnold Weissberger Playwriting Award, the Midwestern Playwrights Festival Award, the Cunningham Commission Award, the Blue Ink Playwriting Award, and three Playwriting Fellowship Awards from the Illinois Arts Council, and has been nominated for three Jeff Awards and an Emmy Award.
Notes: This course takes place via Zoom and leverages the Canvas platform for materials and occasional class discussion.
The deadline for registration is Dec 22, 2023, at 5 p.m. Enrollment is limited to 10 students, so early registration is strongly encouraged.
Course Outline
Course SyllabusNotes
Note
The deadline for registration is Dec 22, 2023, at 5 p.m. Enrollment is limited to 10 students, so early registration is strongly encouraged.
Remote courses require you to login to Canvas to access the Zoom Classroom. You will receive an invitation to join Canvas about a week before your course begins. Please visit the Liberal Arts Student Resources page to find step by step instructions for Canvas and Zoom: Online Learning Resources