Playwriting Fundamentals
Do you want to build your confidence in your playwriting skills?
To advance The Roustabouts Theatre Co.’s educational mission, co-founding partner Will Cooper, is offering a six-week course in playwriting to be held in weekly one-on-one tutoring sessions via Zoom. This course is open to playwrights of all skill levels.
The goal of the course is to further students’ basic understanding that a play is a story intended for performance on stage, not for reading as stand-alone literature. This constraint imposes special demands on an author. He or she must skillfully combine elements of, among others, driving narrative structure; individualized character; grounded dramatic conflict; rich, thematic dialogue; apt settings; and interpretative mood. Artful handling of these qualities is what engages an audience from start to finish.
Much unsuccessful work falls victim to one or more of the following faults: a weak narrative structure, a lack or misunderstanding of dramatic conflict; the off-staging of key actions or events; and the creation of indistinct, dull, or superfluous characters. Will's focus will be on teaching these important elements, and on helping students successfully craft them into their own work.
$300 for 6 Week Course
This course is open to playwrights of all skill levels
Have questions or need more info?
Contact Us For More Information
About Will Cooper
Will Cooper is a playwright based in San Diego. He’s a proud member of the Dramatists Guild and a former Network Playwright at the nationally renowned Playwrights Development Center Chicago Dramatists.
His first play Book of Leaves was a finalist at the prestigious Ashland News Plays Festival. His play Jade Heart premiered in Chicago where it garnered enthusiastic critical and audience acclaim. Jade Heart had its highly successful west coast premiere at MOXIE Theatre in San Diego.
His other plays include Shadows of Athens, Movement Man, Margin of Error, and gUnTOPIA. Margin of Error kicked off the inaugural season of The Roustabouts Theatre Co. based in San Diego. It was nominated by the San Diego Critics Circle for its Craig Noel “Outstanding New Play” award.
Among his works-in-progress is Bark, an adaptation of a real-life story from the autobiographical works of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, author of The Little Prince.
Will is a founding partner of the award-winning The Roustabouts Theatre Co.