We're excited to announce that DGI Fall Registration is now open!
This fall, over half of our classes are new to the Dramatists Guild Institute! As theatres reopen, we want you to expand your knowledge base and possibly learn new techniques for your writing.
Have a one-person show rumbling in your brain? There’s a class for that! Have you been thinking about adapting a classic text but aren’t quite sure how to start? We have a class for that! Are you doing research for your new fact-based play and aren’t sure when to stop researching? There’s a class for that! Have a play that you adore but you’ve put it away in fear it will never be produced? There a class for THAT!
And remember, reading plays can be as enlightening and beneficial to your work as writing them. This fall, we’re thrilled to offer two new Architecture of Plays sections that will introduce you to writers and writing techniques that can completely transform how you think about writing.
Architecture of Plays: Focus on Disability with Anita Hollander
Accessibility, Authenticity, Inclusion, Intersectional Diversity, Identity, Allyship, Universal Design, Statistics, Solo Work, Medical Models, and more - so many things to consider when thinking about Disability in theatre.
Responding Critically (and productively) to Plays with Pandora Scooter
This class is great for anyone who has experienced new play development processes that seemed less than helpful and/or talkbacks after readings of the same ilk. This class is also very helpful for anyone who intends to work with other playwrights and help them write their plays.
Architecture of Plays: Latine/Latinx Writers with Caridad Svich
For too long, the theatrical 'canon' has excluded work by many writers seeking to uplift their culture and world view. Readings in this class have been selected to reflect the variety of works by Latine/Latinx writers who have expanded, and often rebelled against, the idea of the 'well-made' play and 'conventional' structure.
Strategies for Adaptation with Tim J. Lord
An introductory course that will explore methods and strategies for adapting classical texts for our 21st century stages. Students will break source texts down by considering their themes, characters, settings, stories, and styles.
A course to help writers craft plays that honestly explore hard topics in ways that are truthful, but also have a balance of levity and seriousness that ultimately give audiences a catharsis.
Telling Story Through Design with Gregory Pulver, Shannon Robert, Kristeen Willis
How do writers contribute to designers' concepts in design? What does a successful collaboration look like between designers and writers? This class is for the novice to the most seasoned professional writer.
Writing from Research with Matthew Paul Olmos
This course will focus on how to incorporate research into your work without overwhelming your audience or getting bogged down in exposition.
Re-Vision: How to Revise Your Play with Sheri Wilner
What does it mean to revise a play? We’re all told we must do it, but so few of us have been taught how to begun and which strategies to employ.
Singular Sensation: Writing A One-Person Show with Lucy Wang
The one-person show can be a powerful medium to showcase your talents, engage your audience, speak truth, spark change, and take control of your artistic destiny.
Core Skills: Dramatic Action with Andrea Lepcio
From beat to tactic to action to reaction, Core Skills: Dramatic Action explores building story through what characters do and don’t do. We will investigate character motivation from wants, desires, needs, avoidance, panic, resistance, and any other triggers.
Word Crazy: The Art of Creating Lyrics with John Dietrich
The goal of this course will be to acquire a foundational knowledge of the craft of lyric writing, while continuously and simultaneously exercising the muscles needed to become more confident and impassioned about what is put onto the page before us.
Unbreak Your Heartbreak Play with Jonathan Norton
Through a series of group discussions and writing exercises, we will explore the original impulse that led to the creation of these plays, and investigate the fears and self-doubt that led to their abandonment. Then we will identify strategies, based in craft, to help you reclaim and refine the original impulse, and complete your play.
Architecture of Musicals: The Pulitzers with Cheryl Coons
In this ten-week class, we’ll explore the ten musicals that have won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and other musical works that were contenders. We’ll dig deep into both the timeless craft principles and the breathtaking innovations that drive each musical’s success.
