Exercising Your Creative Imagination (Summer 2024)

Class Info

Instructors: Andrew Black
Class Date: Tuesdays
Course Duration: Six weeks (July 16, July 23, July 30, August 6, August 13, August 20)
Maximum Students: 10

ADT: 9pm-11pm
EDT: 8pm-10pm 
CDT: 7pm-9pm
MDT: 6pm-8pm 
PDT/MST: 5pm-7pm
AKDT: 4pm-6pm
HST: 2pm- 4pm

Class Summary

Writing exercises are fun, but they can be more fun to do with others!  In this interactive 6-session class, you will explore writing exercises in a group setting, share your work and learn as a group from the experience.  Research suggests that writing exercises accomplish three things:  they stimulate creative imagination and push the writer in new directions, they build skill, and they can generate ideas out of which new plays are born.  In this workshop, we will explore all three of these purposes by using various exercises.

Andrew Black, PhD, a playwright with over ten years of teaching experience, will facilitate a learning experience where each week, you will receive a new writing exercise or prompt.  Yu will come back the following week with your results, share with your peers, and harvest your insights, exploring what you learned and how you might use it.  

In addition, anyone who teaches playwriting will be able to add some new exercises to their tool kit for teaching playwriting to others.  The final class will review some strategies for using exercises in a classroom setting and how learners can best share their new approaches with others in a classroom setting.  

Class Requirements

Participants may be at any level will benefit, from the newbie to the more seasoned veteran.  It will be helpful if the student:

•        Is working on a play they can apply the exercises to (or has one in reserve that could benefit from a “fluff”);

•        Wants to stimulate their imagination, build craft capability or perhaps come up with an idea for a new play;

•        Wants to add to their personal toolkit.

Class Expectations

Participants will-

•        Learn and practice new and original playwriting exercises;

•        Share their developing products with their fellow participants;

•        Reflect on their insights and discuss how they might apply them to current and future projects;

•        Be part of a safe space for exploring their creativity in new ways.

Class Outcome

You will:

•        Have developed new ideas you can apply to current and future projects;

•        Have tools you can use when you’re feeling stuck or need to take a project a new direction;

•        Be prepared to teach others by having experienced exercise, knowing how they work and how you can use them with others;

•        Have built your network of colleagues for future collaboration.