Playwriting

Register now with our Early Bird Special to get 20% off select classes! Offer ends September 11th!

Create your next great work this fall! We happily accept students from all around the world and invite you to study with us virtually. Take the leap and join us here at Chicago Dramatists.


Fall Classes


Scene Shop” Sampler Thursday Nights (Online)
SOLD OUT!! JOIN THE WAITLIST
3 Thursdays
6:30pm – 9:30pm
Sep 07, 14, 21

OR

“Scene Shop” Sampler Saturday Mornings (Online)
3 Saturdays
10:00am – 1:00pm
Instructor: Will Dunne

The Scene Shop Sampler is a once-a-year opportunity to give “Scene Shop” Play Development a try without having to make a full-quarter commitment.

Class Description

Now starting its 16th year, this weekly workshop for experienced playwrights offers writing tools, professional actors, and constructive group feedback to help you write or revise your play. If you ever need to miss a session, you can always make it up in the other Scene Shop section that week. Workshop members are eligible to participate in the Scene Shop Showcase, a night of staged readings presented twice yearly in the Russ Tutterow Theatre.

Teacher Bio

Will Dunne is the author of THE DRAMATIC WRITER’S COMPANION (2009, Second Edition 2017), THE ARCHITECTURE OF STORY (2016), and CHARACTER, SCENE, AND STORY (2017) all published internationally by the University of Chicago Press. His plays have been presented worldwide in three languages and earned numerous honors, including three selections by the Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center for the U.S. National Playwrights Conference, a Charles MacArthur Fellowship awarded by the O’Neill for outstanding comedy, four Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Awards, two DramaLogue Playwriting Awards, and a Best-of-Year mention from the San Francisco Examiner. He also has been nominated for a Joseph Jefferson Award for Best New Play and twice been named a finalist for the Heideman Award at the Actors Theatre of Louisville.

Thursday Details

Session DatesSep 07, 14, 21
Experience LevelIntermediate, Advanced
Available DiscountsNetwork
Saturday Details

Session DatesSep 09, 16, 23
Experience LevelIntermediate, Advanced
Available DiscountsNetwork


Playwriting Fundamentals (Online)
7 Tuesdays
Sept 12 – Oct 24
6:00 – 9:00pm CT
Instructor: Marsha Estell

Students will learn the Core Principles of dramatic writing by analyzing/discussing published work. Explore their unique voice, through writing exercises, and creating 10 minute plays or the first 20 – 30 pages of a larger work. They will give and receive constructive feedback to cohorts.

Class Description

Discover, Explore, Experiment, and write!
Discover the core principles of dramatic writing by reading established plays.
Explore your unique voice through writing exercises.

In Fundamentals, you will become familiar with the components of dramatic structure and format, receive tools to explore your unique voice and how to give and receive usable feedback, grasp the difference between dialog and conversation, and will write a 10-minute play or 1st 10 pages of a larger work by applying what you have learned.

Teacher Bio

Marsha Estell is a resident playwright alumna at Chicago Dramatists, 2010 3Arts/Ragdale Fellow, and recipient of the Illinois Arts Council Fellowship for Playwriting. Her plays include Heat, which had its world premiere at Chicago Dramatists and was nominated for a Joseph Jefferson Award for Outstanding New Work and many other award-winning works. She teaches playwriting, and solo performance workshops around the country. She is a proud member of the Dramatists Guild, SAG/AFTRA and Actors Equity.

Course Details

Session DatesSept 12, 19, 26
Oct 03, 10, 17, 24

Time
6:00pm – 9:00pm Central Time
Experience LevelBeginner
Available DiscountsNetwork, Early Bird

Thieves of Shakespeare: The Art of Tragedy (Online)
7 Sundays
Oct 01 – Nov 12
10:00am – 1:00pm CT
Instructor: Ean Miles Kessler

Shakespeare’s tragedies remain a rich well for writers to return to, time and again. In this workshop based class, students will reimagine scenes, motifs, characters, and even entire plays from Shakespeare’s most iconic work. The course culminates in a zoom reading, performed by professional actors.

Class Description

The work of Shakespeare remains a deep well which writers continue to return to, time and again. This workshop based class will center on in depth explorations of Shakespeare’s major tragedies Hamlet, Romeo & Juliet, King Lear, and Macbeth. Writers will be asked to rework and adapt the scenes, motifs, and characters found in these plays, and are encouraged to reimagine the very plays themselves. Using these works as a starting point, specific focus will center on how to craft tragedy for the stage. This course is led by classically trained actor and Rutgers BFA Acting graduate, Ean Miles Kessler. During his time at Rutgers, Ean studied at Shakespeare’s Globe in England under Tony nominee Tim Carroll, where he performed the title role of Hamlet on the Globe Stage. A deep lover of Shakespeare, Ean has performed and directed a wide range of the Bard’s work, and has written several adaptations of Shakespeare’s work. This course will be an even mix of generating/workshopping student material, dissecting Shakespeare’s work, open discussion, and a variety of writing exercises and prompts. Students will have the option to bring in work they’ve developed previously to be workshopped within class, or can develop pieces during the course of the class itself. The course will culminate in a reading of student work, performed for the public by professional actors.

Teacher Bio

Ean Miles Kessler is a playwright, teacher, and horse trainer. His jobs have run the gamut: he’s processed poultry, worked briefly at Fedex loading trucks, bartended in New Orleans for Mardi Gras, and is currently a ranch hand in Montana, where he gentles mustangs. A Rutgers BFA Acting graduate, Ean studied at Shakespeare’s Globe in England under esteemed director and Tony nominee Tim Carroll. At the Globe, Ean performed the title role of Hamlet on the Globe Stage. His plays have been produced nationally and internationally, and his work has been published by Vintage Books. His plays have been developed with a variety of companies, including: The Playwrights’ Center, Chicago Dramatists Saturday Series, and Naked Angels among others. Previously, Ean was the Network Director at Chicago Dramatists, where he taught Deconstructing the American West, and he is thrilled to be back working with his Chicago family.

Course Details

Session DatesOct 01, 08, 15, 22, 29
Nov 05, 12
Experience LevelBeginner, Intermediate, Advanced
Available DiscountsNetwork

Screenwriting Essentials (Online)
7 Saturdays
1:00pm – 4:00pm CT
Oct 07 – Dec 02
Instructor: Mary Ruth Clarke

Whether a film premiers on the big screen or the TV screen, is a blockbuster or an indy movie, producers are hungry for new voices and unique ideas. My students succeed – selling scripts, staffed on network and streaming shows, and creating web series!

Class Description

Have a story idea for a great movie? Or a script you’ve begun to write? Or a play you want to adapt into a motion picture? This seven-week class emphasizes visual storytelling, thematic development, and the ever-important logline. We will analyze and map out the classic story structure of a screenplay that went on to be made into an Oscar-winning movie. The class further delves into the realities of how Hollywood evaluates screenplays. It’s not a marketing class, but a deep dive into bringing ideas to life for the Hollywood mindset. It will help you unearth that great hook that will cause a producer to shout, “That’s a movie!” There will be ample time allotted to discuss participants’ ideas, stories, structures, and scenes. This class is applicable to any movie genre.

Teacher Bio

Mary Ruth Clarke co-wrote and starred in the original Meet the Parents and co-adapted it into the blockbuster version, starring Robert De Niro. Her dramedy teleplay Broadway, Ohio is a finalist in the Chicago Screenplay Awards, Page Turner Awards, and a semi finalist at Sundance Labs. Her comedy screenplay Alice and Celia and Whatever It Takes is a finalist for the Lit Laughs Comedy Film Festival and the Chicago Comedy Film Festival, and a is a semi finalist in the Chicago Screenplay Awards. Mary Ruth’s students are staffed on the TV shows Queens, Woke, and Family Reunion. She consults for clients in LA and Chicago, and she has critiqued about a gazillion plays and screenplays. She’s a regular guest lecturer at the Chicago Screenwriter’s Network and the Off Campus Writer’s Group. She is a member of the Writer’s Guide of America East and the Dramatists Guild.

Course Details

Session DatesOct 07, 14, 21
Nov 04, 11, 18
Dec 02
NO CLASS 10/28 & 11/25
Experience LevelBeginner, Intermediate, Advanced
Applicable DiscountsEarly Bird, New Student, Network

Scene Shop” Play Development: Thursday Nights (Online)
SOLD OUT!! JOIN THE WAITLIST
7 Thursdays
Oct 12 – Dec 14
6:30pm – 9:30pm


OR

“Scene Shop” Play Development: Saturday Mornings (Online)
SOLD OUT!! JOIN THE WAITLIST
7 Saturdays
Oct 14 – Dec 16
10:00am – 1:00pm

Instructor: Will Dunne

Designed as an ongoing resource for experienced playwrights and now in its 17th year, Scene Shop offers weekly character, scene, and story tools to help you develop your script, professional actors to read your work, and constructive group feedback to help you evaluate your progress.

Class Description

Designed as an ongoing resource for experienced playwrights and now in its 17th year, Scene Shop offers weekly character, scene, and story tools to help you develop your script, professional actors to read your work, and constructive group feedback to help you evaluate your progress. If you ever need to miss a session, you can always make it up in the other Scene Shop section that week. Workshop members are eligible to participate in the Scene Shop Showcase, a night of staged readings presented twice yearly in the Russ Tutterow Theatre.

Teacher Bio

Will Dunne is the author of THE DRAMATIC WRITER’S COMPANION (2009, Second Edition 2017), THE ARCHITECTURE OF STORY (2016), and CHARACTER, SCENE, AND STORY (2017) all published internationally by the University of Chicago Press. His plays have been presented worldwide in three languages and earned numerous honors, including three selections by the Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center for the U.S. National Playwrights Conference, a Charles MacArthur Fellowship awarded by the O’Neill for outstanding comedy, four Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Awards, two DramaLogue Playwriting Awards, and a Best-of-Year mention from the San Francisco Examiner. He also has been nominated for a Joseph Jefferson Award for Best New Play and twice been named a finalist for the Heideman Award at the Actors Theatre of Louisville.

Thursday Details

Session DatesOctober 12, 19, 26
November 09, 16
December 07, 14


No classes on November 2nd, 23rd & 30th.
Experience LevelIntermediate, Advanced
Available DiscountsNetwork
Saturday Details

Session DatesOctober 14, 21, 28
November 11, 18
December  09, 16


No class on November 04, 25
No class on December 02
Experience LevelIntermediate, Advanced
Available DiscountsNetwork

Advanced Playwriting (Online)
7 Wednesdays
6:00pm – 9:00pm CT
Nov 01 – Dec 20
Instructor: Kestutis Nakas

In this class, students will write or revise a full-length play. Using a workshop class approach, students will have multiple opportunities to share their work for in-class feedback facilitated by the instructor. Students are welcome to bring plays at any stage of development.

Class Description

In this class students will write or revise a full length play. Using a workshop class approach, students will have multiple opportunities to share their work for in-class feedback facilitated by the instructor. Students are welcome to bring plays at any stage of development. We will take a holistic approach to examining each other’s work—not only focusing on plot, but on all the theatrical elements that can be utilized for storytelling (i.e. imagery, metaphor, structure, etc.). Not only will students deepen their writing craft, they will also develop their ability to give feedback to peers.

Teacher Bio

Kestutis Nakas’ work has been presented at La Mama, Dixon Place, P.S. 122, St. Mark’s Church, 8BC, and other venues. Works include Railroad Backward, Remembrance of Things Pontiac, The Andrew Carnegie Story. He is Emeritus Professor of Theatre at The Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University in Chicago. His performance text about urban beekeeping, No Bees for Bridgeport, was published in Animal Acts, Performing Species Today, an anthology of new performance edited by Una Chaudhuri and Holly Hughes, University of Michigan Press. A bilingual edition of his critically acclaimed tragi-comic cycle: When Lithuania Ruled The World is published by Aukso Zuvys, Vilnius , in 2017. Also in 2017, he presented Channel D a new solo show at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City in conjunction with their acquisition of his video archive. His newest work, Revenge of the Dummy, explores ventriloquism.

Course Details

Session DatesNov 01, 08, 15, 29
Dec 06, 13, 20
No class on 11/22
Expereience LevelAdvanced
Applicable DiscountsEarly Bird, Network

The Cohort: A Dramaturgy Master Class (Online)
7 Wednesdays
Nov 01 – Dec 20
6:00 – 9:00pm CST
Instructor: Ean Miles Kessler

A holistic approach to dramaturgy. Writers will workshop one full length play, with each piece receiving an in depth script evaluation from the instructor. Writers will then receive notes in a workshop-based approach from their fellow students. Writers accepted by submission only.

Class Description

A holistic approach to dramaturgy, this master class focuses on a writer’s play as a whole, allowing students to examine both the micro and macro within their work. Writers will bring in one complete, full length play to be workshopped over the course of the class. Each play will receive an in depth script evaluation from the instructor, and every session will focus on the work of 2-3 writers, ensuring that each play receives the full attention it deserves. Utilizing a specific set of dramaturgical questions, (as led by the instructor) writers will then receive notes and critiques, in a workshop-based approach from their fellow students. With a strong emphasis on dramatic structure, thematic layering, character development, and the importance of change over the course of a play, writers will be asked to explore both the minutiae of each scene, as well as the larger themes and arcs they are working to create. Each playwright will have their script reviewed twice: in session 1, the play as a whole will be discussed and analyzed; in session 2, focus will hone in on the specific scene the playwright has selected for their final presentation. In writers’ second session, those select scenes will be read and discussed by the members of the class. These two sessions together will constitute as one script lab. Students will be required to read the work of their fellow writers each week, in order to facilitate in depth critique. The course will culminate in a Saturday Series Reading of select scenes. Writers accepted by submission only.

Teacher Bio

Ean Miles Kessler is a playwright, theater educator, storyteller, and horse trainer. His jobs have run the gamut: he’s processed poultry, worked briefly at Fedex loading trucks, bartended in New Orleans for Mardi Gras, and is currently a ranch hand in Montana, where he gentles mustangs. A Rutgers BFA Acting graduate, Ean studied at Shakespeare’s Globe in England under esteemed director and Tony nominee Tim Carroll. His plays have been produced nationally and internationally, and his work has been published by Vintage Books. His plays have been developed with a variety of companies, including: The Playwrights’ Center, Chicago Dramatists Saturday Series, and Naked Angels among others. Previously, Ean was the Network Director at Chicago Dramatists, where he taught “Deconstructing the American West,” and “Thieves of Shakespeare.” He is thrilled to be back working with his Chicago family.

Course Details

Session DatesNov 01, 08, 15, 29
Dec 06, 13, 20

No class November 22nd

Applications due by Oct 09.

Applicants will be notified of their selection status by Oct 23.
Experience LevelThis class is specifically designed for writers at the advanced level.
Available DiscountsNetwork

Intermediate Playwriting (Online)
7 Thursdays
Nov 02 – Dec 21
6:00pm – 9:00pm CST
Instructor: Nina Morrison

This generative/workshop-based class is dedicated to helping dramatists hone their artistic voice, and deepen their understanding of the craft of playwriting. Writers will explore character development, plot structure, theatricality, and how to craft dynamic and vibrant action between their characters. The course will culminate in an online reading of student work, read by professional actors and performed for an invited audience.

Class Description

In this course, we will focus on generating new work and discovering the processes and methods that best support your ongoing writing practice. Each week, writing prompts and page count goals will be given. Everyone will share their work out loud and receive structured feedback from the instructor and fellow students. Students can expect to leave the class with at least 40 pages of new work.

Teacher Bio

Nina Morrison is a playwright, screenwriter and stage director. Her plays have been presented in New York City at Dixon Place, Fordham University, the HOT! Festival of Queer Performance, the NY International Fringe Festival, and the Little Theatre series, among others. She was a finalist for New Dramatists in 2018 and 2019, as well as a finalist for the Jerome in 2019. Nina was the Provost’s Postgraduate Visiting Writer in Playwriting 2019-2020 at the University of Iowa. She was also the recipient of an artist’s residency at Dixon Place and a WORKSPACE writer’s residency at the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. MFA Iowa Playwrights Workshop. ninamorrison.com

Course Details

Session DatesJune 11, 25
July 02, 09, 16, 23

July 30: Class Showcase
(No class on June 18.)
Experience LevelNov 02, 09, 16, 30
Dec 07, 14, 21

No class on Thanksgiving, 11/23
Available DiscountsEarly Bird, Network

Chicago Dramatists Class Fee Policies 

  • If you cancel your registration more than ten days in advance of the class start date, you will be entitled to either a full refund of your money or a full credit applied to your account for future CD classes. 
  • If you cancel your registration fewer than ten days but more than three days before the class start date, you will be entitled to 50% of your class fee (minus a $20 administrative fee) applied to your account as a credit. 
  • If you cancel your registration less than three days before the class start date, there is unfortunately neither a credit nor refund option available.
  • Classes that fail to meet the 50% minimum registrant requirement within 48 hours of class start time will be cancelled. In this case, registrants will receive a 100% refund.
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