Introduction to Playwriting - Summer Weekend Intensive

Spend the weekend learning how to use the elements of storytelling and theatre to write your own ten minute play! In this two-day writing intensive weekend course, students will learn through writing exercises how to convey character, exposition, plot, conflict, theme, and mood in ways that engage and entertain an audience while using three-act narrative structure to develop their own ten minute play. On Sunday, students will write their plays and receive positive and constructive feedback from the instructor. This class will culminate in a staged reading the following week on Sunday, July 20th at 7:30pm. There is no prerequisite for this writing intensive class; students of all experience levels are welcome.

Topics in this Course Include:

• Using playwright’s beats to convey storytelling elements to the audience
• Conveying character traits through dialogue and behavior
• Writing engaging exposition that doesn’t feel like exposition
• Building conflict beats through crisis and resolution
• Expressing theme through conflict beats
• Using the elements of theatre to express mood
• Using three act narrative structure within a ten minute play

This is an in-person, two day intensive class on Saturday, July 12 and Sunday, July 13 from 9am-6pm--breaks and lunches will be scheduled during this time. The instructor is Greg Mihalik. All sales are final. Listed price of class does not include Eventbrite's service fee (3.7% + $1.79) and payment processing fee (2.9%) which will be added to the total price at checkout. Classes are non-refundable but enrollment may be deferred to a future class with TCD approval. All students must adhere to policies in the Stomping Ground Student Handbook. Must be 18 years or older.

About the Instructor:

Greg Mihalik is an instructor and Training Center Director at Stomping Ground Comedy Theater. He received his BA in Theatre from Lehigh University and his MFA in playwriting from the Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University. Over almost 20 years of teaching, Greg has taught playwriting to middle school, high school, and college aged students. At Nokomis Regional High School, he produced an annual Ten Minute Play Festival and a 24 Hour Play Festival of original student written work. During his time at Nokomis, he directed several original student written plays, including the horror anthology Something Scary. He was nominated by his district for the Maine Teacher of the Year award in 2010. As the Wolfston Visiting Professor at Lehigh University, he taught Introduction to Playwriting and Writing and Performing Devised Pieces, culminating in a production of an original student devised production, Something From Nothing. Greg currently teaches improvisation at Greenhill School.

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