Ellen Donkin

Our work in this course will be more or less equally divided between reading plays and writing a one-act. The plays we read, which will include a wide variety of playwrights, will inform our exercise work even as they deepen and extend our sense of drama as a form. We will be paying particular attention to the way character is revealed through dialogue, ways to unfold exposition, segmentation of dramatic action, and how dialogue is shaped by character activity. Students who are starting a new play and those who want to work on something already in process are equally welcome.

Our job in this course is to write reviews each week that, first and foremost, make good reading. We will work hard on developing descriptive skills in writing by reading our work to each other. How can our writing create images that move across time and space? We will learn by looking at the work of some of the great reviewers what kinds of things a reviewer looks for, and how, in a relatively short amount of space, a reviewer manages to convey the magic of the evening in print. Sometimes a show doesn't work: who takes responsibility? In an art form that is driven by collaboration and teamwork among artists in very different disciplines, how do we uncouple the work of the director from the work of the designers, the actors, the stage manager, or the playwright? And finally, who are we writing for? Are we a form of consumer reports for people deciding which show to see, or are we writing for the person who is house-bound and will only see the show through our eyes? Once every other week, we will board the PVTA bus and take our chances on a new production somewhere in the valley, either at another campus or in a town nearby.