503Studio: Writing ‘Now’ for the Future

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503Studio Masterclass: Writing ‘Now’ for the Future, Dawn King

Led by Dawn King (The Trials, Donmar Warehouse) come and experiment with using your writing to tackle contemporary issues and think about how playwrights use their power as storytellers. Dawn will stimulate debate with questions like; can we/should we use our work to change the world? What stories would future generations like us to be telling right now? Can we write about big issues without being too preachy or didactic? Dawn will bring some example texts for the group to discuss and then lead you through writing exercises exploring this theme.

Thanks to our Share The Drama scheme, we want to make sure those of you who are struggling in the current climate can still take part in our Writers Programme. While we prioritise anyone who is long term unemployed and/or claiming benefits, we’re also offering subsidies if you’re in financial difficulty as a result of the Covid-19 crisis.

To express interest in a bursary place through our Share The Drama scheme, please sign up here. If you would prefer to speak directly to a member of our team about your circumstance or to ask for more information about this scheme, please contact us.

If you have any access requirements, you can let us know here. If you would rather discuss any access requirements and how we can accommodate them prior to booking, please get in touch with us here.

Time: 7pm – 9.30pm

Running time of workshop: 2.5 hours – delivered online. Maximum class sizes are 14. A portion of spaces have been reserved for Share the Drama places.

To sign up for advanced booking for future iterations of the 503Studio: Writers Programme, please join the waiting list here.

Dawn King is an award-winning writer working in theatre, film, TV, VR and radio.

She is currently writing The Trees, a radical reinterpretation of The Cherry Orchard, for director Katie Mitchell at the Deutsches Schauspielhaus Hamburg and Addictive Beat, a play for Boundless Theatre, UK, both planned for production in 2022. She is also working on the feature film Pig Child for Delaval Film and the BFI and adapting her play Foxfinder for the screen with Elation Pictures and the BFI. Her new play The Trials will receive a German premiere at the Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus in 2021 and a UK premiere in 2022, and was a finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize.

Dawn’s previous work includes; Foxfinder, Brave New World, CIPHERS, SALT And DYSTOPIA987, an immersive dystopian rave (a collaboration with Skepta.)

For Foxfinder, Dawn won the Royal National Theatre Foundation Playwright Award 2013, Papatango New Writing Competition 2011 and Most Promising Playwright, Off West End awards 2012. She was a finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize in 2012 and the James Tait Black drama prize 2012. Dawn’s short film The Karman Line won 17 awards including the BIFA for Best Short and was BAFTA nominated in 2014.