503Studio: Advanced Playwriting

Written by Brad Birch

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Five day course from Monday 12th August – Friday 16th August. Each session will be 2.5 hours from 10.30am-1pm in the theatre.

503 Alumnus and Award winning playwright Brad Birch leads a week long course intended for writers who have written a first draft but want to push on and get their play finished. It is for playwrights who want to focus and develop their ideas and redrafting skills.

Session One
Character – learning from your characters; developing backstory that feels real rather than convenient for the play; sharpening choices and intentions; how characters can operate in different styles of theatre.

Session Two
Structure – planning versus splurging; traditional structures as tools rather than prescriptions; when a character note is actually a structure note; characters leading plot and plot leading characters.

Session Three
Space – what your play looks like; how the use of space can affect the drama; the presence of the audience.

Session Four
Dialogue and Action – how our scenes stay active; the tricks and tactics that characters use to get what they want; sharpening intentions.

Session Five
Surgery – an opportunity to bring problems to the group – what we’re stuck on, what we’re worried about, where we’re lost.

We have a limited amount of bursary places available via our Share the Drama scheme, thanks to the support of Dynamis for long term unemployed/those claiming income support/jobseekers allowance. Please contact us if you are eligible for a bursary and would like to take part in the course.

Brad Birch

Brad Birch is a multi-award winning playwright from Wales. Plays include Tremor, Black Mountain, The Brink, Gardening for the Unfulfilled and Alienated, The Endless Ocean and Tender Bolus. His work has been produced in the UK by the Royal Court, National Theatre, Sherman Theatre, Soho Theatre, Orange Tree Theatre and the Royal Exchange. His work has also been performed in Russia, Germany, Spain, Italy, Malta and the USA. In 2016 he was awared the Harold Pinter Commission at the Royal Court. His plays are published by Methuen Drama and his first anthology, Plays One, was published in early 2018.