Ten-Minute Playwriting Class with Jane Hamilton

This generative workshop is not necessarily for playwrights.  It is for anyone who is a beginning writer as well as a seasoned writer. The Ten Minute Play is a serious form, yes, but it’s also a terrific exercise for making a narrative of any kind.  It forces us to distill the situation, the characters, the dialogue to include only what is essential.  Also, it’s very fun, very playful!  In this workshop we will first read many plays and talk about the form.  Next, the writers will be divided in 2-4 person groups.  Each writer in that group will write her own play that will be performed by the people in that group.  If you’ve been writing memoir or fiction or poetry, this aspect brings in a new dimension:  you are putting your words into the hands and mouths of someone, who before your eyes, is going to be the interpreter of what’s on the page.  Each writer, then, is a director, potentially a reader/actor, and all are editors.

Day one: discussing the form and doing some exercises to grease the wheels.   You go away and write your play. You’ve got 24 hours.  Day Two: working with your groups to perform, edit, refine your play.  Day Three:  perform the plays for each other.  Go home and rewrite your plays.  Day Four and Five:  More performance and discussion of the work.

Disclaimer:  I am not a playwright  but I’ve conducted this workshop many times and it’s always been amazing to see what the writers come up with, both comedy and tragedy!

Class meets in person, Monday, – Friday, July 8 – 12, 2 – 5 pm.

Class size: Minimum 6. Maximum 12.

Member discount: Members of Write On receive a 10% discount on all classes and workshops. To become a member, please click here. To receive the discount, members must log in to the website using their unique password and enter member10 in the promotion code box. The code is case sensitive.

Teaching Artist: Jane Hamilton’s novels have won literary prizes, been made into films, have been international best-sellers, and two of them — The Book of Ruth and A Map of the World — were selections of Oprah’s Book Club. Her essays have appeared in the New York Times and various magazines and anthologies. Through the years she has taught at Carleton College and in the Warren Wilson MFA program and given numerous workshops. She lives in Wisconsin on an apple orchard with her family.