Saturday, March 30th 12-2pm ET Befriend Your Resistance
This workshop is an introduction to Parts Work (IFS) and ways you can work with your Parts (Inner Critics and other Distractors) to befriend them in order to create new ways to heal and live creatively. $35
Theatre Symposium at Washington & Lee on “Myth, Magic & Madness” March 20 - 23rd
10 week course, “Structure is Not a Dirty Word” at the Dramatists Guild Institute March 12 - May 14th (SOLD OUT)
2024 Winter Playwright Workshops
This January I’m excited to offer 2 Playwright Workshops to hear new full-length plays, discuss craft and offer feedback. The first workshop is Wednesday evenings 6pm - 9pm via Zoom. The second one’s on Thursday evenings 6pm - 9pm ET via Zoom. We start January 4th and hear about 1300 words from each participant each week for 10 consecutive weeks. Each workshop is limited to 6 participants. $500.
If you have recently finished a full length play or are working on one that you hope to finish by the end of February, and you’re looking for a supportive environment in which to hear your work, consider this workshop. I approach every script on its own terms. This means that some scripts are linear, Aristotelian narratives, and others are episodic, cinematic, time- and space-leaping narratives, and other scripts do other things. My function as a dramaturg is to work with you to help you see how the form and the content work together to create a viable narrative, for whatever kind of story you are telling. This is a clarifying process. I just finished teaching a 10 week class at the Dramatists Guild Institute called “Structure is Not a Dirty Word.” (This will be offered again for 10 weeks at the DGI in March!) We worked on building skills around structural elements as a way to hold risk (your content). This workshop will help you to polish your work using whichever elements you need to support the risks you take in your play.
About Feedback: I believe that feedback should be nurturing, a true feeding back. So my feedback in groups is to ask everyone to ground their responses in the actual text. We notice what we hear when we listen to work, what we care about, what lands and how the structure and the text (form and content) work for or against impact.
NOT what we want to be there or what “should” be different
NOT what it makes us think of in our own lives
NOT how it compares to anything else
I think of our scripts as our babies, and we don't say those things about babies.
THE PLAYWRIGHT should also be able to direct us to discuss what would be helpful for them to understand without pre-loading their comments with things that give away what they want us to say which - in the long run - won't help them believe they achieved what they wanted to achieve.
To reserve your spot in either workshop, Check Here to see if there is a slot available and to discuss whether or not this workshop is right for you. I’m only taking 6 people in each. To confirm your participation, I take Venmo at @Emma-Goldman-Sherman (8102 if they ask) or ZELLE at Barbara Goldman-Sherman (my legal name) at emmagoldmansherman [at] gmail [dot] com. Once you’ve been approved and paid, I will send you the links.
I look forward to working with you! More info or questions? CLICK HERE