Advanced Playwriting (Spring 2021)

Advanced Playwriting (Spring 2021)

May 22 - July 10
10:00am - 1:00pm Central Time

Instructor: Dana Formby

In this class, you will pitch, outline, and write a long one-act or full-length play. You will add new tools to your writing toolbox that will help you define your voice and speak about your work. You will also develop a system to keep you on track for submitting your work. The class culminates with a scene of your choice by professional actors, on the final session of class.
Prerequisites: The writer has completed at least one play or screenplay, and has some rewriting and/or new play workshopping experience.

Dana Lynn Formby is a Bloomsbury Methuen published playwright and proud resident alumna at Chicago Dramatists, where she was a faculty member and former interim artistic director. She was a finalist or semi-finalist for the 2015, 2016, and 2017 Princess Grace Award for playwriting. Her play THE LABELER was a 2016 finalist for the American Blues Theatre Blue Ink Award and was read at Luna Stage in 2017. Her play JOHNNY 10 BEERS' DAUGHTER was a finalist for the O'Neill 2016 National Playwrights Conference and the 2016 Emory Fellowship in playwriting. It was produced in 2017 by Something Marvelous and Chicago Dramatists. Her play AMERICAN BEAUTY SHOP was read at Steppenwolf's First Look 2014 and produced by Some Company of Sydney Australia and Chicago Dramatists. Dana is a three-time 'Kilroy Honorable Mention' playwright. Her plays have been produced, workshopped, or developed by Pegasus Theatre Chicago, Stage Left, Chicago Dramatists, Mortar Theatre Company, Steep, PICT, Victory Gardens, WordBRIDGE, Florida Studio Theatre, The Alliance Theatre of Atlanta, The Kennedy Center, Theater Emory, The Department of Cultural Affairs of Chicago, and New York Theatre Workshop. Her short play A DECK OF MONSTERS was featured in Goodman Theatre's New Play Bake-Off. Her play, UNTIL DEATH, was produced in 2015 at Concordia University Chicago in association with Chicago Dramatists. She holds an MFA in playwriting from Ohio University. She has been commissioned by Theater Emory. Dana is represented by The Robert A. Freedman Dramatic Agency in New York. She is a faculty member at Chicago Dramatists.

20% Early Bird Registration Discount Available when students register by March 31, 2021

Classes will be held via Zoom. Instructors will send out Zoom invites one day before class begins. We encourage students to set up a Zoom account for themselves before class if they have not already to ensure when class begins you are able to jump straight into the art!