Advanced playwriting workshop
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Learning modes and locations may be different depending on the course start date. Please check the location of your chosen course and read our guide to learning modes and locations to help you choose the right course for you.
- Start Date: 19 Sep 2025End Date: 28 Nov 2025Fri (Daytime): 10:00 - 13:00In PersonFull fee £359.00 Senior fee £359.00 Concession £180.00
- Start Date: 16 Jan 2026End Date: 27 Mar 2026Fri (Daytime): 10:00 - 13:00In PersonFull fee £359.00 Senior fee £359.00 Concession £180.00
- Start Date: 24 Apr 2026End Date: 03 Jul 2026Fri (Daytime): 10:00 - 13:00In PersonFull fee £359.00 Senior fee £359.00 Concession £180.00
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What is the course about?
This course continues to investigate the key elements of writing for the theatre, including character, structure and dialogue to an advanced level. It is a practical workshop in which the focus is on submitting pieces of work for constructive criticism by other participants and the tutor. Ideally you'll be working on a draft of a short-length or full-length play. In addition to workshopping, professionally produced playscripts are also examined with an eye toward learning from established writers' techniques.
Students like: the group dyanamic; learning dramaturgical skills to add to my writing craft; really excellent teaching; great mix of exercises, workshopping, and reading.
What will we cover?
This course examines every aspect of writing for the stage, from the initial spark to the completed first draft of a play, through critical analysis of student work. Topics that may arise from student work include premise and theme, character, motivation, dramatic structure and the construction of individual scenes. Student work will be read, discussed and critiqued in a supportive atmosphere, and additional issues of craft will be investigated in detail when they arise in relation to a particular piece. In addition to workshopping, professionally produced playscripts are also examined with an eye toward learning from established writers' techniques.
What will I achieve?
By the end of this course you should be able to...
- Demonstrate a fuller awareness of the playwriting process
- Produce a new draft of your play
- Exhibit increased mastery of dramaturgical and writing skills in your own work
- Exercise a critical insight into the playwriting process and in analysing plays either in performance or in print.
What level is the course and do I need any particular skills?
This is a continuation of 'Developing your playwriting' and 'Advanced playwriting.' Returning students may have completed several previous terms of study. However, new students are very welcome to join if they have some previous writing experience and a keen interest in the theatre through reading plays and seeing productions.
Students need to have a good standard of written and spoken English and should be willing to join in group discussions and feedback sessions, and to share their work with the group.
If you have prior or current experience working in theatre but have never written a play or taken a playwriting course, we recommend that you enrol on Ways into playwriting before progressing to the intermediate or advanced level.
How will I be taught, and will there be any work outside the class?
- Lectures/seminars/discussions on components and aspects of dramatic writing
- Writing exercises and dramaturgical sessions
- In-class readings of students’ work followed by feedback and analysis
- Analysis of written dramatic work.
All writing courses at City Lit will involve an element of workshop. This means that students will produce work which will be discussed in an open and constructive environment with the tutor and other students. The college operates a policy of constructive criticism, and all feedback on another student’s work by the tutor and other students should be delivered in that spirit.
For classes longer than one day regular reading and writing exercises will be set for completion at home to set deadlines.
City Lit Writing endeavours to create a safe and welcoming space for all and we strongly support the use of content notes in our classes. This means that learners are encouraged to make their tutor and classmates aware in advance if any writing they wish to share contains material that may be deemed sensitive. If you are unsure about what might constitute sensitive content, please ask your tutor for further clarification and read our expectations for participating in writing courses at City Lit.
Are there any other costs? Is there anything I need to bring?
Please bring writing materials. Set texts might be advised but do not necessarily need to be purchased. You should provide several copies of the scenes you have written at home when it is your turn to have your work read out in class.
When I've finished, what course can I do next?
The course is an ongoing workshop so you may enrol several times.
All students are invited to join us at Late Lines, our regular performance night for City Lit writers. Students are also encouraged to submit their work to Between the Lines, our annual anthology of creative writing. For the latest news, courses and events, stay in touch with the Department on Facebook and Twitter.
Brian Mullin is a playwright and dramaturg. He co-founded Babakas Theatre and co-created ‘Our Fathers’, a devised show that toured the UK and other countries in 2014. His play ‘We Wait in Joyful Hope’ premiered at Theatre 503 in May 2016. He has also taught writing at St Mary's University and on the National Theatre's New Views programme amongst many others. In recent years, he's branched out into other forms of performance including the opera libretto 'Leonardo' with composer Alex Mills, a newly devised theatre piece about London's Foundling Hospital created with the children's charity Coram and his autobiographical show as writer-performer 'Live to Tell' which premiered in 2023 following development at the Yard Theatre and Battersea Arts Centre.
Please note: We reserve the right to change our tutors from those advertised. This happens rarely, but if it does, we are unable to refund fees due to this. Our tutors may have different teaching styles; however we guarantee a consistent quality of teaching in all our courses.