Playwrighting for Teachers

A new 6-session online course!

Playwrighting for Teachers is a new online course devised and delivered by Applied Stories' artistic director Fin Kennedy.

Aimed at secondary school teachers, the course introduces the craft of playwrighting and some of its key concepts and techniques, in a way which supports teachers' own creative writing, with a particular focus on how the exercises and skills being learned can be applied in the classroom or drama studio. Although aimed at Drama, English and Media teachers, all subjects are welcome, including youth theatre leaders.

The six-session fully online course consists of two live workshops, at the start and the end, with a series of four instructional videos to complete in between, in your own time.

Playwrighting for Teachers will help you:

Better support your students during the devising component of GCSE or A-level Drama.
Analyse classic and contemporary theatre texts in the English curriculum, including Shakespeare.
Write short film scripts for Media.
Improve your own writing so you can script a school play.
Generate your own script samples to send to theatres as an emerging playwright.

Sessions are spaced a fortnight apart, to give you time to complete some creative homework tasks, as you build up your own idea for a short two-hander scene.

Arranged as a scheme of work, the six sessions will cover some of the key building blocks of dramatic narratives, with fun, original exercises designed to support your own creative writing, including worksheets and handouts which can also be used with your own students.

By the end of the six sessions (10 weeks) you will have written your own original two-hander scene!

Along the way you'll have developed your understanding of character, action, location, subtext, structure and dialogue. Every video includes advice on applying this learning to generating original creative ideas with or for your own classes.

Playwrighting for Teachers is the product of Fin Kennedy's two decades of experience in inner city classrooms, and features original exercises, designed while he was writer-in-residence at the pioneering Mulberry School for Girls.

The course analyses texts likely to appeal to young people and their teachers, many taken from Fin Kennedy's numerous plays for teenagers, published as The Urban Girl's Guide to Camping and The Domino Effect and other plays.

For a limited time, new signups to the course will receive a free copy of Fin's forthcoming new play for young people, Life Raft, published by Nick Hern Books in October 2024!

Hear more from Fin himself in the video below... You can also read a blog post about the genesis for the course, Why Teachers Make Great Playwrights.

Course structure

Session 1: Live group workshop

In this 60-min live Zoom kick-off session you'll meet other teachers enrolled, and start to unpack the elements of drama through a simple exercise: Six Word Plays (which also works perfectly with young people). We'll discuss why it's Playwrighting and not Playwriting, and define terms like Story, Plot and Narrative... do you know the difference??

Session 2: Scenarios

Session 1: Live group workshop

In the first of four pre-recorded videos to complete in your own time, we take a look at playwrighting as being about creating interesting situations rather than writing words on a page. We'll look more closely at objectives, obstacles, stakes and subtext - all with interactive exercises to complete as homework, and to use again in class.

Session 3: Character

Session 1: Live group workshop

Session 3: Character

What makes a memorable character, and why? How can you capture individual energies in your writing? And how can you write distinctive dialogue which sounds different for each role? This interactive video is full of tips and exercises to get you writing memorable characters of your own, through fun exercises which your students will love too.

Session 4: Action

Session 6: Live group workshop

Session 3: Character

In this session we'll get technical, looking at how each character's Desire creates their through-line in any play, and unpack the Dramatic Unit as the building block of convincing and compelling scenes. After analysing in detail some scenes from Fin Kennedy's plays for schools, it's over to you to start to structure and craft your own.

Session 5: Location

Session 6: Live group workshop

In this final video, we'll look at how where you set your scene can have a big impact on how it turns out. We'll consider Locations as metaphors, or even as characters themselves, how they can catalyse or inhibit action, and the role of Time. An innovative worksheet will help you nail down the potted version of your scene, which will then become your 'map' for you to go away and write it.

Session 6: Live group workshop

In our final session we will gather together on Zoom for a final live session to discuss how you got on, and to troubleshoot any issues with your scenes. We'll analyse some scenes from professionally-produced plays, and look at how the techniques and exercises learned so far can support turning your first drafts into second drafts, with Fin on hand to answer any questions.

Timetable

Next course runs Dec 2024 to February 2025

Choose between two dates for the first 60-minute live session:

Tues 26 Nov 4pm-5pm GMT OR Thurs 28 Nov 4pm-5pm GMT.

Sessions are the same, the two dates are for your convenience, just choose one.

After that, videos and resources will be emailed to you fortnightly as follows:

Video 1 - Mon 2 December

Video 2 - Mon 16 December

Video 3 - Mon 6 January

Video 4 - Mon 20 January

A writing exercise will be set over the Christmas break.

Choose between two dates for the final 90-minute live session:

Tues 11 February 4pm-5.30pm GMT OR Thurs 13 February 4pm-5.30pm GMT.

Sessions are the same, just choose one.

Dates and times for the optional extra one-to-one feedback sessions will be arranged individually.

Course fees

Playwrighting for Teachers six session course - £299

Get access to all six sessions of our pioneering Playwrighting for Teachers course - for up to three teachers in one school!

Includes:

Two 60-90 minute live group workshops with Fin Kennedy.
Four 60-min pre-recorded tutorial videos to complete in your own time.
Twelve original creative playwrighting exercises, in downloadable handouts to complete, keep and re-use forever.
The one-off £299 course fee is per school, and allows up to four teachers to complete the course together.
After the course, you'll have ongoing school-wide access to the videos for 12 months.
For a limted time, new sign-ups will receive a free copy of Fin's new play Life Raft, published this autumn by Nick Hern Books!

Individual Feedback £69 - £99

If you'd like individual feedback on your creative writing produced during the course, we can offer the additional services:

For £69 (per teacher) - Individual, written notes from Fin on all the creative exercises you have written during the course, including any full-length scene you write.
For £99 (per teacher) - Individual, written notes + a live 30-min 121 Zoom with Fin to discuss them - and anything else you want to ask about playwrighting in schools.

Please note that Individual feedback is only available to those completing Playwrighting for Teachers course, as an add-on.

Unfortunately we can't offer feedback on any work not produced as part of Playwrighting for Teachers.

Book now!

Interested? Let's get started! Drop us a line now to get booked in, saying which of the above you're interested in.

Payment is by invoice to your school Finance department. Enrolment can commence straight away!

Book now!

Playwrighting for Teachers

A new 6-session online course!