The Kick-Ass Series: A Gonzo Writing Workshop
November 10th, 2007 at 1.00pm - 4.00pm
Part Four: Feed Your Muse - Find Your Voice
with Hank Kimmel and Pamela Turner
WORKING TITLE PLAYWRIGHTS PRESENTS
KICK-ASS PLAYWRITING SERIES: Part IV
FEED YOUR MUSE: Finding Voice
Okay, here's the scenario. You sit down to your computer ready to write. Then, DING, you've got email. It's from your Muse. A really snotty response to that last message you sent--you know which one, the late-night, post-rejection letter, 'why am I being ignored' whiney one. She's answering in all caps. You hate that! Her message reads "WHY DON'T YOU QUIT." And that's it, isn't it. You can't quit being a playwright any more than you can stop being YOU. And yet that's what's missing from your plays: the You Factor. You're playing it safe, leaving out the kind of personal investment that can put something really compelling on the page (and on the stage). In this workshop, we will look at the ways that our unique experiences and perspective can create more honest and satisfying plays. We will look at the ways in which we get in the way of our own progress and how to break that pattern. And we will engage in exercises that can provide a safe environment for writing what we really care about and which use different aspects of our own personalities to create characters. Finally, we will begin to identify the distinctive voice that each writer is trying to expose in his or her work.
Starting with a discussion of Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie, Playwrights Pamela Turner and Hank Kimmel will lead participants toward analyzing their own work for emotional honesty; story shape and arc; internal and external perspective; and the (deadly) writer's tic. Students will write and share their work during the session, and will learn about the Lehrman critical response model for work in progress.
Participants must read The Glass Menagerie prior to the class, and must bring a copy of that script along with two typed copies of their current project (at least three pages) to the workshop session.
Space is limited. Please make sure to sign up in advance!
Check out pictures from our last Kick-Ass Workshop on Flickr!
HANK KIMMEL has been crafting plays since he first learned how to write -- which was shortly after college. He has written scores of plays of various lengths and sensibilities, and, mercifully, 44 of them have been produced. His work will soon be featured at Jewish Theatre of the South - Hank Kimmel's Shorts (a comic cornucopia of life in the suburbs) will be its Spring Production (April 28-May 20). Hank also serves as the President of Working Title Playwrights and as a board member of Georgia Lawyers for the Arts. He is the proud graduate of Brown University, the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, and the Emory University School of Law. While he enjoys working as a mediator by day, he gets particularly turned on by playing kick-ass tennis and writing kick-ass plays.
PAMELA TURNER is a playwright and director with credits in the United States, Europe, and the Pacific. Her most recent plays include Voices Deux (2007 New Plays Festival, Theatre Decatur, Atlanta); Cosmeticos, (2006 XPT Adult Series, Center for Puppetry Arts, Atlanta); Funny Valentine (2004, Seven Stages Theatre, Atlanta; 2004 Spoleto Festival USA); The Lady and the Poet (2003 Spoleto Festival USA; 2003 and 1994, Theatre Gael, Atlanta); Valentines Day (2001, Pulse Theatre Ensemble, NYC). Current projects include Frijoles on the Side (2006, commission, Fly-By Theatre, Atlanta); Burning Man,( 2006 Stage 3 Theatre Company's Festival of New Plays, Sonora, California). Burning Man was a semi-finalist for the 2006 PlayLabs at The Playwrights Center, Minneapolis, and the 2006 SheWRITES competition, Synchronicity Theatre, Atlanta. Male Man was a finalist for the 2004 Humana Festival Heideman Award. Pamela is the Artistic Director of multiShades•atlanta, the (SE) Regional Rep for The Dramatists Guild of America, the Editor of ShowGuide magazine, and the Producer of PlayWorks 2000, for the Association of Theatre in Higher Education.
Venue:
Emory UniversityRich Building Room 210
Decatur, GA
http://www.cll.emory.edu/maps/emory_map.htm#map
Cost:
For WTP Affiliates: $25For General Public: $40
Contact:
Jill PatrickWorking Title Playwrights
managing@workingtitleplaywrights.com
404.441.2716