The Instant Play Workshop
Write a play in just two days

This two-day intensive writing seminar will supercharge your creativity to hone your writing skills and help you produce a complete short play in just one weekend. On the first day, Stage Left ensemble members Margaret Lewis and Christine Gatto will lead you through a series acting and writing exercises designed to jump start the creative process. By the end of the day, you will have a rough draft of a short play. On the second day, we'll walk you through some revision techniques, and then actors from Stage Left's acclaimed ensemble will perform your work for the class. The class may also include other play developmental tool such as a dramaturgical review or discussions with directors or designers.

This seminar is inspired by the highly effective Downstage Left "tool box" development program, which has been instrumental in the development of such award-winning plays as In Times of War and Fellow Travellers, as well as many other plays featured in the LeapFest festival of new plays.

This class is appropriate for writers of all skill levels, from absolute beginners to highly experienced writers. The class will focus specifically on playwriting, but will be useful to writers in any genre.

The Instructors:

Margaret Lewis is the award-winning author of Fellow Travellers (Jeff Citation for Best New Work) and Burying the Bones (Jeff Nomination for Best New Work), an Illinois Arts Council Fellow and a Resident Dramatist at Chicago Dramatists. Her play Creole will premier this fall at InFusion Theatre.

Christine Gatto is a professional actress and ensemble member at Stage Left Theatre. Most recently, she has appeared in the Midwest premiere of Victoria Stewart's Live Girls at Stage Left. Christine was also seen as Sophia in Fellow Travellers by Margaret Lewis, a play that won the 2006 Jeff Citation for Best New Work. Christine's work has been seen at Chicago Jewish Theatre, Circle Theatre, First Folio Shakespeare, Trapdoor Theatre, and Irish Repertory Theatre to name a few. She teaches acting and theatre to classes of all levels. Christine holds a BFA in acting from Northern Illinois University and an MFA in theatre from Penn State University.