Interested in writing plays or screenplays? Consider PlayLab.
Eight week PlayLab Sessions begin every fall and spring. Cost is $300, however, we welcome everyone regardless of cost and offer sliding scale and scholarship options. Please contact TC Squared Dramaturg Marty Kingsbury for more information.
In PlayLab, our plays go through an entire process of development: scenes we read in the lab get shaped and revised into one act and full-length plays. When they are done, we read them again, and again the playwright revises. When a play is ready, the playwright brings it to an Art Salon, a rehearsed table reading that is open to the public with questions and discussion. And finally, from there, it has a staged reading, with blocking and text in hand. Under Ros’s oversight, the same director will often follow the play from beginning to end and be ready to work with a crew for a full production. Being part of this process as cast, crew, or audience is always exciting. Be sure to keep an eye on us for what is coming next.
The playwrights gather on zoom each Saturday morning to write and read each other’s pieces, to find comfort and the courage to write these stories. Do we work on what is safe or do we take risks? Do we reveal something wild, unstable, even crazy? These questions are not as obvious as they may seem. Taking risks means just that: it means being not “nice”, not “feminine”, not “safe”.
Is there sympathy, humor, pathos in these characters? Or do we shrug them aside as “crazy”? Is the protagonist in all of us, or is it unique to this character? This moment?
Plays aren’t built in a day. They are cobbled together by questions, doubts, and determination. They stumble and get rebuilt in the hands of actors and directors. And then we go back to PlayLabs and start again… – Marty Kingsbury, TC Squared Dramaturg
Want to learn more about directing?
DIRECTORS LAB
The directors have a unique chance to work with a script from its raw bones to a finished product. They come to Play Lab, listen to the scripts being read aloud, and share feedback. They divide into a breakout room to discuss how to shape the structure and arc of the script, the character development, set design and the main themes of the storyline. Are the threads to be emphasized or be seen as subtext? At all times, the main goal is to honor the intent of the playwrights.
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