Workshop Details:

On this safe and supportive hands-on course, we will examine some of the key elements of writing plays for stage or radio including plotting, character, structure, tension, action, location/setting, audience perspective and of course dialogue.

In four in-person sessions taking place, Saturday September 13, 27 and October 11, 25 course members will have the opportunity to:

• study extracts from the work of published writers

• carry out experiments in telling stories through dialogue

• write a short play of their own with one-to-one feedback from the course tutor as their scripts develop

• hear their scripts read by professional actors

• submit their scripts to INK Festival for consideration for professional production at INK Festival 2026

Application Process:

In no more than 50 words explain why you’d like to do this course to: jambutty@aol.com

Application Deadline:

Friday August 29 at 23:59

Course Structure:

Session One: Getting started. The first page

How do writers start their plays? What sparks the writing of a play? What do we want to say in our play? What needs to happen on page 1? How do we introduce our characters? How do we provide context and backstory? How do we launch a narrative? What do we want the audience to think, feel, understand in that first minute of stage/air time. In the session we will experiment with ways to:

• introduce character and narrative

• istablish time and place

• ‘hook’ our audience

• make use of the fourth wall

Session Two: Developing stories.

In this session we will read and discuss our opening pages and then explore ways to develop these openings into short plays looking at:

• character and relationships.

• narrative ‘drivers’

• telling stories through dialogue

• different forms of dramatic tension

• staging action

• using subtext

• anticipating audience response

Session Three: The end.

Here we will explore the ways that writers bring their plays to a conclusion including:

• resolution

• explanation

• emotional impact

• certainty versus ambiguity

Session Four:

In this session we will be joined by four professional actors who will perform rehearsed readings of course members’ scripts. This will be a unique opportunity to hear work performed, to evaluate audience response and to try out possible edits and adjustments in preparing final drafts.

Tutor:

Rob John

A former teacher, is a playwright, script-writer and theatre director. His published stage plays include The Spaceman, For Ever and Ever and Living with Lady Macbeth which has been performed in over thirty countries worldwide. Rob is a co-founder of fEAST Theatre for which he has written ten plays including The Canada Boys, Rosa Mendoza and most recently, Tales from the Motherland. Rob has written several plays for BBC Radio 4 and numerous scripts for BBC School Radio and television. His A-Z of World War One won a Royal Television Society Award. He is co-author with Patrice Baldwin of Inspiring Writing Through Drama. He lives in Norfolk and plays banjo in a bluegrass band.