Local Playwrights/Actors to Lead Playwriting Workshop

ASHLAND, Mass. - Oct. 28, 2014 - PRLog -- “How to Write a Ten-Minute Play That Blows the Audience Away” is a four-week playwriting workshop for 16-year-olds and up who want to write short, powerful plays. All writing levels are welcome. The workshop will be held Thursday, November 13, 20 and December 4, 11, 7:00 to 9 pm, at Shift Coaching & Consulting, 73 Main Street, Ashland, Mass.

Ashland, Mass., playwrights/actors Joe White and Giulietta “Julie” Nardone will lead the workshop.White has been writing short plays for 25 years. He is the co-founder of Ashland Community Theater. Nardone has been offering creative writing classes since 2004. In 2011, she founded The Off Center for Wild and Disobedient Creativity in Ashland.

The workshop is limited to 10 participants. The fee is $159 for new participants and $149 for previous students of White or Nardone and senior citizens 65 and older. Anyone who signs up by November 10 will get a free play critique. White's proceeds will be applied to Ashland Community Theater’s spring production.

Registration closes at noon on Wednesday, November 12. To save a seat, register online at http://giuliettathemuse.com/life-shops/ten-minute-plays/ or send a check to Giulietta Nardone, PO Box 360, Ashland, MA 01721.

For more information, e-mail giulietta@giuliettathemuse.com or call 508-380-8799.

White and Nardone will use a variety of playwriting prompts to get participants writing. They will discuss the short play structure, the two- or three-person dialogue technique, the compelling subject, writing style, the opening hook, the vivid characters, the rollercoaster conflict, the surprise, the resolution and the knock ‘em dead ending. Class participants will pick a subject and write a play about it. Finished plays can be submitted for production by Ashland Community Theater.

“Ten-minute plays are extremely popular among playwrights because they increase the number of writers who get to showcase their work in one evening,” Nardone said. “For example, all of the eight plays in Ashland Community Theater’s November production were written by local playwrights.”

White added, “Short plays give writers an opportunity to tell an original story in ten minutes. Different writing voices, structures and themes keep the audience engaged and riveted. No one has time to get bored.”