Autumn / Winter 2010 courses now enrolling!

Fishamble is pleased to confirm the dates for their playwriting courses this autumn / winter:

October – December 9-week Evening Course:

Running each Thursday from 14th October – 9th December, 7pm – 10pm
Course fee: €300

October Bank Holiday Course:

23rd – 25th October, 10am – 5pm
Course fee: €200

Further Playwriting Course:

8th – 12th November, 10am – 5pm
This course is aimed at writers who have completed a Fishamble playwriting course and / or who have had staged readings or productions of their work.
Course fee: €200

PLEASE  NOTE: The spring / summer courses were heavily over-subscribed. As places on our courses are assigned on a first come – first served basis, places can only be reserved on receipt of a deposit or full course fee.

To enroll:

For further information on Fishamble’s playwriting courses, or to enroll on any of our 2010 courses, contact Gavin Kostick in Fishamble on 01 6704018 or email gavin@fishamble.com .

About our courses:

‘Fishamble’s playwriting courses have made an amazing contribution to the development of the many companies and artists who have presented new work at the Dublin Fringe Festival.’ - Roise Goan, Director, Dublin Fringe Festival.

Fishamble: The New Play Company is dedicated to supporting new and developing writers from the very beginning of their literary careers. Over the last 8 years, Fishamble has run 40 playwriting courses for over 400 developing playwrights from Ireland and overseas. Facilitated by Gavin Kostick, the evening and weekend courses provide new writers with the confidence, skills and stimulus required to write successfully for theatre. So far over 300 new plays have been written through these courses, with over 80 plays by writers who attended the courses going on to full production.

Fishamble’s production of Whereabouts, a series of site-specific short plays, was awarded the Special Judges’ Award for creativity and innovation at the The Irish Times Theatre Awards 2006. Six of the eleven plays produced in the series were by writers who have participated in Fishamble’s playwriting courses.

‘I found this course was not a ‘how to’ course like many others. Instead, it opened up the area of possibility in playwriting – made me think, see different ways to the completed work. Most usefully, it reawakened an understanding of rhythm and metre which has had a direct effect on my writing. It also got me writing poems and short stories, which has helped improve my management of playwriting. Well worth it!’ – John Connolly, winner of The Yale Playwriting Competition 2007, judged by Edward Albee.

Course content:

Each course participant is immersed in a range of ideas and exercises designed to develop useful skills in writing for live performance. These include: Openings, The Playwright’s Imagination, Plotting, Alternative Structures, Characterisation, the Rhythms of Language and Dialogue. As the course develops creative theatre practitioners are brought in to provide expert discussion on staging new work. Each course member is encouraged to develop their own idea through the course into a finished draft. As well as developing playwriting skills the course aims to broaden conceptions of what is achievable in live performance and encourage practical considerations of successful staging. The weekend course is particularly suitable for those who wish to thoroughly immerse themselves in writing for theatre, over a short period.