THTR T453 Sec. 4507 D. Reardon

Playwriting 1

11:15a-12:30p TR 3 cr. hrs.

MAY BE TAKEN FOR GRADUATE CREDIT.

If you like to write but have never before created anything for the theatre, this course is designed for you. Playwriting 1 concerns itself with the shorter forms of drama. By the end of the semester you will have generated a one to two minute monologue, a ten-minute sketch, and an original one-act play some 30 to 35 pages long. You will understand the underlying principles of dramatic construction, and you will have a critical vocabulary sufficient to enable you both to review productions and to assist in the constructive peer evaluation of student works-in-progress.

Everyone will have at least two and possibly three individual conferences with Professor Reardon and his Graduate Assistant. In all likelihood, the best work generated during the semester will receive a public reading.

Try to come to the first class with two or three ideas you think might be workable.

TEXTS:

vary, but frequently include Twenty-five Ten-Minute Plays from Actors Theatre of Louisville and Dramatists Sourcebook.

REQUIREMENTS:

a 30-35 page original one-act play and one revision thereof; shorter works as time permits.

EXAMS:

None.

OTHER:

Mandatory attendance at a couple of IU Department of Theatre and Drama productions.