About this class
The Playwriting Process is a structured course in dramatic writing, taking adult learners from initial idea through a finished short play presented in a professional table read. The course covers the foundational disciplines of writing for the stage: character creation, world-building, dramatic structure, dialogue, stage direction, and revision.
The course is workshop-based and writing-intensive. Each session introduces a craft element through discussion and example, and learners write live in class — building their plays piece by piece across the series. The Writers' Roundtable, the course's signature element, provides structured peer critique throughout the writing process. Field components include attending a new play together as a class and discussing it as a dramaturgical case study. The course culminates in a table read of each learner's completed work performed by professional actors, followed by a Q&A on craft.
Learning outcomes
By the end of the course, learners will be able to:
- Develop characters with clear objectives, obstacles, and arcs
- Build a coherent dramatic world with consistent rules of place, time, and tone
- Structure a short play with a clear inciting incident, conflict, escalation, and resolution
- Write dialogue that reveals character, advances story, and reads like real speech
- Use stage directions to communicate physical and emotional information without overwriting
- Give and receive structured feedback on dramatic writing in the Writers' Roundtable format
- Revise a draft toward a finished work suitable for a professional table read
Methodology
The course follows a workshop pedagogy with intensive in-class writing, structured critique, and exposure to professional production practice via the culminating table read. Each writer's work is treated as work-in-progress requiring craft, not raw self-expression.
Topics we cover
- Character creation: who they are and what they want
- Setting and world-building: where the play lives
- Dramatic structure: inciting incident, conflict, resolution
- Dialogue: writing speech that sounds like people
- Stage directions: telling story beyond the words
- The Writers' Roundtable: giving and receiving feedback
- The table read: hearing your work performed and asking craft questions
- Revision: shaping a draft toward a finished work
Who it's for
For adults who want to learn the craft of writing for the stage — characters, setting, structure, dialogue, and revision — and complete an original short play that ends with a professional table read. Whether you have been writing for years or this is your first attempt, no prior writing experience is required.
Who teaches it
Amanda Berkson
New York-based theater artist and music producer trained in dramatic arts at Muhlenberg College, with credits in Off-West End producing, Equity workshop direction, and performing arts education.
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Pricing
$75 per session · 90 min per class. Register for 8 or more sessions across any combination of classes at The Grove and save 15%.
Registration is handled on our secure registration site.
Classes at The Grove are non-credit, personal-enrichment programs offered by Big Apple Coaching LLC. Participation does not confer academic credit, professional certification, or licensure.