Int`l Pgms, Dramatic Writing (IDWPG-UT)

This is a workshop class focusing on the core fundamentals of writing the one-hour dramatic series. Students will be required to write a spec script of an existing one-hour show from premise to beat sheet to completed teleplay. There will be handouts and in-class screenings of ongoing TV episodes with in-depth focus on building and structuring the one-hour teleplay, and how to navigate ongoing storylines of a series.

This is an intermediate course for students with some playwriting experience. The central aim is to guide the students toward reinventing themselves as writers. In this process, students will learn to reappraise famous plays of the past and analyze the plays of their contemporaries, including their fellow students. Students initially are taught the process of playwriting (especially in relation to UK practice), from development to stage to printed page. Guest speakers for the course are drawn from British playwrights and/or other leading practitioners in the field. This overall approach will lead to a reexamination of the basic elements of playwriting, including the creation of story, character, and theme. Students complete this course with a clear idea of their interrelation and, more particularly, of how original stories can be invented, original characters created, and original themes put into dramatic harness. Along with the study of further dramaturgical elements, students are encouraged to look at their plays from the perspective of the actor, the director, the designer, and the audience. By the end of the semester, students complete the first draft of a freshly conceived, full-length play for the stage.

This course is an introduction to the basic craft of writing original pilots for students in the Writing for TV track at NYU London. Students will read and analyze produced pilots from recognized British series and write their own original pilots, which will be analyzed and discussed in a workshop environment. Lectures will emphasize both pilots and the series that emerge from those pilots. The purpose of this class is for students to explore writing generative work in the episodic form. The work may range across hour and half-hour, comedy and drama, as well as advertiser supported and subscriber supported series.

This course is an introduction to the basic craft of writing original, comedic pilots. Students will read and analyze produced pilots from recognized series and write their own original pilots, which will be analyzed and discussed in a workshop environment. Lectures will emphasize both pilots and the series that emerge from those pilots. The purpose of this class is for students to take their first venture into writing generative work in the episodic form.