No less than three playwriting workshops will kick off within the next two months in Singapore, part of a concerted move by local theatre companies to help budding playwrights put the write foot forward.
Two of them are targeted specifically at youths and teenagers.
Checkpoint Theatre's TheatreCraft for Youths: The Art Of Playwriting (link to register here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1O3Jqggkbx5O5NSO2RHfE1ehF6hGv2PUUiQaQjE…) begins on Dec 8, and the five-day workshop will be run by the company's associate artists - including playwrights Faith Ng (wo(men), For Better Or For Worse) and Joel Tan (The Way We Go, Family Outing).
It is recomended for those aged 15 to 18. By the end of the workshop, which costs $150, participants will have written their own 15-minute play. They will also learn about character development, basic form and structure, framing devices and language.
The Singapore Repertory Theatre's Young Company Writing Programme is aimed at those aged 16 to 25, and will be helmed by award-winning playwright Jean Tay (Everything But The Brain, Boom). It will run every Saturday morning from Jan to May 2015, and costs $500.
This programme aims to develop new voices for the theatre - to help participants find their creative voice and explore the fundamentals of dramatic writing. Some of the forms participants will experiment with include the monologue, 10-minute play and full-length play. Those interested should email youth@srt.com.sg by Dec 31 with a writing sample, an idea for a play, and why they would like to join the programme.
And finally, bilingual theatre company Drama Box is conducting an "Idiot's Guide to Playwriting 101", on Saturday afternoons in Jan 2015. It is part of their Blanc Space initiative to cultivate new writing for the stage in Chinese.
This Chinese-language workshop will be conducted by established theatre practitioner Li Xie, and hopes to provide newbies with a dramatic toolkit for creating their own work. Interested applicants should write to josephine@dramabox.org by Jan 2 with their name and contact details. The course fee is $200.
Follow Corrie Tan on Twitter @CorrieTan
