Write That Play! - with Andrew Black

Andrew Black leads a playwriting workshop at the East Washington Branch of the Indianapolis Public Library on Saturday, October 24, from 10:30 AM to 12 PM. The session, titled Write That Play!, is presented in partnership with the Indiana Writers Center and is aimed at adults. It's a 90-minute class, so you'll be in and out before lunch.

The format is straightforward: the group reads a short play and then walks through the basics of dramatic writing. Black covers where playwrights find their ideas and how to conceive and build an outline for a play of your own. It's designed to get you thinking about how a script actually comes together, from the first spark of an idea to a structured plan you can work from.

Black brings a lot of experience to the table. Through the Indiana Writers Center, he built a playwriting education program that serves both novices and advanced students, and he founded the Indiana Playwrights Circle. He's taught playwriting at the University of Missouri-Columbia, the Dramatists Guild Institute, and the Indiana Repertory Theatre, so he's worked with writers at several different stages of the process.

If you've always had a story in your head but aren't sure how to shape it for the stage, this is a good place to start. The workshop runs from 10:30 AM to 12 PM on Saturday, October 24, at the East Washington Branch, 2822 East Washington Street.