WINTER WORKSHOPS

In this workshop for experts or beginners - for anyone interested in writing - we're going to write 10-minute plays.

We will focus on the art of dramatic STORYtelling. And we will learn that brevity is indeed the source of wit. We will tell our stories - however small or large - economically. We will learn what happens when we write when we're confined by time (10 minutes) and space (10 pages). Limitation inspires imagination.

We will learn how to make the surprising, unreal, impossible, illogical stories we want to tell - somehow make sense to an audience - in ten pages or less. We will learn how to make the stories we want to tell begin, climax, and end - in ten pages or less. We will lean on existing story structures - fictional and non-fictional - and drape our own idiosyncratic voices on those structures and turn them into 10-minute plays.

We'll also take poems and paintings and found objects and explore making drama out of an essence or a picture or a feeling or an idea. And we'll write free-style - free from any imposed structure. We'll do plenty of nuts and bolts work, too. We'll do monologue exercises, dialogue exercises, and exercises to stimulate our visual sensibilities, always with the intention of solving the riddle of WHAT HAPPENS NEXT in our work!

Then, once we have written - well, the real fun begins. Writing is one thing. Having written is another thing altogether. We will read our plays to each other! In doing so, we will learn how to read and constructively critique one another. As writers, we will learn how to control and get the most out of a feedback session.

And then - this is the best part - we'll learn what we can do with what we've written! So much can be done with 10-minute plays! They're extremely produce-able! They can be entered into the many ten-minute play festivals that are sponsored by theatre companies all over the country - including OHA'S 10-MINUTE PLAY FESTIVAL. Into which all of our plays will be entered. And accepted, of course. And maybe even produced somewhere down the road!

Participants should bring some raw materials with them for inspiration - at least five things that move them deeply or make them want to write. For example, bring:

These are just suggestions. All I ask is that you bring any thing, thought, or idea that made your heart heavy or light or made you want to write a play.

$375 for five days of instruction and a meal each day. Register by calling 207-367-2788 or by e-mail, or through Brown Paper Ticket:

John Cariani's first play, Almost, Maine, premiered at Portland Stage Company in 2004, and opened Off Broadway in the winter of 2005/2006. The play was named one of the ten best of the 2004/2005 regional theater season by the Wall Street Journal, and is featured in Smith and Kraus' New Playwrights: Best Plays of 2006. John's short plays have been produced in New York by the Barrow Group; he was a contributing writer for Transport Group's Drama Desk-nominated The Audience; and his newest play is being developed by the Cape Cod Theatre Project. As an actor, John is an Outer Critics Circle Award recipient and a Tony Award nominee. He has appeared on and off Broadway, and in several films in television shows. Most people seem to know him as Beck, the very eager forensics technician on Law & Order. Originally from Presque Isle, Maine, John is a graduate of Amherst College. He currently lives in New York City.