We invite you to join a unique, remote opportunity where you’ll collaborate to compose and a play to be performed by professional actors, all within 24 hours.
In this unprecedented time of self-quarantine and school closures, what are the crucial stories that need to be told? What can we learn about social justice and equity when we listen to those whose voices we may not yet be hearing,? How can storytelling be a way to reflect back stories of hope and resistance, and help us imagine possible futures? This workshop provides practice in core design abilities – in particular, communicating deliberately, learning from others, experimenting rapidly, and navigating ambiguity. This virtual studio offering is part of the Stanford d.school K12 Lab's efforts to build empathy with the experiences of young people in this period.
Please join us to stretch our creative muscles and use design abilities to tell stories. Absolutely NO prior playwriting experience required!
You will learn the basic elements of narrative structure and playwriting, work in small groups to develop a story and write a script, and be coached by professional actors on the plot/characters/dialogue – all within 24 hours! This studio offering will be offered entirely online, so you can do this creative design work from the comfort of your own home.
April 27-May 25: Optional creative sprint prompts to help you ideate available on-line.
May 26-27: The formal workshop will be held on Tuesday, May 26 from 3:00-9:00 p.m. EDT / 12:00-6:00 p.m. PDT (much of that time will be spent writing with your group). Finished scripts will be due on Wednesday, May 27 at 3:00 p.m. EDT / 12:00 p.m. PDT. Yes, you can have a finished script in 24 hours!
May 27: Every completed play will have a reading by professional actors (yes, just hours after they were finished!) at 8:00 p.m. EDT / 5:00 p.m. PDT.
May 30: A select set of plays will be rehearsed and staged for a live-streamed, one-night-only, world premiere at 8:00 p.m. EDT / 5:00 p.m. PDT, where your friends and family can watch your big debut!
The facilitators are Marc Chun (a designer at the Stanford d.school) and Jessica Mele (a program officer in the Performing Arts program at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation). Marc holds a PhD in education, and has had his plays produced in New York, Los Angeles, and Hong Kong; Jessica was formerly the executive director of Performing Arts Workshop, and has had productions of her work in San Francisco. Together, Jessica and Marc have offered in-person versions of this 24-hour playwriting workshop at SXSW EDU, the Deeper Learning conference at High Tech High, the Grantmakers for Education annual meeting, and the MakerEd conference.
DEADLINE TO APPLY: 11:59 P.M. PDT ON SUNDAY, MAY 17, 2020