THE ADVANCED COURSE 2021 - 2022

Open only to writers who have done the FOUNDATION or ADVANCED COURSES.

​

The dates, all on Fridays, 10.30am-6pm, are as follows:

 

Friday October 8th

Friday November 5th

Friday December 3rd

Friday January 14th

Friday February 11th

Friday March 11th

Friday April 15th

Friday May 13th

Friday June 3rd

​

Performance workshop

Saturday 28 May

 

COST

10 x all-day sessions taking place one Friday per month from 10.30am to 6pm.

(64 hours in total)

Course Fee: £2000

​

Each course is self-contained. It is not necessary to do all three years.

 

​(Background; in May 2020, several writers from the INTERMEDIATE COURSE requested

a 3rd (Advanced) year to the course. Of the 13 writers on the 2019-20 cohort,

6 took the available places on the newly founded ADVANCED COURSE.)

 

HOW IT WORKS

 

  • Writers on the Advanced Course are actively looking to get their work read or staged,
    either live or online. Each individual writer will be aware of Arts Council     opportunities
    for R&D, opening up ways to find collaborators for their plays or to seek out the right theatre, competition or agent. John will help each one of the group of six to find the appropriate route to future production.

 

  • Classes run from 10.30 to 6.00pm for one Friday per month and one Saturday Performance Workshop in May.

 

  • There are 6 WRITERS on the Advanced Course. This reduced number is to allow sufficient time for each writer to talk through their current play during the afternoon of each day-long session.

 

  • All writers are encouraged to share their work with the whole group before each monthly session.

 

  • Writers begin the Advanced Course with a further or final draft of the full-length play that they wrote in the Foundation or Intermediate Year.

 

  • There is strong emphasis on reading current plays and, though doing so, facilitating each writer to make an educated choice as what kind of play he or she wants to write. This reading list will change each year but here is the current one that each writer is following:

 

READING LIST 2020 - 2021

 

FRIDAY OCTOBER 9

 

OEDIPUS REX Sophocles/Oliver Taplin

 

FRIDAY NOVEMBER 6

 

Theme – THE ONE-PERSON PLAY

 

THE ENCOUNTER Simon McBurney

YOU CAN SEE THE HILLS FROM HERE Mathew Dunster

FLEABAG Phoebe Waller-Bridge

random debbie tucker green

VIA DOLOROSA David Hare

 

FRIDAY DECEMBER 4

 

Theme – THE TWO-HANDER PLAY

 

LAMPEDUSA Anders Lustgarten

TOPDOG/UNDERDOG by Suzan Lori-Parks

BLACKBIRD David Harrower

ELEGY Nick Paine

THE EVENTS David Greig

 

FRIDAY JANUARY 15

 

Theme – CLASS

 

SWEAT Lynn Nottage

THE FLICK Annie Baker

THE PITMEN PAINTERS Lee Hall

CONSENT Nina Raine

THE YORK REALIST Peter Gill

 

FRIDAY FEBRUARY 12

 

Theme – THE FAMILY

 

ON THE SHORE OF THE WIDE WIDE WORLD Simon Stephens

A LONG DAYS’ JOURNEY INTO NIGHT Eugene O’Neill

FENCES August Wilson

AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY Tracy Letts

THE HUMANS Stephen Karam

 

FRIDAY MARCH 12

 

Theme – POLITICS

 

INK James Graham

A VERY EXPENSIVE POISON Lucy Prebble

STUFF HAPPENS David Hare

THE OCTOROON Brandon Jacobs-Jenkins

ONE FOR THE ROAD Harold Pinter

 

FRIDAY APRIL 16

 

Theme – SOCIAL CHANGE

 

SLAVE PLAY Jeremy O Harris

THE CHILDREN Lucy Kirkwood

OIL Ella Hickson

ESCAPED ALONE Caryl Churchill

GOOD PEOPLE David Lindsay-Abaire

 

FRIDAY MAY 14

 

Theme -- THE PLAYS WE MISSED

​

This month, we look at plays suggested by the writers during the course.

​

SATURDAY MAY 29

 

Performance Workshop

 

FRIDAY JUNE 4

 

ALL-DAY FEEDBACK ON THE WORK OF EACH WRITER IN THE GROUP​​

 

"This course is the real deal. I would highly recommend it to any developing playwright. Above all, you benefit from John's extensive industry experience as a playwright, director and teacher, which he uses skilfully to provoke growth in each individual writer."

Amy Hailwood, participant 2019/20

"I am loving this course.  John manages to be warm, enabling and challenging in the best way.  He sees potential and uses all his creativity and experience to help us write with freedom and to be critical and curious about the form itself." 

Penny Boreham Saban, participant 2019/20

Bursaries

available!

Bursaries

available!

Visiting workshop leaders and guest speakers

​

Upcoming:

 

2021 TIM CROUCH (Don’t Ask The Driver, An Oak Tree, England, The Author)

​

Previous:

​

June 2018 CHRIS CAMPBELL then Literary Manager at The Royal Court

 

June 2019 MIKE BARTLETT (Dr Foster, Press, King Charles 3rd, Albion, Earthquakes in London)

​

March 2020 KENNETH LONERGAN (Manchester by the Sea, You Can Count On Me, Starry Messenger, This is Our Youth)