Oxford Playwriting
PLAYWRITING COURSES FOR ALL LEVELS

'Hybrid' session mixing in-person and online participants
THE ADVANCED COURSE 2022 - 2023
Open only to writers who have done the FOUNDATION or INTERMEDIATE COURSES.
The ADVANCED COURSE dates, all on Fridays, 10.30am - 5.30pm, are as follows:
Friday October 14th, 2022
Friday November 11th, 2022
Friday December 9th, 2022
Friday January 13th, 2023
Friday February 10th, 2023
Friday March 10th, 2023
Friday April 28th, 2023
Friday May 26th, 2023
Friday June 9th, 2023
Performance workshop
Saturday, June 3rd, 2023, 11am-6pm
COST
10 x all-day sessions
(65 hours in total)
Course Fee: £2250
Each course is self-contained
The ADVANCED COURSE consists of 10 day-long sessions that take place from 10.30am-5.30pm for one Friday per month -- including a final day-long Performance Workshop.
HOW IT WORKS
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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.
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Classes run from 10.30 to 5.30pm for one Friday per month and one Saturday Performance Workshop.
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There are 6 WRITERS on the Advanced Course. This is to allow sufficient time for each writer to talk through their current play during the afternoon of each day-long session.
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All writers are encouraged to share their work with the whole group before each monthly session.
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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, and go on to write a new play over the course of the year.
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There is strong emphasis on reading current plays and, through doing so, facilitating each writer to make an educated choice as to 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
Note: The Advanced reading list changes annually.
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 is, without question, the best creative writing course I have ever done. John’s experience as both writer and director, and his knowledge of technique, make him a wonderful person to have by one’s side during the first tottering steps towards becoming a playwright."
Amanda Mackenzie Stuart, participant, 2018/2022
"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 2018/21
Bursaries
available!
Bursaries
available!
Visiting workshop leaders and guest speakers
Upcoming:
TBC
Previous:
2021 TIM CROUCH (Don’t Ask The Driver, An Oak Tree, England, The Author)
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)