Is form political? What exciting spaces can be carved out between following the rulebook and throwing it out? How might a writer’s traditional tools be repurposed?

This weekend masterclass will explore ways to bend the established rules of scriptwriting. It will consider bedrocks of dramatic writing such as plot, character and setting, and the way conflict and change are typically enacted by –  or against – these.

During the weekend we’ll ask to what extent received ideas and rules about scriptwriting are relevant now.  Participants will explore these questions through discussion and sustained writing exercises, riffing off playwriting traditions but also looking beyond these towards performance art and devised theatre.

This workshop is led by writer and theatre-maker Tim Cowbury.

Saturday 18 and Sunday 19 March

10am-5pm (including one-hour lunch break)

£150
(price of workshop includes a ticket to The Cherry Orchard on Saturday 18 March)

Tim is a writer and co-founder of Made In China where he has created several acclaimed works, commissioned by venues including National Theatre, Warwick Arts Centre and Battersea Arts Centre and performed across the UK, Europe and USA. This summer’s Double Double Act will premiere at the Unicorn Theatre in June, following 2015’s ‘tantalisingly edgy’ (Times) and ‘murderously entertaining’ (Guardian) Tonight I’m Gonna Be The New Me.

Tim’s solo writing has been staged at Young Vic, Soho Theatre, Bush Theatre and The Public Theater (NYC), and developed at the National Theatre Studio. His new play The Claim will premiere in the UK this autumn. Tim leads workshops at theatres and universities across the UK, and has an MA in Writing For Performance from Goldsmiths University (Arts and Humanities Research Council scholarship)