This course is part of the University of Cambridge’s Micro Master’s program in Writing for Performance and Entertainment Industries. We will be looking in depth at how to find your own distinctive dramatic voice as you develop as a playwright. How do we choose themes that will resonate with our audience? What qualities makes a powerful character? How should we structure a scene so that it moves the dramatic action forward? How do we find our creative flow when writing under time pressure? How can you connect with new writing theatres and get your work read? All these questions and more will be answered. We will be thinking comparatively about play-texts and production and well as considering how audiences receive and contribute to the creative process within theatre-making. This is a comprehensive introduction to theatre writing that will give beginners a strong understanding of essential concepts, as well as reinvigorate anyone who has been working in this area for a while, and who wants to find fresh perspective. Learning to write dialogue for theatre, and how to communicate most effectively with our audience, gives us a good toolbox for expert communication in any professional sphere. Skill transferability, flexible thinking, and expert language abilities are now essential in a diversifying global job market – come and learn essential new skills, and have fun doing it! You will be set writing exercises over the course of the module, and you will asked to keep a brief creativity journal to note how your ideas progress and how your intuition leads you into productivity. By the end of this module, you will have completed several new scenes of a play – this can be the development of something you are working on already, or this might be completely new material derived from working on this module – and you will have created a lead character for a piece of stage writing.
An excellent online course offered by edX: how it works
edX courses consist of weekly learning sequences. Each learning sequence is composed of short videos interspersed with interactive learning exercises, where students can immediately practise the concepts from the videos. The courses often include tutorial videos that are similar to small on-campus discussion groups, an online textbook, and an online discussion forum where students can post and review questions and comments to each other and teaching assistants. Where applicable, online laboratories are incorporated into the course.
edX offers certificates of successful completion and some courses are credit-eligible. Whether or not a college or university offers credit for an online course is within the sole discretion of the school. edX offers a variety of ways to take courses, including verified courses where students have the option to audit the course (no cost) or to work toward an edX Verified Certificate (fees vary by course). edX also offers XSeries Certificates for completion of a bundled set of two to seven verified courses in a single subject (cost varies depending on the courses).
An edX learning programme under Other Experiences
