A Get-It-Done Playwriting Sprint
Virtual class (Six ‘in-person” sessions over Zoom, two hours each)
NEXT ROUND:
Wednesdays, May 10 - June 14,
8 - 10 PM EST (two spots left!)
SIGN UP HERE: www.katetarker.com/classes
ABOUT THE CLASS
Have you been wanting to write something new, but life keeps getting in the way? Does perfectionism tend to freeze you up? Could you use an inspiring community, fresh perspectives, and weekly accountability?
If you relate to any of the above, join me for this playwriting sprint. We will write courageous Zero Drafts: the discovery draft where you figure out what you're trying to say and how to say it. We will write fast and furious, go deeper into what we need to write, and explore the edges of our curiosities.
This class is geared toward intermediate to advanced writers with at least some playwriting experience, but brave beginners are also welcome. (Previous sprinters have zoomed in from all over the U.S., and have included: award-winning TV writers, the Chair of an MFA Playwriting Program, emerging playwrights, devised theater creators, as well as actors, novelists, and poets writing their first plays.)
WHAT TO EXPECT
You will write 10 pages every week, except for one week where you only have to write 5 (phew!). Your ultimate mission is to complete 45 pages with a beginning, middle, and an end. The class format is community time, writing exercises, mini-lessons on craft, discussion, and short readings. (This is not a traditional workshopping class.)
“Kate Tarker’s Draft Zero class is the most productive playwriting course I’ve taken over the past five years. Kate’s easygoing disposition and sense of humor made me feel welcome immediately. However, Kate should not be mistaken for a pushover; she demands you get your butt in a chair and produce pages every week. Her class actually got me to write, rather than just think and talk about writing. If you have a chance to take a course with Kate Tarker, do it. You and the people you complain to about never getting enough writing done will be glad you did.”
ABOUT ME
I am a professional playwright, currently based in Providence, with past productions in NYC, Chicago, San Francisco, and Philadelphia. I will have my first international production in Germany this fall. I studied under Paula Vogel at the Yale School of Drama, where I received my MFA in 2014. I first taught Draft Zero through the Playwrights' Center of Minneapolis in November 2022; it's been an enormously popular class and I now offer it independently. Additional teaching experience includes teaching at Connecticut College, PlayPenn, University of the Arts, Salve Regina University, Macalester College, and upcoming this fall at MIT.
As a writer, I'm driven by a relentless and rebellious curiosity about what the medium of live theater can do. I write countercultural plays for smart, curious audiences, and trust in the powers of radical truth telling, community gathering, and collective effervescence to overhaul our most delusional and damaging cultural scripts.