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Crafting Darkness (Winter 2024) (Online)

01/07/2024 10:00 AM - 02/18/2024 01:00 PM CT

Category

Class

Admission

  • $325.00

Location

Online

Summary

Sessions: 7 Sundays
Session Dates: Jan 07, 14, 21, 28
Feb 04, 11, 18
Session Time: 10:00am - 1:00pm Central Time

Description

Crafting Darkness (Winter 2024) (Online)

7 Sundays
Jan 07 - Feb 18
10:00am - 1:00pm Central Time

Instructor: Ean Miles Kessler

Villains, and stories that explore the darker elements of humanity, have always held a strange allure and fascination, both for writers and audiences alike. It is not a thing we can help: we all find ourselves strangely drawn to the terror that lurks beneath those stories. Yet in writing these plays, the question remains: How do we, as artists, explore dark subject matter and themes--those plays that expose the darkest parts of the human condition--without alienating our audiences, or glorifying the darkness we are attempting to explore? How do we craft villains who both horrify and excite us? Those who both repel us, and whose magnetism we cannot seem to peel our eyes from? And how do we bring moments of savagery to the stage, imbuing them with some kind of grotesque beauty? Those questions and aims lie at the heart of this generative/workshop based course. Students will explore how to develop vibrant, wildly human villains and anti-heroes; how to bring moments of true darkness to the stage in truthful and thrilling ways; and how to tell stories that explore themes and dramatic moments that simultaneously horrify and fascinate an audience. With gentle dramaturgical guidance from the instructor, students will develop original work, and as a class we will examine each writers’ fresh pages together. Sessions will be an even mix of generating/workshopping student material, dissecting the work of great playwrights, open discussion, and a variety of writing exercises and prompts, to spur writers to put pen to paper. Students will have the option to bring in work they’ve developed previously to be workshopped within class, or can develop pieces during the course of the class itself. The course will culminate in an online reading of student work, read by professional actors and performed for an invited audience.
 

Ean Miles Kessler is a playwright and theater educator. His jobs have run the gamut: he’s processed poultry, bartended in New Orleans for Mardi Gras, and has worked as a ranch hand and horse trainer in Montana, gentling mustangs. A Rutgers BFA Acting graduate, Ean studied at Shakespeare’s Globe in England under esteemed director and Tony nominee Tim Carroll. His plays have been produced nationally and internationally, and his work has been published by Vintage Books. His plays have been developed with a variety of companies, including: The Playwrights' Center, Chicago Dramatists Saturday Series, and Naked Angels among others. Previously, Ean was the Network Director at Chicago Dramatists, where he taught “Deconstructing the American West,” “Thieves of Shakespeare:  Race, Class, & Gender,” “Intermediate Playwriting,” “Thieves of Shakespeare:  The Art of Tragedy,” and “The Cohort:  A Dramaturgy Masterclass.”  He is thrilled to be working alongside his Chicago family.

 

Classes will be held via Zoom. Instructors will send out Zoom invites one day before class begins. We encourage students to setup a Zoom account for themselves before class if they have not already to ensure when class begins you are able to jump straight into the art!

Sessions/Weekday 7 Sundays
Session Dates

Jan 07, 14, 21, 28

Feb 04, 11, 18
Time 10:00am - 1:00pm Central Time
Notes

This class is ideal for students that are intermediate & advanced.
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