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From the Page to the Stage

Get your play or musical produced!

Course is closed.

WHEN
Monday, February 6, 7-10 p.m.

WHERE
mb classrooms
494 Broadway, 3rd Floor
(Spring & Broome)
New York, NY

WHO
Ideal for any writer interested in producing a play.

PRICE
$65 ($50 for )
more info

Course Details

You've poured your heart into a masterpiece for the stage, and now your epic drama (or soaring musical) is left in a desk drawer while hundreds of commercial and not-for-profit theaters across the country are searching for material to fill their stages. In three jam-packed hours, this seminar will show you how to get your show read, developed, and ultimately produced. 

Working playwrights and librettists do two things: They sell a story and they sell themselves. In other words, if you're successfully pitching and writing articles for publication, then you can be a writer for the theater. All you need are the nuts and bolts.

In this backstage tour of the business of theatrical writing, you'll learn:

  • How to format a script, write a synopsis, and showcase your work to best effect.
  • Where to send your show: to theaters, independent producers, and grant-giving institutions.
  • Where to find collaborators who will understand and support your work.
  • How to stage your own reading; get the right cast and director; and get the people that matter to come see it.
  • How to get your show workshopped, and how not to get trapped in workshop hell.
  • How to find a good theatrical agent and put him or her to work.
  • Why the oft-repeated refrain "theater is dead" is a preposterous untruth, and the three huge advantages dramatists have over other entertainment writers.
  • How to be your own press agent, build on your successes?and create a career in the theater.

Instructor Bio

Ben H. Winters's Courses

No courses available at this time.

Ben H. Winters
Ben H. Winters wrote the book and lyrics to the musical comedy Slut, which ran Off Broadway in the fall of 2005. Ben also co-wrote the book for Breakin' Up is Hard to Do , a musical comedy based around the songs of Neil Sedaka. Other current projects include: book and lyrics for The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere and Fame Forever, a sequel to the stage musical Fame. Past works include the plays Circus Music, which Ben wrote and directed in productions in Chicago (1999) and Los Angeles (2001); and Marry Me, Mary Jo!, which appeared at Manhattan's Open Pulse Arts Lab in 1999. Ben is a participant in the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theater Workshop and a member of the Dramatist's Guild.
Ben's work as a journalist has appeared in numerous publications, including the Chicago Tribune, The Nation, In These Times, PerformInk, Stagebill, and Theatermania.com.

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