About Developing New Work Without Killing it…

DEVELOPING NEW WORK WITHOUT KILLING IT walks you through practical, effective, and powerful exercises to begin writing, break through blocks, or focus and deepen your work if you are close to completion. Work at any stage is welcome: the desire to write is more important than having a full production in mind. (But we may help you to imagine a full production.)

The writing exercises we’ll use are proven over time by people you may know or whose work you may have seen. From horror clowning to high performance literary artists, they all started somewhere, and we will take a look at how those things began. We will also take a deep dive into the power of values (respect, perseverance) in a healthy creative room

Maybe you have a show in mind, or maybe you have a tiny idea just beginning. In all cases, we will catalyze its development, your focus, and test the work in gentle “production simulations.” There will be micro readings, micro stagings, micro-dramaturgy - even micro casting sessions. These sessions will be guided and executed with the mantra "first do no harm”, tactics for continuing, and success beyond the course.

Whether you are making a bright comedy or an immersive horror; a serious docudrama or some stylish wild theatre, DNWWKI promises to catalyze you, build you a body of work that is original to you, and send you away with tactics for its safe travels into the future.

Participants will be invited to bring something they are working on, or dream of working on: as simple as a compelling concept, as elaborate as a production plan for work done so far. This is not essential: blank slates are equally as welcome.