At the core of Rutgers’ playwriting program (2.5 years) are the weekly Playwright Seminars, an ongoing class for the duration of the degree in which playwrights deepen their art and hone their craft. Each semester, students will work on a play and play fragments toward developing a portfolio of work. Toward a rich experience of plays and play-making, we read and attend productions at various theaters, mainly in New York City, as well as meet with theater professionals.

Recent visits have been to Playwrights Horizons, Buswick Starr, Rattlestick, BAM, the Public Theater, Broadway, Soho Rep, New York Theatre Workshop, the McCarter Theatre in Princeton, Ensemble Studio Theatre, and MaYi Theatre Company. We have met with numerous playwrights and theater staff.

Emphasis will be on developing each playwright’s unique voice and inclinations. There will be occasional in-class writing and writing assignments, toward exploring new approaches, jump-starting a play, and enriching or unlocking a current play-in-process. Each week you’ll write a brief response to a play you have read or seen.

In the first year, the playwrights will have a staged reading of a new work, directed by an outside professional director. In the second year and the last semester, playwrights will have productions of their plays, collaborating with student designers, actors, stage management, and professional directors.

Screenwriting and Television Writing are offered each year, as is Writers’ Workshop where playwrights explore their works-in-progress with actors and a director.