Workshop 5

The Show Is In The Tell:
Writing Dialogue For The Stage

Teacher: Ashley Naftule

In this workshop, participants will learn tricks and techniques to sharpen their dialogue writing skills. Like in real life, characters in plays often don’t come right out and say what they want or express how they feel in direct terms. We’ll look at fun generative techniques for creating dialogue scenes that say a lot indirectly. We’ll do writing exercises to play with different modes of conversation, analyze the anatomy of a good joke, and focus on one of the most most important qualities that separates playwriting from other forms of fiction: leaving plenty of empty space in the text for other artists (actors, directors, designers, even the audience themselves) to fill in the blanks. We’ll also examine how this dialogue writing approach can be used to enhance non-fiction and memoir writing, and take a look at how it also applies to writing stage directions and action scenes.