Write Now Workshop
Allison Linker, Jessica Beveridge, Cynthia Granville, and Jami Simon. Photo by Emily Hewitt.
Mondays from 11am to 3pm.
Spring Season (8 weeks) starts Monday, March 26th skips April 2, and ends May 21
Spring Presentations on Thursday, May 24th, 7:30 pm
mark your calendar!
Weekly workshops helmed by Emma Goldman Sherman are held on the Upper West Side on Mondays from 11am-3pm. All writers and actors are welcome to join this safe environment which allows writers the opportunity to see their work performed in a nurturing, collaborative community for writers, actors and directors.
Writers can arrive at 11am to write to a prompt for an hour and we will discuss the writing at 12pm when Actors can come and warm-up with actor/coaches to lead them. Readings start at 12.30pm.
Writing individually in a group is very helpful because we learn to push through blocks that can trip us up at home. Because everyone else in the room is writing, the pressure to continue helps us learn to push ourselves, and that habit can teach us that we usually can go further than we think we can, and we are often grateful for that little extra push! When we return home, we are able to work better, for longer periods, with greater focus. Writers do not share what was just written although we do discuss how the writing itself went.
Writers do not pay anything to come and write. Writers only pay to develop, and it is affordable with a sliding scale. Writers who develop work with us are playwrights but writers of any genre may come and write.
At 12pm the actors begin to arrive. Actors do not pay to play here. Actors may arrive late or leave early depending on their schedule. There is no commitment necessary. Actors don't promise us their time in advance. Many actors come to workshop often and then start to get offered a lot of work, so they can't come anymore. For these reasons, we often need actors. If you can come, please do! If you have an audition or work, come next time when you are free.
Actors say that participating in this workshop has helped them at auditions and on stage. Actors have told me that their acting has improved by reading at WNWorkshop regularly. Actors have said the WNWorkshop helps them understand scripts in rehearsals and their playwright's point of view. WNWorkshop has changed how they talk with playwrights and helped them feel more comfortable discussing new plays with playwrights and directors. Actors have told me that this workshop has changed their lives!
Throughout the afternoon, (12:30-3 pm) actors are cast and read excerpts from our Writers in Development - writers who pay in advance or that day to develop work for the season. Each Writer gets 30 minutes for presentation including response. So if a writer brings in 10 minutes of material, they get 20 minutes of response. If they bring in 20 minutes of material, they get 10 minutes of response. A writer may also choose to bring in 30 minutes of material and have no response -- this might be useful if they are bringing in something new that they would rather not discuss OR they are bringing in a revision that they also would rather not discuss. Sometimes discussion is not the best way to help a writer. And of course some excerpts don't fit a 10, 15, 20 minute amount of time - so wherever a writer chooses to end their excerpt up to 30 minutes of material is fine.
There are Regulars and Drop-In Writers in Development. They all get the same treatment, except Regulars have pre-paid for the season in advance, so they get first priority in terms of who gets to read. They also get help casting if they need it, although we prefer to cast from our acting pool. Writers are always welcome to bring their own actors.
Writers in Development pay in advance of the beginning of each season as a Regular or as a Drop-In by the week by cash, check, or paypal. Regulars pay $250 - $400 in advance ($25 - $40, per session) for 10 - 14 sessions. Sliding scale for Drop-In Writers is $30 - $40 per session. Anyone with financial concerns can discuss this further with me. Drop-In Writers should contact me in advance to get on the list to read, but occasionally there is room the day of the workshop. Regular Writers are always scheduled to read unless they tell me they aren't.
When an excerpt is read, feedback is up to the writer. Depending on what the writer needs, I will vary the way feedback happens, but always with the writer's needs in mind. I believe that feedback should be healthy and nurturing, and I work to create a safe space for everyone involved. I try to capture everyone's comments in a typed document that I then add my own notes to send afterwards via email, so there is a record of what was said. I am also available via email to help support the writer with her or his work at no additional charge.
At the end of each season, there is a presentation of excerpts onstage with actors. It is a celebration of the work we accomplished with workshop participants and their invited guests. Regular and Drop-In Writers are asked to participate. There is a reception, and a professional photographer is brought in to take stills of the actors. It may be possible to arrange that your own work be videotaped for archival purposes.
At the end of the Spring season, a full-length play developed in WNWorkshop is chosen to be presented as The Michael Warren Powell Memorial Reading at The Dramatists Guild Fund's Music Room over the summer. Our Inaugural Michael Warren Powell Memorial Reading was Survivors by James Masten and the 2017 Reading was After the Party by Michelle Ghatan.
If you are interested in becoming a member of the WNWorkshop, either as an actor or as a writer, or both, because actors make the best writers!, please contact Emma Goldman-Sherman at emmagoldmansherman@gmail.com.
Thank you,
Emma and The 29th Street Playwrights Collective
Spring Season (8 weeks) starts Monday, March 26th skips April 2, and ends May 21
Spring Presentations on Thursday, May 24th, 7:30 pm
mark your calendar!
Weekly workshops helmed by Emma Goldman Sherman are held on the Upper West Side on Mondays from 11am-3pm. All writers and actors are welcome to join this safe environment which allows writers the opportunity to see their work performed in a nurturing, collaborative community for writers, actors and directors.
Writers can arrive at 11am to write to a prompt for an hour and we will discuss the writing at 12pm when Actors can come and warm-up with actor/coaches to lead them. Readings start at 12.30pm.
Writing individually in a group is very helpful because we learn to push through blocks that can trip us up at home. Because everyone else in the room is writing, the pressure to continue helps us learn to push ourselves, and that habit can teach us that we usually can go further than we think we can, and we are often grateful for that little extra push! When we return home, we are able to work better, for longer periods, with greater focus. Writers do not share what was just written although we do discuss how the writing itself went.
Writers do not pay anything to come and write. Writers only pay to develop, and it is affordable with a sliding scale. Writers who develop work with us are playwrights but writers of any genre may come and write.
At 12pm the actors begin to arrive. Actors do not pay to play here. Actors may arrive late or leave early depending on their schedule. There is no commitment necessary. Actors don't promise us their time in advance. Many actors come to workshop often and then start to get offered a lot of work, so they can't come anymore. For these reasons, we often need actors. If you can come, please do! If you have an audition or work, come next time when you are free.
Actors say that participating in this workshop has helped them at auditions and on stage. Actors have told me that their acting has improved by reading at WNWorkshop regularly. Actors have said the WNWorkshop helps them understand scripts in rehearsals and their playwright's point of view. WNWorkshop has changed how they talk with playwrights and helped them feel more comfortable discussing new plays with playwrights and directors. Actors have told me that this workshop has changed their lives!
Throughout the afternoon, (12:30-3 pm) actors are cast and read excerpts from our Writers in Development - writers who pay in advance or that day to develop work for the season. Each Writer gets 30 minutes for presentation including response. So if a writer brings in 10 minutes of material, they get 20 minutes of response. If they bring in 20 minutes of material, they get 10 minutes of response. A writer may also choose to bring in 30 minutes of material and have no response -- this might be useful if they are bringing in something new that they would rather not discuss OR they are bringing in a revision that they also would rather not discuss. Sometimes discussion is not the best way to help a writer. And of course some excerpts don't fit a 10, 15, 20 minute amount of time - so wherever a writer chooses to end their excerpt up to 30 minutes of material is fine.
There are Regulars and Drop-In Writers in Development. They all get the same treatment, except Regulars have pre-paid for the season in advance, so they get first priority in terms of who gets to read. They also get help casting if they need it, although we prefer to cast from our acting pool. Writers are always welcome to bring their own actors.
Writers in Development pay in advance of the beginning of each season as a Regular or as a Drop-In by the week by cash, check, or paypal. Regulars pay $250 - $400 in advance ($25 - $40, per session) for 10 - 14 sessions. Sliding scale for Drop-In Writers is $30 - $40 per session. Anyone with financial concerns can discuss this further with me. Drop-In Writers should contact me in advance to get on the list to read, but occasionally there is room the day of the workshop. Regular Writers are always scheduled to read unless they tell me they aren't.
When an excerpt is read, feedback is up to the writer. Depending on what the writer needs, I will vary the way feedback happens, but always with the writer's needs in mind. I believe that feedback should be healthy and nurturing, and I work to create a safe space for everyone involved. I try to capture everyone's comments in a typed document that I then add my own notes to send afterwards via email, so there is a record of what was said. I am also available via email to help support the writer with her or his work at no additional charge.
At the end of each season, there is a presentation of excerpts onstage with actors. It is a celebration of the work we accomplished with workshop participants and their invited guests. Regular and Drop-In Writers are asked to participate. There is a reception, and a professional photographer is brought in to take stills of the actors. It may be possible to arrange that your own work be videotaped for archival purposes.
At the end of the Spring season, a full-length play developed in WNWorkshop is chosen to be presented as The Michael Warren Powell Memorial Reading at The Dramatists Guild Fund's Music Room over the summer. Our Inaugural Michael Warren Powell Memorial Reading was Survivors by James Masten and the 2017 Reading was After the Party by Michelle Ghatan.
If you are interested in becoming a member of the WNWorkshop, either as an actor or as a writer, or both, because actors make the best writers!, please contact Emma Goldman-Sherman at emmagoldmansherman@gmail.com.
Thank you,
Emma and The 29th Street Playwrights Collective
Kim Gambino and John Del Vecchio in After the Party by Michelle Ghatan, photo by Emily Hewitt
Kim Gambino and Rich Grunn in Crimes and Miscommunications by Julie Richardson. Photo by Emily Hewitt
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Tyler Gardella and Kyle Minshew in Survivors by James Masten. Photo by Emily Hewitt
Carole Forman in LITA by Suzanne Willette. Photo by Emily Hewitt
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The Talented writers and actors of the Write Now Workshop! June 29th 2016 saw the end of season celebration of writing and collaboration with an evening of short plays, monologues and excerpts from larger pieces. The evening was a HUGE success and enjoyed a large appreciative audience! Sessions resume again in September, we hope everyone has a productive and creative summer!
