Community Bake-Off Writing Workshop

Inspired by the legendary playwriting exercise created by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Paula Vogel, we invite you to join us for a creative, fast-paced, and immersive Bake-Off facilitated by our visiting resident playwright Sean Dunnington.

In Paula Vogel’s own words, “a bake-off is a quickly written exercise on an assigned theme with assigned elements that folks do within a 48-hour period. It’s a conversation across time, reacting to plays and works of art, often spanning centuries. Participants gather after the writing period to read their scenes in a shared celebration of creativity.”

First, a classic tale will be selected as the foundation for the  Bake-Off. From this tale,  several essential elements will be identified—ideas, objects, and themes—to serve as the "ingredients" for the plays. Over the course of 48 hours, participants will create and commune.

Here's an example from a Bake-Off run by Paula Vogel herself in 2018 at the Vineyard Theatre in New York.  The assigned theme was The Pied Piper, which included the following ingredients:

• rats
• a rat trap
• children
• payment
• a breach of contract
• mad music

The Bake-Off was a wild rush of creativity and collaboration, with scenes crafted, shared, and celebrated in just two days. Some of these exercises even went on to become some of Sean’s favorite Off-Broadway hits. 

This workshop is open to playwrights of all levels. Build your writing toolkit and sharpen your craft through some writing exercises!