Tools is a workshop series by our visiting resident playwright Sean Dunnington for playwrights curious about theatricality—the unique magic of theatre that invites audiences to “believe” what they see on stage is true-to-life, even while knowing it's not real (to an extent). Each session dives into a specific element of this conceptual spell, blending discussion, hands-on activities, performance, and experimentation.

Join us for the first workshop this January which will look at Stage Directions. In this workshop, we’ll explore what stage directions can do beyond blocking and lighting cues. How can they become indispensable to the play? Can they describe things that never appear? Should they be interpreted as literal, tonal, or something else entirely? Can they dare be ignored? Through examples and practice, we’ll test how much stage directions can shape a play.

This workshop is suitable for playwrights/writers who are engaged with/thinking about craft at a serious level.

Keep a look out for the rest of the workshops in this series:

22 February 2025

Magic Props

This workshop investigates the remapping process, where one thing stands in for another and real-world elements correspond with their stage-space equivalents. What happens when a stick becomes a gun or a house is described as an imaginary zone? We’ll examine the audience’s role in recognizing these substitutions and experiment with how to teach them to understand the play.

29 March 2025

Actuality & Illusion

This workshop explores the dichotomy between when something actually happens on stage and when something looks like it actually happens. What’s the difference between a character really eating, fighting, or swimming, versus the play tricking the audience into thinking they really did any of that? We’ll test how far we can push in both directions.

26 April 2025

Theatrical Boundaries

The boundary between the stage and the audience defines theater’s magic. What happens when we reinforce this boundary? Or when we cross it? Can it ever actually be broken? This workshop explores the "fourth wall"—its purpose, rules, and what happens when we try to mess with it.

31 May 2025

Theatrical Shapes

The shape of a play is more than its structure—it’s how time and space interact to guide the audience’s attention and understanding. In this workshop, we’ll explore scene intervals, transitions, and disjunctions, and how these elements shape the play’s rhythm and illusion.

Featured Facilitator

Sean Dunnington

TOOLS: A Workshop Series for Playwrights Exploring Theatricality

Overview

Featured Facilitator

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