From spark to stage: build a play draft (or a shareable excerpt) in 8 sessions.

For some writers, the hardest part is beginning—giving yourself permission to follow a strange little idea, let characters start talking, and trust that something will emerge. That can feel wildly vulnerable.

For others, the hardest part is finishing—because without a deadline, without a promised audience, and without people expecting pages from you, it’s easy for a script to stall out, get “set aside,” and quietly disappear into the drawer.

PLAY-WRITE exists to solve both problems.

The theatre world can be discouraging. Many theatres don’t openly solicit new script submissions the way they once did, and competitions can feel like long odds. This class won’t promise production (because that would be nonsense), but it will give you what most playwrights actually need to do the work: tools, structure, accountability, and a community that shows up.

Across eight sessions, you’ll explore key aspects of playwriting through prompts and experimentation, learn practical craft tools, and make steady progress on your own play. Along the way, you’ll have regular opportunities to share pages, hear work read aloud, and learn from the creative risks and discoveries happening in the room.

The workshop culminates in a selected shared reading—an achievable milestone that gives your writing a real destination: voices in the air, story in motion, and the rare gift of hearing what’s working.

Weekly class themes
May 18 — The Burning Question

May 25 — The World

June 1 — The Form

June 8 — The Breaking

June 15 — The Reversal

June 22 — The Impossible

June 29 — The Honing

July 6 — The Sharing

Dates: Mondays, May 18-July 6, 2026 (Eight sessions)

Time: 3-5 pm

Price: $349
Pricing info: Our classes and events are priced at their actual cost to run.

If paying the full price would keep you from joining us, use the code ACCESS at checkout to reduce your registration amount by 20%—no questions asked. If you’re a Wordcrafters member, use code MEMBERACCESS.

If the full price is within your means, please leave the ACCESS code for those who truly need it.

If you’re able, you can add a donation during registration to support our scholarship fund.

Scholarship info: We want everyone to have access to our writing programs. If you need additional support, please complete our scholarship request form: https://wordcrafters.org/scholarships/

Your instructor
Jeany Van Meltebeke Snider (she/her) Ever since she listened to stories on records, cassette tapes, or visually on flannel boards, Jeany has been smitten. In her imaginary world under the piano where she was supposed to be practicing, she was creating worlds with characters from a deck of cards. After years of forcing the younger set of cousins to perform skits for the relatives, she ventured into theatre and has never looked back.

Jeany was born and raised in Eugene, and after three years in theatre graduate school in Illinois, she and her husband David spent 25 years in Canada living, breathing, and teaching theatre as resident artists with three theatre companies and raising their family. She loves to be in the center of the story as an actor or director, but has also enjoyed playwriting, designing, teaching, and producing.