Fish Amble are now accepting registrations for our Autumn playwriting courses. #writing #seanocarolan #plays #courses #opportunities

Fish Amble Autumn playwriting courses

Thanks to  Lynne Edgar Admin at Derrywriters for this info.

Upcoming course dates
Autumn 9 week course

Oct 2 – Nov 27
Thursdays, 7pm-10pm
Price: €300 (deposit €100). Includes a trip to the theatre.
Bank Holiday Weekend course

Oct 25 – Oct 27
Saturday, Sunday and Monday 10am-5pm
Price: €200 (deposit €70). Includes a trip to the theatre.


To enroll

To enroll, please send a cheque with your contact details and the deposit made out to Fishamble Theatre Company to Shamrock Chambers, 1/2 Eustace Street, Dublin 2. Please note that no places will be held without a deposit.

All courses are held in Fishamble office at the above address. Maximum number of participants is 12 in each course. For further information on Fishamble’s playwriting courses, or contact Gavin on 01 6704018 or email gavin@fishamble.com.


Course Content

Each course participant is immersed in a range of ideas and exercises designed to develop useful skills in writing for live performance. These include: Openings, The Playwright’s Imagination, Plotting, Alternative Structures, Characterisation, the Rhythms of Language and Dialogue. As the course develops creative theatre practitioners are brought in to provide expert discussion on staging new work. Each course member is encouraged to develop their own idea through the course into a finished draft. As well as developing playwriting skills the course aims to broaden conceptions of what is achievable in live performance and encourage practical considerations of successful staging. The weekend course is particularly suitable for those who wish to thoroughly immerse themselves in writing for theatre, over a short period.

About our courses

‘Fishamble’s playwriting courses have made an amazing contribution to the development of the many companies and artists who have presented new work at the Dublin Fringe Festival.’ – Roise Goan, Director, Dublin Fringe Festival

Fishamble: The New Play Company is dedicated to supporting new and developing writers from the very beginning of their literary careers. Over the last 10 years, Fishamble has run 50 playwriting courses for over500 developing playwrights from Ireland and overseas. Facilitated by Gavin Kostick, the evening and weekend courses provide new writers with the confidence, skills and stimulus required to write successfully for theatre. So far over 300 new plays have been written through these courses, with over 80 plays by writers who attended the courses going on to full production.

Fishamble’s production of Whereabouts, a series of site-specific short plays, was awarded the Special Judges’ Award for creativity and innovation at the The Irish Times Theatre Awards 2006. Six of the eleven plays produced in the series were by writers who have participated in Fishamble’s playwriting courses.

‘I found this course was not a ‘how to’ course like many others. Instead, it opened up the area of possibility in playwriting – made me think, see different ways to the completed work. Most usefully, it reawakened an understanding of rhythm and metre which has had a direct effect on my writing. It also got me writing poems and short stories, which has helped improve my management of playwriting. Well worth it!’ – John Connolly, winner of The Yale Playwriting Competition 2007, judged by Edward Albee.