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Evan Placey

Evan Placey Arvon writing tutor head shot

Evan Placey’s plays include Girls Like That, Consensual, Pronoun, Mother of Him, Jekyll & Hyde, Holloway Jones, Scarberia and WiLd! His plays have won numerous awards, including the Writers’ Guild Award for Best Play for Young Audiences. He has written for theatres internationally and in the UK, including the National Theatre, Hampstead Theatre, Unicorn, Birmingham Rep, West Yorkshire Playhouse, Plymouth Theatre Royal, NYT at the Ambassadors (West End) and BBC Radio 3.

Courses

May 13-18

The Hurst

Theatre

Residential Writing Week: Playwriting

Moving from ideas into scripts

Evan Placey
Tessa Walker
Guest: Waleed Akhtar

May 24

Online

Starting to Write, Theatre

Online Writing Day: Write a Short Play in a Day

From idea to script

Evan Placey
Guest: Tessa Walker

Tips and Exercises

Tips

Writing by not writing: subtext in dialogue

The awkward silences. The times we talk too much while avoiding eye contact. Saying the opposite of what we actually mean….

Evan Placey

Exercises

Subtext: running into an ex

A and B used to go out. Write down how long for.
They haven’t seen each other…

Evan Placey

Tips

Redrafting a script

We all know about the agony caused by a blank page. Staring at a blinking cursor willing it to write itself. Even non-writers know about this. But I’m not convinced starting is the hardest or most painful part of the process.

Evan Placey

Exercises

Create a visual map of your play

Write a sentence of prose for each scene, one per cue card. This should concisely tell you what is happening in that scene. It’s difficult, so don’t rush it. And make sure your sentences are ACTIVE.

Evan Placey
Private

Tips

Dialogue: On the Page vs Spoken

Every scriptwriter dreads hearing: I don’t believe a person would say that. Or it’s close relative: I don’t…

Evan Placey
Private

Exercises

Alphabet Scenes

Set yourself a location and create two characters with a pre-existing relationship who find themselves in that location. Then set a…

Evan Placey