THE COMEDY WRITING WEEKEND

The weekend's a bit like a comedy writer's career: we begin by writing jokes; we move to sketch-writing and monologues; we end up creating a sit-com; before getting legless down the pub.

Lectures about writing are like poems about swimming: they may be inspiring but they don't improve your technique. The only way to learn how to write comedy is to come to this workshop and get writing.

In non-stop intensive, practical exercises, you'll develop the basic skills you need to make your material funny in any format or medium you're writing for: film, television, radio, theatre, stand-up, print or Twitter. 

Working on your own, in pairs and in groups, you'll:   

  • write gags, quickies and sketches; 
  • create and develop comic characters; 
  • discover your own unique comic persona and write a stand-up monologue; 
  • write the outline for your own sitcom;  
  • and plunder the best source of comedy material you'll ever find - your own sad life.

Bring pencils, notebooks and a list of everything you hate about your friends and family.
SATURDAY
  • Practice the basic structures behind different joke formats
  • Discover the dynamics of status in character and relationships
  • Write comic dialogue for stock characters 
  • Write a topical sketch working from stories in the day's papers 
  • Discover and develop the comic persona you never knew was inside you and use it to write a character monologue

SUNDAY: THE SITCOM DAY
Learn some underlying principles through improvisation and dialogue-writing:
  • why opposites don't attract, they repulse; 
  • what's so funny about sluts, drunks and losers - use and abuse of stereotypes; 
  • counter-characters and secondary characters; 
  • why everyone isn't equal in great sitcoms - status and power dynamics. 

Create characters and story lines:
  • develop a counter-character to bounce off your main character, then use this relationship as the basis of a narrative;
  • learn how to express character through action and attitude;
  • learn about themes and subtexts, set-ups and payoffs, twists, shocks and mysteries, visual gags (show, don't tell). 

INCLUDED IN THE PRICE IS A BULLET POINT REPORT OF ANY SITCOM COMPLETED AS A RESULT OF ATTENDING THIS WORKSHOP.

Whether you're a complete beginner or rusty and needing a work-out, by the end of this weekend you'll have the confidence and the tools to up the humour in your scripts.
VENUE 
Derbyshire House
St Chad's Street
London 
WC1H 8AG
map

PRICE
*Early bird rate £150 (£135 Concessions and affiliated organisations, see below for access to full list).

*Book now for Early Bird rate, valid until 1st February)

PRICE:  £199 (£179) 

Book THE COMEDY WRITING WEEKEND with THE ABSOLUTE BEGINNER'S GUIDE TO HOW TO WRITE A SCREENPLAY and get further a discount of 10%.
BOOK HERE FOR EARLY BIRD RATE
BOOK HERE FOR FULL RATE (Early Bird discount applied until 1st February)
BOOK HERE for the 10% discount if you attend both THE COMEDY WRITING WEEKEND and THE ABSOLUTE BEGINNER'S GUIDE TO HOW TO WRITE A SCREENPLAY.
We offer the concessionary rate to all Concessions as well as to members of these affiliated organisations.  If you are a member of one of these organisations, please book at the concessionary rate and show your membership card to the course tutor at registration.

FURTHER DETAILS
Email Fenella or phone 07515 381586

FENELLA GREENFIELD
As a trustee of the Screenwriters' Workshop, Fenella Greenfield was a founder member of Euroscript, helping to launch it as a Media funded European initiative. She has written broadcast scripts for radio and television. She’s a freelance edit producer and promo producer and has won awards both here and in the States for her work. As a writer and development producer, through her company Fenella Greenfield Limited, she develops films and TV programmes; she's a freelance development executive for InDevelopment Productions; she's on the board of Eursocript Produces. As an active member of BAFTA she judges in the ‘Documentary’ and ‘Film Not in the English Language’ categories and is a member of the Screenplay Chapter of the awards.

Check out her website here and her YouTube channel here. 
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