Aspiring dramatists could learn the art of playwriting in just 10 weeks thanks to a new course from the Bush Theatre and Central Saint Martins, which can be downloaded for free onto smartphones and tablets.
The Student Guide to Writing features lessons from experienced playwrights on topics including structure, characterisation and staging.
Tamasha theatre company artistic director Fin Kennedy and Royal Court Theatre associate director Ola Animashawun are among the writers who have contributed lessons, which can be completed in an hour.
Students should end up with a finished play, which they can enter into a competition to be performed at London Writers Week — a festival at Saint Martins in July that hopes to become the literary equivalent of London Fashion Week.
The five winning entries will also be published by Oberon Books.
Jennifer Tuckett, course leader for the MA Dramatic Writing at Saint Martins, and the Bush’s artistic director Madani Younis created the course to attract people from different walks of life into the field.
Ms Tuckett said: “It’s a very simple and clear guide to creating a play. There’s no minimum or maximum age limit for students and your play can be a minute or 120 minutes long.
“The whole idea is to open it up to everyone across the UK. If writing is about explaining how we live and how to live then everybody should be reflected in that.”
The first two lessons are available at thestudentguidetowriting.com
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