Playwriting Instruction On-Demand

Description

Always wanted to write a play? Or maybe you've written for stage but want to give yourself a stronger foundation. Or maybe you're a screenwriter looking for the extra edge that writing plays can give you. Let Final Draft and the Writers Store's resident playwriting expert become your personal playwriting mentor.

How It Works
The beauty of one-on-one instruction is that I can tailor the program to fit your needs. For the beginning writer, that might mean giving you a solid foundation in the basics of playwriting and guiding you through the completion of your first play. For more advanced writers, that could mean helping you tackle particular problem areas in your work, or giving you guidance on specific projects. We'll generally work by phone (though in-person meetings may be arranged if you're in the greater LA area), using Storylink's messaging system to facilitate sharing files as needed.

Why I Can Help
*Resident Playwriting Expert for The Writers Store and author of Playwriting101.com, one of the most popular playwriting sites on the Internet
*Resident Playwriting Expert for Final Draft and creator of "Ask the Expert" Playwriting in FD7
*Co-Chair of the Alliance of Los Angeles Playwrights and former Managing Director of the Philadelphia Dramatists Center
*Teacher of dramatic writing at every level from elementary school to college and beyond, including currently teaching playwriting online at Writers University and, in summer 2008, on the faculty of the graduate playwriting program at Hollins University (Roanoke, VA)
*Author of Young Playwrights 101, a book for young playwrights and those who teach them
*B.A. in Dramatic Writing and Literature from Harvard University, including study with William Alfred, Adrienne Kennedy and Robert Brustein
*M.F.A. in Playwriting from UCLA, including study with Velina Hasu Houston and Leon Katz (former co-chair of Yale's dramaturgy department and called the "father of American dramaturgy")
*Author of 20 published plays, with productions in more than 35 states and 7 foreign countries, as well as several produced short films

Selected Testimonials
"A quick thank you for this wonderful course. I have been a student of UCLA Extension's Writers Program for the past 1 1/2 years so I am very familiar with online learning. Jon Dorf is one of the finest teachers I have worked with! His style, lectures, feedback and suggestions were all fantastic. He is extremely knowledgeable about his craft and an asset to The Writers Store. My only regret is that the class is 4 weeks long! I learned more from Jon in four weeks than in years of reading books on playwriting. Thank you for this fantastic opportunity." [Writers University Introduction to Playwriting student] - Jennifer Phillips

"Even though I've been a professional playwright for 25 years there are times when a script needs a good outside eye, and Jon's notes and suggestions on my new play were the most insightful and practical of any notes I received. I'd recommend Jon highly as a consultant."--Peter Colley, author of I'll Be Back Before Midnight, acclaimed as the most produced Canadian play in history, and creator of Great Dialogue software

"Some years ago, Jon was my valued, highly regarded student in Playwriting at UCLA, but in the years since, I've come to recognize him as a genuine colleague. His ability to analyze scripts in detail and to work with playwrights with excruciating attention to every detail of a script is extraordinary; and the advice he can offer writers on their work is invaluable not only for the script at hand but for the further development of the writer as a professional. Jon has the genuine quality of a mentor, someone whom a novice as well as an experienced writer can trust to be supportive, exacting, and genuinely nurturing of talent. That, and his knowledge of the practical business of going about getting scripts read and accepted makes him about as terrific a resource as a writer is likely to find. I have enormous admiration for the care with which he does his mentoring, for his solid knowledge of playwriting technique, and for his thorough professionalism.-- Leon Katz, David G. Frey Distinguished Professor of Dramatic Art at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, as well as former Co-Chair of Dramaturgy at the Yale School of Drama