Adult Playwriting Workshop
With Abigail Drach
August 1-2, 2026
Schedule: 10:00 AM-4:30 PM Two 3-hour sessions each day with a 30-min lunch break. (6.5 hours each day or 13 hours total)
Max enrollment: 8 people (if we go over the max, I’d be happy to add dates for a second workshop)
Is there anything more mysterious than a play? How does an idea in someone's head become words on a page and then transform into life embodied on a stage that moves its audience to cry and to laugh and to rage and to think?
In this weekend workshop, we will explore just that. Everyone is welcome—whether you are a novice or experienced, whether you have an idea you've been dying to explore or you don't know where to start. We will cover the basics of formatting, setting the stage, narrative structure, characterization, and dialogue by drawing on examples from the canon such as: Lorraine Hansberry, Thorton Wilder, Arthur Miller, and Tony Kushner.
Participants will have ample time to develop, write, and workshop a scene from anywhere in their play. They are also welcome to bring a project already in development to work on and share. Everyone will have an opportunity to receive feedback from the workshop leader and from the other participants. By the end of the weekend, each participant will have a fleshed-out concept for a play and several pages of a draft to continue writing if they so desire and a strong sense of how to develop ideas into a script in the future. Last year's participants are more than welcome to join—the syllabus will be revamped with new examples and exercises.
Abigail Drach is a NYC-based writer, scholar, and lifelong theater-lover. She has worked as an actor, theater educator, and high school English teacher in addition to organizing an international conference for women playwrights and writing/staging several plays of her own. She earned her BA in Theater and Gender studies from McGill University, her MA in English and Comparative Literature from Columbia University, and she is now pursuing PhD in Comparative Literature at Rutgers University. You can find her work in the Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States Journal (Winter 2022), The Mixtape Project (February 2025), and Doubly Mad Journal (April 2025).
Sliding Scale Pricing
If you are able to pay at the middle or higher rate, the difference goes directly towards financial aid and helping other families access NEYT programming.
$200
$175 use coupon code WRITE175
$150 use coupon code WRITE150
To apply for financial aid use coupon code ANGELS to register for $25 and fill out the application.
For payment plans contact Michelle Meima at support@neyt.org