Writing Assignments
 
The Greensboro Playwrights' Forum invites you to be a playwright by sending you monthly writing assignments. You don't have to be a member of the Forum or even attend the meetings to receive the assignments. Simply enter your e-mail address on the e-mail list page.

Looking for a special challenge? Contact us about our Playwrights' Challenge; the goal is to write 365 pages in 365 days. We'll send you a weekly writing prompt every Monday to keep you going.

Here are some sample assignments:

March 2010
Write a short play with the following elements:
1) A salt shaker
2) A letter from overseas
3) A truck horn
4) The line "Well, what are you going to do about it?"
5) A silly, made-up analogy such as "It's like a duck kissing an alligator"

February 2010
Write a short play with the following elements:
1) A malfunctioning electronic device
2) An alarm or siren
3) Begin the play in the dark
4) It's a planned, romantic evening

January 2010
Write a short play with the following elements:
1) An old key
2) The line "Did you hear something?"
3) A fisherman (or woman)
4) Setting: an abandoned hotel

December 2009
Write a short play with the following elements:
1) A wayward elf
2) An empty sack
3) A snow globe
4) The line, "Aaaah!"

November 2009
Write a short play with two characters. The first character speaks one word and the second character speaks two words. The first character then replies with three words. This goes back and forth until you reach 10 words. Then, count down in words until the final line is one word. You may add a third character, but stay within the word count structure, Stage directions are permitted and should not be part of the word count.

October 2009
Write a short play where two fairytale or nursery rhyme characters meet:
1) Start with "I wish you wouldn't do that."
2) See how long you can go before they mention the character's name.

September 2009
Write a play with the following elements:
1) A superstition (real or made up)
2) Line: "Stop doing that."
3) Prop: small box with a hidden object inside.

August 2009
Write a play with the following elements:
1) The line: "I wouldn't do that if I were you."
2) Prop: a candle
3) Set: a locked door

July 2009
See where this takes you. These are the first six lines of the play and you fill in the blanks:
Sam: What are you going to do with that?
Joe:
Sam: And how is that going to help us?
Joe:
Sam: You realize one of us could die?
Joe:
Now, write the rest of the play and bring it to our next meeting.

June 2009
Make a mountain out of a mole hill. Take an ordinary task and make it as difficult as possible, for example, shelving books at the library becomes climbing Mount Everest or someone's setting the table in a booby-trapped room or a movie-goer is trying to stay awake to see the end of the film. Do other characters buy in to the idea? How difficult can you make an ordinary task for your characters?

May 2009
Write a play with the following elements:
1) Start with "Don't put that there."
2) Prop - music box with an unusual song or noise
3) Character - Grandmother
4) Setting - An antique store

April 2009
If a picture is worth a thousand words, how many can you get from a random photo?

March 2009
Write a play using the following elements:
1) A ghost
2) A creaking sound
3) Spider webs
4) Begin the play with a sound (i.e. gunshot, phone ring, doorbell...)