JAW Community Artist Labs

JAW Community Labs

Join some of our JAW artists in a special series of learning opportunities. Taught by a diverse pool of talented professionals from throughout the region and beyond, our Community Labs provide recurring opportunities for anyone interested in learning more about the living stage and other storytelling art forms.

Admission is FREE, but in order to maintain a high level of quality, attendance for each lab is limited and determined by random lottery. To enter, please email clarah@pcs.org by July 25 and list which labs you would like to attend.

New Worlds for Old Stories: An Introduction to Adaptation

July 29 from 12:30 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.

With Literary Manager Benjamin Fainstein

This playful lab will steer participants through a crash course of adapting works of fiction for the stage. Through a series of creative activities, the session will provide tools for approaching the process of adaptation. Attendees will learn what questions to ask themselves when building fictional worlds and explore the delicate art of changing the shape of someone else’s work with both enthusiasm and ethics. Led by theater artist and JAW Literary Manager Benjamin Fainstein, this lab welcomes imaginative writers of all experience levels.

Theatricalizing Found Text: or, Adapting a Story Through Movement

July 30 from 12:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.

With JAW director Margot Bordelon

In this class we'll read a short story together and then investigate how the piece might live theatrically. We'll engage in a series of small group physical exercises that explore-- both literally and abstractly-- the characters, relationships, and the environments in the story. We'll experiment with how much language is necessary to communicate the ideas of the piece and how much can be communicated through movement. Participants should come ready to move.

The Poetic & The Political

July 30 from 12:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.

With JAW playwright Stefanie Zadravec

Playwright Stefanie Zadravec brings a series of thought provoking exercises to her Masterclass designed to inspire students to dig deeper into the issues happening around us; stretch the bounds of their work beyond the realistic and naturalistic, and to work meticulously across any writing mediums to develop a voice and creative vision that is authentic and resonant for the world in which we live.

Open to writers and other artists who write