THIS COURSE HAS NOW BEEN COMPLETED!

Below are some images from the course which culminated in our guests script readings on top of the spectacular setting of Moclin Castle at sunset. We are hoping to see some of these pieces on stage at some point in the near future!

TUTOR

Sarah Grochala

VENUE

Moclín, Granada

COURSE DETAILS

The city of Granada is the city of Federico García Lorca, arguably Spain’s finest and most tragic poet, playwright and theatre director. The village of Moclín, where our courses take place, has its own close links to Lorca. On 5th October each year, the village hosts one of the most important classical religious festivals in Spain, and this festival, en Honor del Santísimo Cristo del Paño, is referred to in Lorca’s play, Yerma.

This course aims to guide and inspire writers interested in writing political theatre. Taking the work of Federico Garcia Lorca as a starting point, this course will cover topics such as the principles of dramatic structure, the principles behind writing political theatre in both conventional and unconventional forms, sharing and critique of work in writing workshops, and the practicalities of pursuing a career as a playwright. Participants will also be able to develop their work through one-to-one sessions with Sarah.

We will take excursions to Lorca’s family home on the edge of Granada, and visit the site where he was executed by Nationalists at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War. The course will culminate with readings of extracts from the plays that participants are working on.

The course structure will include:

• Principles of play structure and story-telling

• Conventional and unconventional approaches to writing political theatre

• Writing workshops

• One-to-one sessions on your work

• Opportunities to share your work

• Practical advice on developing a career as a playwright

The course is suitable for everyone, including complete beginners.

ABOUT THE TUTOR

Sarah Grochala is an Anglo-Polish playwright based in London. Her play S-27 won the 2007 iceandfire/Amnesty International Protect the Human Playwriting Competition and was also shortlisted for the King’s Cross Award and the Leah Ryan Award for Emerging Women Writers. S-27 premiered at the Finborough Theatre, London in June 2009. Since its first production in 2009, S-27 has been revived nationally (Wardrobe Theatre Bristol, 2014) and internationally, including productions in Australia (Griffin Theatre Sydney, 2010; Two Tall Theatre Newcastle, 2016; Feet First Collective Freemantle, 2019) and Canada (Intersection Theatre Toronto, 2012). S-27 is published by Oberon books and has been translated into Hebrew. 

Sarah’s other plays include Waiting for Romeo (Romeo’yu Beklerken), which ran in rep at Tiyatro Yan Etki, Istanbul from 2014 to 2016, winning the 2015 Ekin Yazin Dostları Theatre Award for Best Play (Small Venue). In 2011, she won OffWestEnd.com’s Adopt a Playwright Award for her play Smolensk.

Her most recent play Star Fish was shortlisted for the 2016 Nick Darke Award and BBC Script Room 10. 

Between 2012 and 2016, Sarah was an Associate Artist with the theatre company Headlong, where she worked on creating theatrical experiences using digital media.  Her work as a writer has been supported and developed by The National Theatre Studio, Royal Shakespeare Company, The Orange Tree, Criterion New Writing Programme, Arts Council England, The Peggy Ramsay Foundation, The Orchard Project (USA), The Studios Key West (USA) and OffWestEnd.com. Alongside her playwriting, she currently writes Dr Who audio dramas for Big Finish productions. 

Sarah is currently Senior Lecturer, Writing for Theatre at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in London, where she leads the MA/MFA Writing for Stage and Broadcast Media. Her book on playwriting, The Contemporary Political Play, was published by Bloomsbury Methuen Drama in 2017 Prize and shortlisted for the TaPRA Early Career Research Prize. She is currently writing a book on The Theatre of Rupert Goold (Methuen Drama), which will be published in 2020. She was recently awarded a British Academy Rising Star Engagement Award for a project exploring the lack of contemporary European plays in translation on British Stages. Her research work has also been nominated for the Philip Leverhulme Prize. 

10 Questions: Sarah Grochala

We're recording mini-podcasts with all our tutors during which we ask them 10 questions about their work and what they hope to cover in their course with us. Here's Sarah…

COST

Price per person 1,650€ for the 7 nights to include 5 days’ tuition, full-board accommodation and materials. Participants can, of course, bring their own materials if they wish.

Flights and Alhambra tickets are not included.

A maximum of 5 participating places available on this course.

Partners, friends and family who wish to take part in the course are welcome, on the basis that they will share a twin room. Price is 1,250€ per additional person.

Non-participating partners, friends and family are more than welcome, and the price is 950€ per additional person sharing a double or twin ensuite room.

ACCOMMODATION

Accommodation is on a full-board basis in a charming rural hotel located in the very historic village of Moclín, about 35 minutes’ drive from Granada city and airport. Guests will have private twin ensuite bedrooms (you will never be asked to share a room), all of which are spacious and very traditionally Andalucian in style. All classes will be held in the large studios in the hotel, and there will be plenty of opportunity to get out and explore the glorious surrounding countryside. The property, which is exclusively ours for the week, is arranged around a central open courtyard, has a roof terrace and is right on the edge of the village with panoramic views over the surrounding landscape.

FLIGHTS

The nearest airport is Federico García Lorca Granada-Jaén Airport (GRX). As of 2nd April 2022, Vueling (part of IAG) will open new direct routes from London Gatwick Airport to Granada.

British Airways, Jet2, EasyJet and Ryanair are just a few of the airlines that offer regular direct flights from the UK to Málaga.

A list of airlines operating at Málaga Airport (AGP) can be seen on the airport website.

For more information please contact us