Songwriting Studio

If writing lyrics and melodies makes your heart sing, then Songwriting Studio is perfect for you! At Writopia’s Songwriting Studio, recording artists trained in the Writopia Teaching Method lead teens (ages 11+) in writing and recording their own original compositions. Instructors versed in rap, pop, rock, and musical theater work with students to help them to explore musical genres, craft lyrics, and gain confidence in the recording process.

Students will leave Songwriting Studio with a recorded EP of 2-3 original songs of their own or in collaboration with other students. Students develop their projects according to their own artistic vision and instructors assist with cultivating and supporting those goals. Students will be taught the full studio experience by learning to mic instruments, and record, layer, and edit tracks in Garageband. Songs of all musical genres are welcome!

Some experience with a musical instrument is recommended but not required. Instructors meet students at their skill level and assist each individual in improving, experimenting, and defining their own style.

Advanced Songwriting

For those advanced musicians we also have the Advanced Songwriting Studio program, you may apply here and submit a video or recording of your songwriter.

Check out a couple of songs from our SoundCloud channel!

Sci-Fi and Fantasy Workshop

In this workshop, writers will learn how to write compelling, original, and relevant sci-fi and fantasy fiction. Topics explored include:

The art of worldbuilding
The critical importance of character development in the genre
How to avoid fanfiction and channel inspiration from existing published work into original pieces
An understanding of the differences between sci-fi and fantasy, as well an exploration into the sub-genres of urban fantasy, dystopian fantasy, epic fantasy, fairy tales, and more
How to explore sci-fi/fantasy in all literary modes, including through plays, screenplays, and poetry

Session will include a relevant game, discussion, and feedback and guidance from the instructor. Each session ends with a group workshop, in which writers share with each other and gain feedback from their peers.

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Comedy Writing Workshop

Comedy not only provides fun, laughter, and levity, but it usually illuminates something true about the human condition and the world around us. In this comedy writing workshop, writers will discuss what makes something funny, how to write something that will make others laugh but also think, discuss what can and should be made fun of in this world, and the ins and outs of how to write jokes, all led by an experienced NYC comedian. Through these conversations and games, writers will start their own humorous pieces and find the light in the darkness. Young writers will participate in a writers’ room to give each other feedback and explore what it’s like to pitch jokes to their fellow comedians. Writers have the choice to complete a stand up set, a comedy sketch, a piece of humorous short fiction/memoir, or a satire article. The workshop will culminate in a virtual performance!

Sketch Comedy Workshop Sketch Comedy Workshop

In Sketch Comedy, writers will learn how to write jokes, how to tell the jokes through silly characters and dialogue, and how to use comedy and weird characters to find bigger truths about the world. We will discuss comedy, what makes something funny, and specifically discuss the sketch comedy writing process and structure. Writers will participate in a comedy writers room, during which we will discuss any ‘pitches’ and beat out jokes. Then, writers will each write their own sketch and read them aloud in a table read to receive feedback from their instructor and peers, and discuss any joke pitches in a collaborative environment. The workshop will culminate in a performance.

Graphic Novels

Where Artwork Meets Language

Graphic noveling is an art form where words and images can together tell a compelling story. At Writopia, published writers and artists trained in the Writopia Teaching Method lead kids and teens in Writopia’s graphic storytelling workshop. Students will improve their drawing skills through the staging and drafting of an original visual story concept they create. Instructors work with students to help them understand how to use the landscape of each panel and page to create a dynamic story with a delicate balance of artwork and language.

Workshops

Students will leave the Graphic Novel Workshop with at least one polished short-form comic. If a student is working on a long-form piece, they will leave workshop with a complete script and a visual rough draft. Students choose their own projects according to the original story they want to tell, and instructors assist with cultivating and supporting their artistic goal. Graphic novels of all genres are welcome!

No technical illustration skills are necessary for this workshop. Instructors meet students at their skill level and assist each individual student improve their skills, define their own style, and experiment with different processes. Students will be taught how to digitally color and letter their work if they are interested. They may also choose to focus on creating their entire project by hand.

Politic and Pens

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Nature Writing

Whether it is a vast expanse of mountains, the waves crashing against the shore, or even the view of the sunset against the skyline outside your window, nature often finds a way to inspire us. When we write about nature, we find ourselves looking deeper at our environment: the natural world, our rural and urban neighborhoods, even our own rooms! We may focus on a call to arms, ecology, and even deeper introspection and reflections of ourselves and others. The naturalist and author John Muir said, ""Between every two pines is a doorway to a new world."" Let's explore them together.

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Playwriting<

Advanced Playwriting Workshop

Page 2 (Digital) Stage Workshop

Musical Theater Workshop

Political Plays Workshop: Theater with a Social Conscience

Investigative Theater

Playwriting

After School, Weekend, and Summer Half-Day Workshops

Writers of any age who choose to write plays in creative writing workshops are guided by produced playwrights throughout the script-writing process. All Writopia plays written by playwrights ages 8-18 are considered for professional production each year in May as part of our annual Worldwide Plays Festival. Between 25 and 80 plays are produced Off-Broadway each year, depending on funding streams.

Playwriting & Performance

Trimester Workshops and Camps

In age-based groups, young playwrights spend the the first half of each session developing plays or musicals under the guidance of a professional playwright. The second half of each session, writers work to bring their plays to life, exploring acting, directing, and all elements of theater production with NYC theater professionals. The workshop or camp culminates in a final showcase of one-act plays.

Advanced Playwriting Workshop

When you began to write, did you ask yourself, “Why am I doing this?”

Some of us started writing because there was something we desperately wanted to communicate. Some of us simply wanted to pass the time in a joyful, creative way. As we continue to write, it’s useful to ask ourselves important questions. Is there something specific I’m trying to express? How do my choices on the page reflect this? What makes my voice different from others? How can I use this voice in big ways? As we ask ourselves these questions, we evolve into artists with intention.

In Advanced Playwriting workshops, over the course of a trimester and under the mentorship of theater professionals, teen playwrights will play writing games and participate in exercises that mine their subconscious for ideas and emotions that they want to explore on the page. They will write original short plays tackling those ideas getting to know the fundamentals of writing for the stage— dialogue, monologue, action, behavior, character development, structure, theatricality, theme— and investigate the ways in which they can effectively use these fundamentals on the page. The investigation will broaden from the craft of writing to the bigger picture of why it is they write, as they work to discover their individual voices. They’ll craft short “artistic statements,” putting into words what their intentions are as writers. Workshops will culminate in a cold read of their new short plays by professional actors, as well as their own readings of their artistic statements.

NYC Program Application form here.

Page 2 (Digital) Stage Workshop

It seems funny to try and make theater right now. After all, theater is about the live moment, and we are all distanced from one another, communicating digitally through screens. But one way we can still bring relevance and immediacy to original theater is by creating it together even through the distance and channeling THIS moment in time.

In Page 2 Digital Stage, over the course 5 sessions, young writers from all over will work together over Zoom and Google Docs to create one large play, musical, or theatrical experience that channels this moment in time — the fear and isolation and longing for connection as well as the humor and hominess and unexpected connectedness it can provoke. We will parse through the emotions, stories, and themes we’ve been hearing and experiencing. Then, we’ll channel them into scenes, monologue, and potentially songs. Finally, we’ll put our thoughts and work together and create one large theatrical experience — a group of short pieces. The workshop will culminate in a final dramatic reading of our work online for friends and family.

Musical Theater Workshop

Our feelings are big! Yet it’s rare in everyday life that we get the chance to properly express them. What we can do, however, is allow the characters we create to voice their feelings through dialogue, monologue, action, behavior, and song. We can help them pour their hearts out to a tune we write!

In Musical Theater Workshop, over the course of a trimester, writers meet in age-based groups with theater and songwriting professionals. They learn the fundamentals of writing for the stage: dialogue, monologue, action, behavior, character development, structure, theatricality, and theme. They craft their very own short, high-stakes scripts peopled with characters who have feelings and yearnings so big that, at moments, words alone are not enough to express them. They turn those heightened moments into songs--with original lyrics, melodies, and chords--and weave these songs into their story in a meeting of libretto and score. The trimester culminates in a scripts-in-hand reading (and singing) of their pieces with accompaniment, as they cast themselves and each other in their brand new pieces of musical theater.

Political Plays Workshop: Theater with a Social Conscience

What are the big issues that excite us? Anger us? Make us want to take action? How can we channel those issues into our art?

In Political Plays Workshop: Theater with a Social Conscience, young playwrights will craft short plays for the stage around the issues that matter most to them. We’ll take the political, social, and moral issues fresh on our minds and place them at the heart of brand new pieces of drama.

Investigative Theater

In Investigative Theater Workshop, young writers become equal parts journalist and dramatist as they investigate a true story or issue that’s important to them and then translate it to the stage. They’ll build questions around their chosen topic and interview subjects who have knowledge or personal experience in that area. They will then take those interviews and craft short theatrical pieces around them, telling these important true stories with the immediacy of the live moment.

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Filmmaking & Screenwriting at Writopia Lab

Writopia Lab’s filmmaking and screenwriting programs are driven by the students’ creative vision. They are story-based programs elevated by professional instruction. Our programs, described below, vary by age and location.

Stop-Motion Animation

All Ages
Online

Make your own homemade stop-motion animation film!

Kids and teens will be led through the creation of a stop-motion animation film from scratch using household objects, arts & crafts supplies, and any camera. Each student will write their script and prepare assets to be used in the filmmaking process: characters, objects, props, backgrounds, and more. Then we will stitch it together, add sound effects and dialogue, and VIOLA! We have a homemade movie.

Filmmaking Production Seminar

Teens 13+
New York City* | Los Angeles

This program gives participants the opportunity to take part in a film-school style workshop. While the focus remains on the writing aspect of filmmaking, the structure allows for more depth into the technical aspects of the artform as well. Participants will write, produce, cast, and edit their own silent film, gaining better proficiency with professional-grade cameras, sound and lighting kits, and editing software. The seminar culminates in a film screening.

*Note: the New York City program is application only. To apply, click here.

Screenwriting or TV Writing Workshop

Ages 12+
New York City | Los Angeles | New York Metro North

Young screenwriters work under the guidance of a professional screenwriter in the style of Writopia’s creative writing workshops. Screenplays or pilots are devised, developed, and polished over the course of the workshops. Writers will also delve into film and TV show analysis with screenplay excerpts and explore the ways in which acting, production, and directing all influence the choices one makes when crafting a script. All finished screenplays result in a table read.

Screenwriting or TV Writing Seminar

Teens 13+
New York City | Los Angeles

This teen seminar is a more advanced approach, offering a concentrated workshop experience with deeper insights into structure, concept, editorial work, and critique. Teen screenwriters work under the guidance of a professional screenwriter in the style of Writopia’s creative writing workshops over the course of the sessions. All finished screenplays result in a table read.

Script to Screen Summer Elective

All Ages
New York City | Los Angeles | New York Metro North | Washington, DC

As part of our full-day camp, Fiction & Fun, writers get a chance to spend an hour and a half each day working on their own collaborative film, from the genesis of the idea through to the editing, in just a week.

Visual Poetry Workshop

All Ages
New York City

Witness your words come to life on the screen. Visual Poetry teaches you to translate poetic language to film. Learn how to put your poetry in motion!

Private-Sessions

All Ages
New York City | Los Angeles | New York Metro North | Washington, DC

Writers will work one-on-one with a filmmaking professional to create their own, individualized project, whether it’s a continuation of something the writer has worked on before or a brand new idea.

Enroll Now!

Weekly Trimester-Long Workshops

Check out the Weekly Trimester-Long Schedule.

Holiday & School Break Workshops

Check out the Half-Day and Full-Day schedules.

Overnight Programs