About this Service

This is an intention-focused workshop led by Ren Dara Santiago and Max Yu.

This is the time to write the idea you’ve always had or the time for you to revitalize a draft that’s been sitting in your hard drive. You’re coming to the work in a safe and expansive environment where folks will be encouraged to share and listen to each writer’s intentions.

This is an 8-week course with group classes beginning the week of January 26th, ending March 9th. The final “class” will be scheduling individual feedback on your full length or one-act with Ren and Max at a later date of your choosing. The first half of the course will be focused on lectures led my Max and Ren's exercises to expand your understanding of your play. The latter half of the course will focus on new pages, table reads, and feedback in the style of any T1 writer’s group.

Lessons are a combination of lectures, craft exercises, and generative writing time. Students will have a weekly writing assignment alongside plays to read based on each class. By the end of the class, you will have completed a one-act or full-length play with feedback to give you the confidence to begin submitting your play.

This course is $600 total ($50 deposit due upon registration), with payment plans available.

Classes are capped at 8 students. This class is not suitable for librettists who need feedback on music/orchestration/composition.

We currently only have a few spots left in our class.

If you are not able to make this class, please still feel free to reach out and let us know your interest, and we will contact you when we have our next class.

Info on Ren and Max:

We met at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center in 2022, where Max was a resident at the National Playwrights Conference for his play Nightwatch, and Ren was leading the Theatermaker’s playwriting students through their weekly one-acts at the National Theater Institute. Click for more information on Ren and Max!

About this Lister

I'm a playwright and teacher living in Brooklyn

Background and Expertise

Max Yu is a first-generation Chinese-American playwright from the San Francisco Bay Area. He moved from Shanghai and is now based in New York. He was featured in the New York Times for being the youngest and first Asian to win the Relentless Award. His play NIGHTWATCH won the 2019 Relentless Award, was a finalist for the Princess Grace Playwriting Fellowship, and was selected for the 2022 O’Neill Playwriting Conference. He is a current member of Ma-Yi Writers Lab. He was a member of Orchard Project’s Audio Lab, Gingold Theatrical Group’s Speakers’ Corner, and Page 73’s 2021-22 Interstate 73 Writers Group. He is currently under commission from the New York State Council of the Arts (NYSCA) and Atlantic Theater Company. His plays that have been workshopped and developed include CHOP SUEY (American Playwriting Foundation), MADE IN CHINATOWN (Atlantic Theater Company, Page 73), WANDERING (New York Theatre Workshop), CALL ME COMRADE (Gingold Theatrical Group), and NIGHTWATCH (O'Neill, Goodman Theatre). His poetry and prose have been published in China in Spittoon and Babel. He is represented by 3 Arts Entertainment. He received his B.A. in Theater from the University of California, Los Angeles, where he studied playwriting under Sylvan Oswald.