playwriting
At the artistic Bachelor's programme in Theatre and Performance Making you can specialise Playwriting.
Playwriting is different from other writing disciplines. As a playwright you must appreciate dialogue, dramatic situation, composition, and narratives about being human today.
The programme takes its starting point in your personal inspiration. It will support you to develop your personal form of expression and to express an independent artistic view of the world in dramatic form.
The programme includes both free exercises, in which you define content, form and style yourself; and compulsory exercises, where you have to write a piece based on a commission. In this sense the programme reflects the tasks you will encounter in professional life after graduation.
A large part of your teaching and study time will be centred on writing. You will be equipped with methods and techniques for preparatory work, including idea generation, plot development and structure, and you will be trained in writing out the piece. Teaching spans themes such as dramatic situation, character and character constellations in both shorter and longer text formats. In the last year of the programme you write a full-length format piece. The programme focuses on each phase of the writing process: from idea generation, research and planning to read-throughs with actors, feedback, editing and rewriting, to the staged realisation of the text.
As a playwright you will work both very independently and in close dialogue with others on the artistic team. This is reflected in the programme: you will collaborate with stage directors on text development and work on scripts based on workshops and rehearsals with actors.
During the three years, several of your texts will be presented to an audience – either in "readings", where the text is read aloud by actors, or in fully staged versions.
The three years I spent studying Playwriting were the most important years of my life. I was seen and challenged in ways I could never have imagined before I started. The school gives you the opportunity to dive into a three-year-long, intense immersion, to work on the tiny detail of your craft, to become aware of your own creative practice, to let go of performance anxiety and to cultivate the joy of writing. As well as the professional community at the school, you will meet really exciting artists and teachers and work on collaborations with other schools and artistic institutions. The department in Aarhus is a very loving and inclusive community, too, which makes it very nice to be part of.
It's not all easy – in fact lots of it is incredibly difficult, but that's what makes it so good.
– Josephine Olhoff-Jakobsen (student 2018–2021)
Playwriting has given me peace and time to work out what I like, what my tastes are, what topics interest me and what I want to write about. The programme has given me knowledge about the performing arts and drama which I constantly use in my work. The school also provides a very special social space where you are constantly inspiring and improving each other, creatively, collaboratively and artistically.
– Johanne Petrine Reynberg (student 2018–2021)
CAREER AND WORKING LIFE
There is currently broad interest in new Danish playwriting – at large established theatres, on smaller stages and at independent companies. Dramatic writing for auditory media is also a growing genre. As a playwright, you will therefore have a wide range of opportunities to work in your field. Most screenwriters and playwrights work freelance and are hired for specific productions. But you can also become associated with a theatre as an in-house playwright for a period of time.
ADMISSION
Two students are admitted each year. Note that the application deadline is typically in December of the year before the start of the course.
All students are admitted on the basis of an entrance exam in which an admission committee assesses applicants' suitability based on set criteria.
The conditions and audition criteria apply to Danish as well as international Full Degree students.
