Collaborating with a Creative Team with Weyni Mengesha

This five-week course examines the dynamic between a writer’s vision and the collaborative process through which a work is realized. We will explore how writing is interpreted and transformed by actors, directors, and designers, and how the encounter between different artistic perspectives can reveal new dimensions of a story. 

Through discussion, close examination of scenes, practical writing exercises, and the sharing of work in progress, we will investigate the interplay between text and performance, with particular attention to visual language, theatricality, and the expressive potential of image, movement, space, and silence. We will consider the productive tensions that arise in collaboration, how to engage critically with feedback and differing interpretations, and how to remain open to discovery while sustaining the integrity of one’s artistic vision. 

The course offers an opportunity for playwrights and screenwriters to interrogate their creative processes, challenge established instincts, and explore the possibilities that emerge when a work moves beyond the page and into the hands of other artists.