Pataphysics

The Pataphysics Playwriting Workshops at The Flea Theater are intimate, four-session intensives for new work and new ways of working.

New Work and New Ways of Working

Named for Alfred Jarry’s science of imaginary solutions, the workshops are a gymnasium for the writing brain—curious, particular, and rigorous. Students enter with blank sheets of paper, and leave with pages of notes, fragments, scenes, even entire plays unlike anything they would have written on their own.

Led by Master Playwrights

The Pataphysics workshops are led by master playwrights who are known not only for a distinct and groundbreaking body of work, but also for their ability as teachers. Each workshop, led by a master playwright pursuing his or her own train of thought, is geared to generate new material and new ideas through writing experiments, readings, and interesting talk. Master playwrights have included: Lee Breuer, Erik Ehn, Karen Finley, Maria Irene Fornes, Jeff Jones, Eduardo Machado, Chuck Mee, Paula Vogel, and Mac Wellman.

About Our Participants

Pataphysics workshops are for both developing and experienced writers of any age or aesthetic inclination. Pataphysics students have been produced or developed by, and have received awards from: Humana, The Public Theater, The Flea, Princess Grace Award, Little Theater, SOHO Rep, O’Neill Playwrights Conference, Manhattan Theater Club, Lincoln Center Director’s Lab, Lucille Lortel Playwrighting Fellowship, Printer’s Devil, Horla Theater (London), BRIC Studios, New Dramatists, NYFA, Whitfield Award, Portland Center Stage, New Georges, Clubbed Thumb, HERE, Playwrights Horizons, LaMama, The Cherry Lane Alternative, Annex Theater, Dixon Place, Empty Space Theater, McArthur Foundation Award, The Ontological, Ensemble Studio Theater.

 2020 Workshop with Anne Washburn

The Flea Theater is now accepting applications for a new Pataphysics Playwriting Workshop led by Anne Washburn, titled Make Good Politics and Bad Art and Bad Politics and Good Art — a workshop in virtual activism and the civic function of theater. This workshop will be offered online June 13 – 14 and 20 – 21, 2020.

In this workshop, Washburn will lead participants in an investigation of how – or if – theater can be politically engaged, make for meaningful art, and be an effective form of activism. With a focus on voter enfranchisement and the upcoming Presidential election, participants will tackle these thorny questions through writing exercises, philosophical discussions, and direct action.

Washburn invites writers and theater makers with a bent for real-world activism to apply:

We are going to do real world, non-partisan, largely virtual activism around voter registration and voter protection. At the same time, we will use this work as a springboard for a series of writing prompts which will examine why good civics is bad art and vice versa. We will *not* come to a heartening conclusion about eating your moral and art cake at the same time; we will not come to any conclusion; we will make some form of small consequential action and we will write a great deal.  

This workshop is for you if the idea of actual street voter registration is something which intimidates you and which you would have been guiltily reluctant to do if times were different and humans could interact. This workshop is for you if you are uncertain about the real value or efficacy of political writing in the theater but have political-social-civic-concerns/passions/terrors. 

Sessions will meet via Zoom between the hours of 10:00 am – 3:00 pm on June 13, 14, 20, and 21. Each session will have three hours of contact time, with regular breaks to prevent Zoom Fatigue. Acceptance to the workshop is by application. Each workshop is limited to 12 writers, and the course costs $210. As this is a special reduced price, there will not be any scholarships offered. 

Applications are now closed. Please check back soon for the next workshop.

Already Registered?

Anne Washburn‘s plays include 10 out of 12, Antlia Pneumatica, Apparition, The Communist Dracula Pageant, A Devil At Noon, I Have Loved Strangers, The Internationalist, The Ladies, Little Bunny Foo Foo, Mr. Burns, Shipwreck, The Small, an adaption of The Twilight Zone, and transadaptations of Euripides’ Orestes & Iphigenia in Aulis. Her work has premiered with 13P, Actors Theater of Louisville, The Almeida, American Repertory Theatre, Cherry Lane Theatre, Classic Stage Company, Clubbed Thumb, The Civilians, Dixon Place, Ensemble Studio Theater, The Folger, Playwrights Horizons, Soho Rep, Two River Theater Company, Vineyard Theater and Woolly Mammoth.  Honors include a Guggenheim, a Whiting, an Alpert Award, a PEN/Laura Pels award for artist in mid-career and residencies at MacDowell and Yaddo. She is an associated artist with The Civilians, Clubbed Thumb, New Georges, and is an alumna of New Dramatists.