New workshop series starts 9/10! Monday Night Creative Writing Workshop

9/10 - 10/15:  Monday Night Creative Writing Workshop 

Starting up again this fall! A fun and generative workshop for artists, beginners, and experienced writers. Do you wish you wrote more? Want to feel a sense of community when you write? Want to start a book or finish a book! This series specifically supports Nanowrimo participants! Craft, technique, and prompts for fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. A kick in the butt for your writing life! Connect with a community and improve your writing practice. Tea and chocolate provided. 6 week series Mondays from 6:00 to 8 pm. $150. Downtown Truckee. 

I decided to take a writing class by Karen Terrey through Tangled Roots Writing as a last attempt to gain the upper hand over Writer's Block. And to my surprise, she gave me more gun powder than I could have ever expected. Through her class, I was able to write some of my favorite scenes for a trilogy I'm writing and since taking her class, I'm back on a normal writing schedule. I'm very thankful for Kat and her dedication to writing. - Courtney

Thank you so much for the wonderful writing experiences.  I came home Monday night and told my husband how much I absolutely love and value your classes, your prompts, your insight and how taking your classes has really helped me in trying to move my writing beyond the hobby level. - Liz

The Monday Night Writing classes are fabulous. - Clare

Summer Writing in the Garden Workshop Series kicks off June 9th Drama Writing Workshop!

"What is drama but life with the dull bits cut out." - Alfred Hitchcock

This workshop is for people who want to go to the next level in their drama and screenplay writing. Learn everything you need to know to write a ten minute play to submit by June 30th for the Truckee Community Theater Ten Minute Play Festival.

Bring your draft for a reading to workshop and revise the play. If you don't have a draft, start writing your play at this workshop. Detailed handouts and discussion on techniques in character, conflict, setting, and more. Downtown Truckee. $55. All ages. All experience levels. Call or message to sign up 530-386-3901

Share appetizers and beverages, network in the writing community, and find out about other literary and art events happening in the area over the summer.  You'll leave with concrete direction for your writing, handouts, new material generated, feedback and submissions advice, and new connections in the writing community.

Truckee Community Theater Call for Submissions for Ten Minute Play Festival

"What is drama but life with the dull bits cut out." - Alfred Hitchcock

Truckee Community Theater Call for submissions for Ten Minute Play Festival October 13^th, 2018: Submission Deadline: June 30^th, 2018 by email

For more info, go to Tangled Roots Writing website at karenaterrey.blogspot.com and Truckee Community Theater website at truckeecommunitytheater.com

No more than 10 pages, 2-5 characters max., ten minutes long, minimal set, and creative use of props. Special consideration is given to regional and historical subject matter, wit, surprising turns, and material appropriate for most ages.  A youth category is open to plays written by students 12-17 years in age.

Email word or pdf document attachment to: info@truckeecommunitytheater.com

Write “Play submission/your name” in subject line

Winners will be selected for production at the Ten Minute Play Festival October 13^th. Editing and rehearsals will take place in August, September, and October. Chosen Writers must allow directors to make final editing decisions regarding production.

The Tangled Roots Writing WORKSHOPs on 2/27 from 6-8 pm and 3/3 from 1-4 pm INCLUDE SNACKS, BEVERAGES, AND WRITERS supporting each other IN A BEAUTIFUL MOUNTAIN HOME in Truckee. Although the workshops are planned to coordinate development of a play, they are also available individually if you can’t make both dates. Call to sign up and for directions.

On 3/3 from 4-5 pm Courtney Simson, Director of Truckee community theater, will offer a q&a after the workshop.  This is open to anyone who wasn't able to attend the workshop.  Call for directions.

  

HONE YOUR SKILLS IN DIALOGUE, SCENE, CONFLICT, AND CHARACTER.  SUBMIT YOUR MANUSCRIPT BY June 30th, 2018 AND YOU MIGHT have your play selected for PRODUCtion HERE IN TRUCKEE BY THE TRUCKEE COMMUNITY THEATER! THE DEADLINE FOR TEN MINUTE PLAY SUBMISSIONS TO THE OCTOBER13th, 2018, TEN MINUTE PLAY FESTIVAL IS June 30th, 2018. Selected REGIONAL WRITERS WILL GET TO SEE THEIR PLAYS PRODUCED FOR THE FESTIVAL. 

Even if you don’t intend to submit your work, THIS WORKSHOP IS designed TO PROVIDE YOU WITH EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO WRITE A FANTASTIC PLAY while strengthening your writing skills, NO DRAMA EXPERIENCE NECESSARY. THIS IS A GREAT WORKSHOP FOR DEVELOPING THE CRISIS SCENE IN YOUR NOVEL OR STORY OR MEMOIR. I LIKE TO CALL THIS CROSS-TRAINING IN THE WRITING PROCESS. Think of writing in other genres a triathalon in literacy. CALL Karen Terrey FOR DETAILS AND TO BRAINSTORM writing IDEAS. 

Call for details.  Workshops are priced individually and discounted if you sign up for both. 530-386-3901.

Write a Ten Minute Play Workshop February 27th 6-8 pm and March 3rd 1-4 pm

Two Day Drama Workshop FEBRUARY 27th and March 3rd, 2018! Learn Everything you need to know to WRITE A TEN MINUTE PLAY in ONE Week WORKSHOP: 

Workshop is led by Karen Terrey of Tangled Roots Writing and the amazing Chris Widney, writer and dramatist who's play was produced last year by Truckee Community Theater! 

Chris Widney is a playwright, book writer and lyricist from NYC who likes to spend as much time as possible wandering around in the mountains - particularly around Truckee.  His full-length plays include, “Big, Fat And Ugly With A Moustache” (Perry Street Theatre, NYC), “Family Men” (Arden, Philadelphia), “The Normals” (Luna Stage, NJ), “Consumed” (Barter Theatre, VA).  Other full-lengths, one-acts, musicals and screenplays have been presented, read, work-shopped and honored in theatres and contests around the world including The Actors Theatre Of Louisville, City Theatre, Miami and The Fire Rose Theatre in Los Angeles.  His ten-minute plays have won numerous National Playwriting Contests and been included in multiple “Best Of” publications.  He is co-author of a book about squash (the sport, not the vegetable), a member of The Dramatists Guild, the BMI Composer-Lyricist Workshop, and a graduate of the Musical Theatre Writing Program at New York University.

THIS WORKSHOP INCLUDES snacks, BEVERAGES, AND WRITERS NETWORKING IN A BEAUTIFUL mountain home.  

HONE YOUR SKILLS IN DIALOGUE, SCENE, CONFLICT, AND CHARACTER.  submit your manuscript by July 31st, 2018 and YOU MIGHT TO SEE YOUR PLAY PRODUCED HERE IN TRUCKEE BY THE TRUCKEE COMMUNITY THEATER! THE DEADLINE FOR TEN MINUTE PLAY SUBMISSIONS TO THE OCTOBER TEN MINUTE PLAY FESTIVAL IS JUne 30th, 2018. A FEW LUCKY REGIONAL WRITERS WILL GET TO SEE THEIR PLAYS SELECTED AND PRODUCED FOR THE FESTIVAL. 

THIS WORKSHOP IS INTENDED TO PROVIDE YOU WITH EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW TO WRITE A FANTASTIC PLAY, NO DRAMA EXPERIENCE NECESSARY. THIS IS A GREAT WORKSHOP FOR DEVELOPING THE CRISIS SCENE IN YOUR NOVEL OR STORY OR MEMOIR. I LIKE TO CALL THIS CROSS-TRAINING IN THE WRITING PROCESS.  CALL FOR DETAILS and to brainstorm ideas. 

Call for details.  Workshops are priced individually and discounted if you sign up for both. 530-386-3901.

I just wanted to say thank you for such a wonderful day yesterday! I had an amazing time.  You created such a great experience, as always! It was so much fun to learn and be inspired and be playful. - Dana

Upcoming Sierra Poetry Festival! Saturday, April 28th, 2018

Nevada County Arts Council (NCArts) will present the 2018 Sierra Poetry Festival on April 28 all day at Sierra College in Grass Valley. Activities will include a keynote address by national Los Angeles Poet Laureate Robin Cost Lewis, author of Voyage of the Sable Venus, winner of National Book Award for Poetry. Three other California poet laureates, and an array of local, national and international poets and performers will join Cost Lewis. Among the day’s line-up are Kim Shuck, Indigo Moor, Marcelo Hernandez Castillo, Judy Halebsky, VS Chochezi and Staajabu as Straight Out Scribes, Neeli Cherkovski, Bill Gainer, Molly Fisk, Charles and Gail Entrekin, Sands Hall, Mel Pryor, Kirsten Casey and more.

Eliza Tudor, Executive Director of NCArts, says: “Our inaugural Sierra Poetry Festival in 2017 was a watershed moment for poetry in Northern California. 2018 will be all the more meaningful now that Grass Valley, Nevada City and Truckee are recognized by the state under the California Cultural Districts Program. 

“We are planning readings, open mics, workshops, discussion, youth voices and activism to celebrate the many ways that poetry can act as an agent for change. We chose our theme, Ordinary Light, as a nod to our brand new United States Poet Laureate, Tracy K Smith, for the title of her award-winning memoir. We challenge our poets and our performers to interpret this as their own, and our audiences to participate with this theme in mind.”

Award-winning young adult novelist Kim Culbertson, new to Nevada County Arts Council’s Literary Arts Committee this year, says: “The idea of what it means to be a literary citizen felt important to us as we designed our program. We’d like to have this conversation with our community – so we will be offering fringe events in cafes, art galleries, and local libraries to create active and engaging poetry experiences for everyone. These will happen all the way through April, National Poetry Month.”

A key priority for Nevada County Arts Council at Sierra Poetry Festival is local youth. Chris Olander, a local California Poets in the Schools teaching poets, says: “We want to offer them an opportunity to grow and thrive – either through poetry recitation or through the simple enjoyment of listening to poetry read by some of our most eminent poets. Our youth can enjoy mainstage readings, attend workshops if accompanied, and participate in the free fringe festival poetry pop-up events that take place all the way through National Poetry Month in April. Our student festival tickets are offered free of charge – and your sponsorship will help us cover the costs for this.”

From now until late April, our California Poets in the Schools teaching poets will be working in high schools across Nevada County to guide and coach teachers and students in preparation for the County – then State – finals in Poetry Out Loud. Nevada County Arts Council then offers participants the chance to present their pieces at Sierra Poetry Festival to friends, family, peers, and new audiences.

We also offer middle school students the opportunity to present poems of their choice at the Sierra Poetry Festival. This month our teaching poets again attended Nevada City School of the Arts 8th Grade Poetry Slam to select interested young poets who are then offered coaching prior to the festival, and during select events during our pre-festival pop-up poetry events. At our festival events our 8th graders get to mingle with our high school students and get a taste of Poetry Out Loud
.

New Monday Night Creative Writing Workshop series and Revision and Development Workshop series start this month!

It's never too late to start what you didn't start yesterday. 

The newest Monday Night Creative Writing Workshop series and Revision and Development Workshop series start this month.  Let's take advantage of the introspective darkness of winter to stoke creative fires within:

1/12, 2/15, 3/15, 4/19, 5/17 Revision and Development Writing Workshop for Fiction and Memoir:

Attention Nanowrimo-ers! This workshop is deadline- and goal-oriented to help you complete the next draft of a project for publication. In this small workshop, the goal is to revise your first draft by pushing further to the next level, strengthening your writing skills, and simultaneously exploring meaning in your writing. You will get professional feedback for developing the heart of the subject as well as the structure and organization of your project. Learn techniques to creatively unearth what really matters so that your writing stands out as surprising and original to an editor. We will meet to workshop from 5-8 pm on the third Thursdays of each month. Expect readings and deadlines to keep you accountable and move your writing forward. $220 for four months. 5-8 pm.

I decided to take a writing class by Karen Terrey through Tangled Roots Writing as a last attempt to gain the upper hand over Writer's Block. And to my surprise, she gave me more gun powder than I could have ever expected. Through her class, I was able to write some of my favorite scenes for a trilogy I'm writing and since taking her class, I'm back on a normal writing schedule. I'm very thankful for Kat and her dedication to writing. - Courtney

1/22 - 3/5  Monday Night Creative Writing Workshop:  

A fun and generative workshop. Do you wish you wrote more? Want to feel a sense of community when you write? Do you have a neglected blog crying out for fresh ideas? Want to explore ideas for beginning or finishing a book? This series specifically supports Nanowrimo participants! Craft, technique, and prompts for fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. A kick in the butt for your writing life! Connect with a community and improve your writing practice. Tea and chocolate provided. 6 week series Mondays from 6:30 to 8 pm. $150. Downtown Truckee.

Thank you so much for the wonderful writing experiences.  I came home Monday night and told my husband how much I absolutely love and value your classes, your prompts, your insight and how taking your classes has really helped me in trying to move my writing beyond the hobby level. - Liz

Call me anytime to talk about your writing and to discover ways to find and connect with writing communities. 

Happy New Year!

Karen

Truckee Community Theater Performs Ten Minute Plays Written by Local Writers!

Truckee Community Theater performed this past weekend its first of many Ten Minute Play Festivals featuring plays written by local and regional writers. According to the Sierra Sun (photo credits are theirs),

"Courtney Simson, TCT's producer and publicist, welcomed the crowd and explained what each of the plays were expected to accomplish in 10 minutes.

"There is no time for exposition, these plays need to be dramatic, exciting, dialogue-driven. The characters need to grab you immediately. There needs to be conflict, and an urgent conflict, at that; followed by a climax and some kind of surprise or change at the end," Simson said."

You can read the entire article here. Not only do many of us recognize the local authors Mitch Dion, Sarah Poynter, Shannon Spangler, and Chris Widney but the audience shot from Sierra Sun reveals more local writers.  

If you want to learn how to write a ten minute play and use the skills to hone your writing in other genres, Tangled Roots Writing workshops over this winter and next spring will set you up to complete a play by next summer's deadline of July 31st.