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Class Description
Show Up and Write is a fun and safe environment that promotes creativity, self-growth, and the practice of writing. It’s a space for you to jumpstart a new project or pick up where you left off on an idea that’s been sitting on the back burner for weeks, months, even years. Sometimes even the most ambitious of us need a kick in the pants (even a gentle one) to get moving. In fact, simply being accountable to someone often sets us in motion.
You'll meet twice a week, spend the first 20-30 minutes connecting with other writers, write for 75 minutes, and spend the next 75 minutes conversing about each other's work. Writing without editing yourself or focusing on the end product is encouraged. Our collective goal is to support you, help advance your story, improve your craft, and identify your individual writing style.
Staring at a blank screen can be daunting and lonely, Show Up and Write is as much about being part of a supportive community as it is about strengthening your writing. Past students have made lasting friendships and continued to meet and write together long after the workshop finished.
This workshop culminates with an optional public reading (live on zoom) where you can read 5-7 minutes of your material, or if you prefer, have a friend, actor, or fellow writer in our group deliver your goods. This provides an additional vehicle for development and growth.
Past students have developed solo shows, musicals, songs, sketches, memoirs, plays, screenplays, novellas, novels, humorous essays, speeches, YouTube scripts and poetry. Many have gone on to public readings and performances of their work and credit Show Up and Write as the springboard that set them into action.
Sunday , November 26th - Sunday, January 24th
4:45-8:00 pm PST
Online with Zoom
Class Details:
Classes are limited to 6 participants
We meet twice a week for 4 weeks (8 classes total)
We meet week 5 for a public zoom reading + talkback
Price: $300
Schedule:
Sunday, December 27th / Wednesday, December 30th
Sunday, January 3rd / Wednesday, January 6th
Sunday, January 10th / Wednesday, January 13th
Sunday, January 17th / Wednesday, January 20th
Showcase: January 24th
“Shannan creates a safe container for us to grow together as writers and as people. She respects our writing voice, makes gentle suggestions to hone our prose, and draws out the stories we need to tell. If you get a chance to work with her, do it! Sitting down to a blank page is hard. Sitting down with Shannan gets me writing every time.”
— Dorothea Deley, writer, performer
“This workshop helped me grow as a writer and more importantly a sharer. Shannan encouraged me to do the work, express the truths, and be open to all the possibilities. She taught me that vulnerability of truth in your writing will be accepted, cultivated and praised. This class gave me a platform to develop my ideas and hold me accountable for my own goals. I found the freedom to voice my opinions and thoughts on the other writer’s work a key component to the shaping of my own. Shannan’s keen ability to pinpoint obstacles in our writing helps us focus on moments that matter. There is an honesty in her critiques which inspires me to question my intent and grow from those answers. Through Show Up and Write, I was able to create my first fully imaged script for stage. I feel this course will enable Writers at all levels to tell their stories whether it be for Stage, Screen or Literature.
Showing up is the effort, writing is the reward.”
— Ruben Permel, artist, designer, writer
"Take Shannan Calcutt's Show Up and Write Online Workshop - only if you want to be motivated to write, to actually write, to keep on writing and to become a better writer. You will get positive feedback and support from Shannan, as well as from everyone you meet in this fantastic workshop. I am so grateful that I had enough sense to take it. Thanks forever, Shannan."
— Claire Mayne, artist, improviser, writer
About the Instructor:
Shannan Calcutt made a name for herself writing and performing in the internationally-acclaimed solo Izzy trilogy: Burnt Tongue, It's Me – Only Better! and Out of My Skin, co-written and directed by Sue Morrison. Her plays have been staged at the Vancouver International Comedy Festival, Edmonton's Comedy Arts Festival, Nakai Comedy Arts Festival, UNO Festival of SOLO PERFORMANCE, Intrepid Theatre, Neptune Theatre, The Grand Theatre, The Belfry Theatre, Alberta Theatre Projects playRites Festival, Lunchbox Theatre, 25th Street Theatre, The Globe Theatre and Harbor Theatre. Her play Burnt Tongue was broadcast on CBC Radio's Definitely Not the Opera and Canada's Bravo! network. Shannan has written comic acts for Cirque du Soleil, the philanthropic event One Night for One Drop and Berlin's Friedrichstadt-Palast. Her work has been featured in international arts magazines American Theatre and Border Crossings. As an instructor, she is renowned for her individual and intimate approach, encouraging students to push the boundaries of what’s acceptable and embedding a confidence that allows them to work at their greatest potential. Shannan has a Master of Fine Arts in Writing for Dramatic Media (University of Nevada, Las Vegas), a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Performance (University of Victoria), and is a graduate of the Dell’Arte International School of Physical Theatre. She is fluent in English and sarcasm.