New for Arts Camp 2025: Playwriting Intensive helps students discover their authentic voices, build foundations in dramatic writing

Instructor Kit Williamson explains what the intensive covers and how becoming a better playwright can help you succeed in other genres.

October 24, 2024

New this year by popular demand, Interlochen Arts Camp is offering a playwriting intensive for high school students. For the student with a good ear for dialogue and a desire to see their work on the stage, this intensive offers the perfect opportunity to refine writing skills and develop greater confidence in the genre. The intensive is taught by Kit Williamson, an actor and filmmaker known for playing “Ed Gifford” in AMC's Mad Men who also wrote, directed, and starred in the Emmy Award-nominated series EastSiders. Williamson sat down with us to answer a few questions and offer an inside look into what young playwrights can expect to learn from the program.

What specific areas of playwriting will this intensive cover?

We'll be working on a one-act play while learning the foundations of dramatic writing, which are applicable to playwriting, screenwriting, fiction, or any other genre expressing character through dialogue, action, and story structure.

What format will the class take?

We’ll read every piece of writing out loud in class and spend time workshopping it. Playwriting is a unique medium in that it's meant to be said out loud and heard. We'll give students the opportunity to actually hear their work, so it does more than just exist on the page.

When you understand how to write a character's voice, you’re that much closer to finding your own.

Kit Williamson

As a playwright yourself, you have the unique advantage of also being a working actor and director. How does this multidisciplinary experience influence your approach to teaching writing?

Playwriting is a collaborative art form, so it doesn't exist in a vacuum. You're going to be working with not just actors, but also directors, scenic designers, and sound designers. I teach my students to come at it from all sides and understand every part of the process of mounting a play. I make sure that students understand not just what their particular role is, but how the entire story unfolds.

How will this intensive help prepare students who are considering pursuing a future in playwriting?

This intensive helps provide a supportive foundation in the genre, regardless of what you decide to pursue in the future. It helps you understand what you might want to do with your skills as a dramatic writer, because the skills you learn will be applicable across mediums. If you want to be a playwright, a television writer, a feature writer, or if you just want to learn how to write better dialogue in your fiction and poetry, you can learn how to do that here.

What do you hope students will take away from the experience of working with you?

We often talk about a writer's voice as if it’s an intangible thing each writer has to go and discover, but in playwriting the voices are quite literal. When you understand how to write a character's voice, you’re that much closer to finding your own. I would be honored to hear that the students I work with develop a greater comfort in expressing their authentic selves.

Learn more about the Playwriting Intensive at Interlochen Arts Camp.