Launched in 2011 when The Lir Academy opened, this postgraduate degree in playwriting is an unusual course headed by Graham Whybrow, former literary manager at the Royal Court in London. ‘It's a genuinely vocational course in which each student is individually mentored,’ he says. Numbers fluctuate according to talent but there are usually three or four students each year.
He adds ‘I had unprecedented success in finding and developing playwrights at the Royal Court and that's the model I use for this course. I have track record: which is probably why I was invited to come and do this job!’ Whybrow sees himself like a counsellor too: ‘You learn a lot about what the students are going through when you're working with them, especially as their graduate plays come together.’
Because students aren't generally required to read their work aloud to contemporaries in groups as they are on most American playwriting courses and in many creative writing courses in the UK, they are in a strong position to develop a voice of their own without succumbing to what Whybrow calls the ‘turbulence of self criticism’. He compares the necessary skill development for playwriting with learning the violin or football coaching. You would never get anywhere if you relied totally on what others in the group said, because they're at the same level as you. ‘Our students are all on separate pathways being helped to strengthen their own perceptions in a very safe, confidence-supporting environment.’
Plays differ from novels, other forms of prose, and poetry, because they feature multiple voices rather than a single authorial one, and need actors to give them life. ‘That's why, although our course is a compressed version of the American three year MFA, we operate very differently,’ explains Whybrow.
There is a danger that students who are over taught by specific playwrights will end up losing their originality and simply writing poor imitations of the tutor's own work. ‘So although they meet and work with lots of playwrights, these are varied, one-off workshops,’ Whybrow says. He also points out that different playwrights work differently. ‘Some are improvisers and some are planners, for example,’ he says, ‘That's fine. Neither is the right or the wrong way.’
Course content
Lasting a year full-time or two years part-time, the course offers a series of skills-based writing workshops and tutorials with professional, established Irish playwrights such as Sonya Kelly, Conor McPherson, Mark O’Rowe, Deirdre Kinahan, Christian O’Reilly and Mark O’Halloran, as well as directors and a dramaturge, along with classes in dramaturgy and contemporary theatre practice.
Then – arguably the most crucial part of the course – each student develops a full-length play which is given a staged showcase reading at the end of the course. ‘This is a very intensive course and that's a big ask,’ says Whybrow. ‘No commissioning theatre would expect a playwright to produce a play in four months but that's what we do here.’
Alumni
39 people have graduated from the Lir's MFA in Playwriting in total since 2012 when the first cohort completed the course. ‘Of these, 19 are from Ireland, five from Northern Ireland and the rest from elsewhere in the world including England, the USA and Canada,’ says Whybrow.
Professional successes include Meadhbh McHugh's MFA play Helen and I which was produced in 2016 by Druid Theatre Company in Galway, and Erica Murray's All Mod Cons which opened at Lyric Belfast in May this year. ‘And many of them go on to do fringe or self-produced work,’ says Whybrow, who argues very cogently that he is developing people with talent, rather than teaching them to write plays in any particular way.
Entry requirements
Most successful applicants have a first degree in a related subject or relevant industry experience.
Notes for teachers
- The Lir Academy is Ireland's Academy of Dramatic Art and is part of Trinity College Dublin. RADA advised on its setting up.
- The next intake for this course will start in September 2019. The closing date for applications is 28 June 2019.
- Many UK playwriting courses have closed (even the famous one at Birmingham started by playwright, David Edgar) partly because of widespread industry scepticism about their value. By focusing on finding talented playwrights rather than trying to ‘train’ large numbers who think they might have playwriting aspirations, the Lir's course is generally more specifically vocational.
- Graham Whybrow says ‘If you can write a scene, you can write a play’.