On-line Workshops: Endorsements
Porter Anderson
(Porter Anderson is a former critic for the Village Voice, NYC,
CNN Anchor/Producer, and fellow of the National Critics Institute of the USA).
Kent Stetson's course blesses the author's process with lucidity. You come away clearer, sharper, sorted, inspired. His training sessions rely on interactive growth. Progress is student-generated. The results are character-generated. One secret is a soothing, intense focus. It rocks each of his weekly international class meetings in friendly, safe momentum. Stetson structures each of those sessions with a concise discussion of an issue. Then he turns an unfailingly patient ear to the work being produced in real-time by the group. The humour keeping it all afloat is the kind that can only be earned by a prolific teacher who is publishing and producing award-winning work of his own. Stetson is the real thing. And this is the course I recommend to you if you've done your dabbling and you're ready to write. Porter Anderson, BA, MA, MFA
Writer Jonathan Steward, Montreal
After a creative dry spell lasting a few years, this course has helped reawaken my writing. Not only do I have the material I generated during the course but my head (and my notepad) is now filled with ideas and for the first time in a long time I am writing regularly again. Kent teaches craft- he gives solid technique, but it's far from the dry and and lackluster rules and shortcuts that some writing teachers try to pass off as craft. He combines heart and compassion and humour and geniue knowledge in a unique way that pulls your work out from within you.Hasmi Fergusson, Screenwriter/Novelist, Calgary
I started Kent's course with a vague concept for a novel. Eight weeks later I had completed great character descriptions, a tight story outline, a short synopsis, my first two chapters were outlined and most importantly I knew exactly what my story was about. Kent's comments were magical and he found beauty and depth in my writing I couldn't see. His feedback encouraged me to keep working on my story and I frequently refer back to his notes and I continue to find inspiration in them.
Award-Winning Animator/Film maker JoDee Samuelson, P. E. I.
This course reminded me that to be a writer, you have to write! In the very first session Kent gets you writing, and from then on you want to do your best. It's exciting to have a writing project every week, then sit down in front of the computer, take a deep breath and read your work out loud to other creative people. This is a terrific non-threatening way to get started on a creative project. I enjoyed every minute of the eight sessions.
Montreal translator, painter and first-time dramatist Lesley McCubbin, Montreal
It's obvious that Kent has VAST amounts of knowledge and insight to draw upon. Plus, his skill at being able to constantly pinpoint the vital elements in the work, draw out the things that made it work (or not), reference it to deeper ideas, open it up to a bigger picture -- this amazed me. And he was able to critique the work without ever undermining anyone. An enormously demanding job, extremely well executed. . . It seems to me that whether you are a seasoned writer or trembling greenhorn (like me), you'll come away from this course with fresh insights into the process of penning a narrative -- and renewed enthusiasm for the process of writing! Kent takes his vast knowledge, experience, and listening skills and uses them to illuminate the question of, not just craft, but also the broader currents that underpin any narrative. Enormously stimulating and rewarding.
Senior actor, columnist, broadcast journalist and essayist Bill Carr, Halifax.
Taking the course was a leap of faith, not in Kent, but in myself. It jump started my creative spirit and then offered me specific elements of craft with which to create and give expression to that spirit. The work with the group, the solitary work, and the mentoring by Kent combined to make this an invaluable creative and deeply artistic adventure.
Suzanne Girard,
international award-winning feature film producer and screenwriter.
Knowing the story you want to tell is one thing: knowing how your characters will carry your story is difficult. Kent has a unique talent to listen to your characters’ voices. He helps capture their true nature, quickly and accurately. Working with Kent during the writing of my historical drama helped me position each of my characters in their true nature. They carry both the past and the irony of their current life. They come to live freely and shamelessly, and will be deeply understood by today’s audience. Kent is a great listener, and a giving teacher.
Novelist Irene Larkin
I had an idea for a novel but I couldn't find the storyline. The live, on-line "Character Generated Plot" workshop opened up the story, the plot and the characters for me in an all encompassing way. Kent has a wonderful 'hands off' attitude toward your writing (there is only one person writing your material and that person is you), while his affirmation and encouragement bring out the very best you have to give. . . I am now editing my earlier novel and the excess and superfluous is just falling off under my pen.
One-on-One Dramaturgy
"It's not magic really, but it is a skill few possess, which makes it seem, when you are treated to it finally, quite magical. For it is the method through which you, as a writer, might begin to see what you're really saying, and not what others wish to hear."
Adam Barkin.
Exciting, Effective Dramaturgy
Working with Kent Stetson has had a tremendous impact on my writing. Not only did his methods and expertise make for exciting, effective dramaturgy, the precise clarity with which he conveyed his knowledge made it that much easier for me to figure out what I needed to do to take my work to the next level. The process was a rich experience and the results were satisfying.
Elizabeth Dehler is an Ottawa composer
completing her first piece of music theatre,
book and lyrics and music.
Compassion for the Human Condition
One of the Funniest Men I Know
Kent is experienced, smart, tough and one of the funniest men I know. If anyone can challenge, cajole, nudge your writing to be the best it can, it's him.
Wanda Graham, award winning actress, playwright, prize-winning screenwriter.
What's the Big Idea?
"Always, always, always be thinking and writing about big ideas."
I began writing plays featuring lots of explosions and philosophers debating feverishly. Kent led me to understand this was not the point. In a way 'big ideas' was an original label for thematics, but he pushed me beyond that. A big idea may not necessarily be tangible, explained, or understood. It is something deep inside you, conscious, sub-conscious or unconscious, that drives you to get up in the morning, pick up that pen, and get to work.
So now, rather than starting a plot outline or character sketch, or beginning way too early with dialogue, the first question I ask myself is: "What's The Big Idea?"
Jason Long graduated Playwriting from The National Theatre School of Canada,
where he studied character generated plot with Kent Stetson.
I think it's wonderful that Kent is sharing his dramaturgical talent with the world.
For those who partake, I assure you — it will be informative and enriching.
Kent was Dramaturg for a play written by Berni Stapleton and me, called A TIDY PACKAGE. Berni and I had been working together for quite a few years writing stand-up comedy together. A TIDY PACKAGE is a serious play about a very serious and profound issue. Kent was instrumental in helping us organize the issues, write a succinct treatment for the play, and understand our goals for the project. Our work became more defined, less unnecessarily complicated. His instincts are completely trustworthy. He first recommended that Berni and I work separately, creating our own scenarios for the play. Then the three of us worked together to combine the best of both worlds.
I am eternally grateful for this; it gave each of us a chance to explore our own ideas individually while instilling a confidence in our own work. Kent never imposes ideas upon the writer, but rather helps you explore and find the value of your own ideas.Amy House is an actress, a playwright and comedienne.
A Tidy Package toured Canada and The USA.
Hearing
What You've Said;
the Rare Skill of the Dramaturg.
"Kent Stetson, while being an esteemed and important author in his own right, is also one of the best dramaturges it has been my fortune to work with. I can even tell you why. It's pretty simple, really: Kent knows the difference between being a writer, an audience member, and a dramaturg."
While my first love has always been film, I got into writing for the stage for the simple reason that it was a lot easier to see my work produced on stage than it would have been for the screen. After several years and a seemingly endless amount of mini-plays and aborted masterpieces I finally started coming into my own as a writer, finding my own voice and carving out my own aesthetic niche.
Then I moved to Toronto.I found myself, not long after I had arrived, as a member of a playwright's writing group that had been organized by a prestigious local theatre. It was supposed to be a dream come true.
It was a nightmare.
Why? One of the most dangerous things a writer can do is put her own work in the hands of another. There's a great difference between handing over a piece and saying "Enjoy," and handing it over with the words "What do you think?"
The former is our ultimate goal. The latter is a necessary stage on the road to that goal. But what you get back can make all the difference. For myself, in this writing group, I found that we all reverted quite readily to the style of dramaturgy that is based, however implicitly, on the "If I wrote that, I would/wouldn't..." model.
This model breeds only contempt, insecurity and confusion. It does not help you discover what you are really trying to get at. It only reinforces that awful sense we all have that we're not as good as we should be. And, of course, the equally useless sentiment that our peers are quite insane, if not utterly talentless themselves.
Without a method of reading, without a framework as rigorous as any decent critical mode, one descends quite easily into mere opinion and personal instinct. This is dangerous for you as a writer, as it makes you question your own impulses at the wrong time, and forces you to hear an audience's voice far too early. If you wouldn't be willing to show your work to the paying public at this stage, why throw it to another audience for free?
We need, as writers, to have someone who can read our work in its nascent stages, and help us see what it is we are trying to express. But that isn't necessarily going to be another writer. What it should be is a dramaturg.
Having worked with Kent on a piece of my own, I not only came to see what it was I was trying to express at the time, but also what I seemed to be expressing without my intention, as well as a wide variety of avenues down which I might go as I continued. Kent managed to show me all this through a simple system of encouragement, specific questions and tentative discoveries, all of which were geared towards helping me uncover the piece I was writing, and not the piece Kent wanted me to write.
This is the key: you must always be wary of readers, for it is almost impossible to read another's work and fight successfully the urge to "help them along" with one's own instincts. Try reading another's work and see what I mean.
Kent manages this feat unerringly, and consistently. What he will show you is not what he would have written had he your ideas, but rather — and much more importantly — what it is that you have written, what you are writing currently and, hopefully, what it is you want to keep writing.
It's not magic really, but it is a skill few possess, which makes it seem, when you are treated to it finally, quite magical. For it is the method through which you, as a writer, might begin to see what you're really saying, and not what others wish to hear.
Adam Barken is a Montreal Screenwriter.