Philadelphia Dramatists’ Center
produces a number of recurring and annual events to encourage our mission of providing resources and opportunities for creative expression.
We welcome actors, directors, dramaturgs, theatre lovers as well as playwrights.
HAPPY HOUR
PLAYWRIGHTS’ HAPPY HOUR
Founded by Greg Nanni and Bruce Walsh, Playwrights Happy Hour is an opportunity for playwrights to meet after work for a congenial discussion of their plays. Prior to each session, two or three playwrights sign up to have 20 pages read out loud. Following each reading, the Happy Hour Moderator leads a discussion of the work based on The Lerman Method.
Happy Hour meets at Fergie’s Pub from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. on the second and fourth Monday of each month.
Beers and appetizers are always served.
Live meetings to resume as health protocols allow, with alternating online meetings.
Click HERE
or cut & paste the diect zoom link:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZElc-yrqDwoGtGNOA9tjKChl1bRkS83Ax27
LIVE SCRIPT READINGS AND CASTING
If you’re on the schedule to have your pages read, you can cast beforehand or”scan the room” and cast your play from the available actors.
Send your pages in advance to David Hodges
pdc@davidhodges.com
so he may share them with your cast and the rest of the room.
AFFIRMATION, QUESTIONS, & USEFUL FEEDBACK
Feedback sessions are short & moderated.
We use Liz Lerman’s Critical Response process.
At the end of each Happy Hour playwrights are able to request the opportunity to have their script worked on at the next session.
Once each month, PDC playwrights come together to read an entire script by one member. This long read gives the playwright an opportunity to hear a play that he or she has been working on in its entirety. The only requisite to have a play read is that excerpts of it have been read in either Playwrights’ Happy Hour or The Writers’ Circle.
WRITERS’ CIRCLE
PDC’s longstanding writers’ group meets on alternate Saturdays at the Community Education Center. Each playwright who attends brings 10 or so pages to be read and discussed. The session, scheduled for two hours generally lasts until all playwrights’ pages have been read.
For many years, The Writers’ Circle was led by the late Walt Vail. The current moderator is Pat McKeever.
The Writers’ Circle is currently on hiatus.
PHILLY DRAMACAST
Listen to episodes at
WRITING CLASSES-
Writing for Radio, an introduction to audio drama. 
Taught by Bill Arrowood, founder of Liberty City Radio Theatre,
the six-week course covers the history of radio shows from the golden age to the present, as well as a writing seminar on how to craft a show specifically for the theatre of the mind.
In the age of podcasts and zoom productions, audio plays have returned to the spotlight, there is a great deal more to making a radio show work than just reading your old stage play on a zoom call, and we will explore and experiment to help writers find a new voice, and have some fun doing it. (Special guests will include professional voice actors, sound effects technicians, and podcast producers.)
Classes are free to members and $50 for nonmembers.
Offered occasionally, when interest merits. For details
email: libertycityradiotheatre@gmail.com with the heading
PDC radio class.