Derry Playhouse Writers are writers of poetry, novels, plays, short stories, biography, autobiography, scripts (for both film and television), and essays.

Workshops: Classes, Seminars and Performances

During the past nine-years we have obtained funding to hold several workshops on general creative writing techniques, short-story writing and poetry construction.

We obtained a major grant from the Northern Ireland Arts Council and Derry City Council to hold two play writing workshops in conjunction with two on acting and directing taught by playwright/director Yabo Yablonsky member of the prestigious Los Angeles Actors Studio. These workshops resulted in ten first-time playwrights having their plays performed on The Playhouse stage.

Some of our writers have had radio plays and short stories presented on BBC Radio One and Four. Others have been chosen as artist of the week on Limerick ’s Lyric FM. Three of our members have formed, with two other poets, Scream Blue Murmur, a performance poetry group that has traveled internationally to rave reviews—most recently at the Fringe Festival in Minneapolis/St. Paul in the US. Other members have had their short stories and/or poetry published in widely-read magazines.

We helped to critique a play as it was being written via the internet. The play, The Wake, was commissioned of playwright Derek Murphy by actors Joe Estevez and Nick Harding. This play, staring Estevez and Harding, had its international premier at The Playhouse in October 2007 as a production of McNaughton Productions Ltd.

We are submitting a grant to the Northern Ireland Arts Council in October 2009 to obtain funding for four workshops over this next year. These will include: short story writing; poetry construction; how to write a query letter, find an agent and/or publisher; and, one on how to avoid vanity publishers by self-publishing through the growing trend of internet print-on-demand publishing.

We also plan to hold an open-mike performance of our writings at The Playhouse at the beginning of 2010 to celebrate our tenth year as a support organization for writers of all genres.

We welcome suggestions as to workshops we might hold in future.

Continually Check our Calendar for up-coming DPW workshops and other DPW recommended workshops and events.