The writer’s job, Nabokov supposedly wrote, is to put a character up a tree and once they are up there, throw rocks.

New for 2025, our Introduction to Stories course builds on your longform skills and enables you to link scenes together to tell the story of a specific set of characters. Over twelve weeks, you will learn to create people the audience likes and then put them through heaven and hell, just to see what they will do.

Inspired by the work of the Hideout Theatre in Austin TX, this course will also examine how genres can guide the direction of a show, helping the players make informed, enthusiastic choices, guided by inspiration, not obligation.

This course does not treat storytelling as a mystery, but simply as a way to connect and inspire great scenes. It does not teach a formula, but a state of mind. An atmosphere of curiosity and mischief in which stories naturally arise.