This 12-week course covers the building blocks of developing your craft as a writer. Each term will be led by a new artist who will share their practice and support you to develop your own toolkit of writing skills.
The course will initially explore where we get our ideas and inspiration from – using practical exercises to excavate the raw material of our own lives, as well as exploring broader political or social themes. Leo will then guide the group to use their individual talents and interests to write a brand-new play together. Through collaboration on a single project, writers will develop their playwriting skills by considering characterisation, narrative, structure, form, and political ‘gesture’.
Writers who have completed the first term and/or second term courses with Anna Jordan and Ola Animashawun can continue to develop their skills on this course. New writers also welcome!
Please note that you can either sign up for Citz Writers Term 3 or Citz Theatre Makers Term 3, but won’t be able to take part in both.
About Leo Butler
Born and raised in Sheffield (before moving to London in the 1990’s), Leo Butler is an award-winning playwright.
His debut play Made of Stone was produced at the Royal Court Theatre’s Young Writers’ Festival in 2000. In 2001, he won the George Devine Award for Redundant which premiered at the Royal Court Theatre Downstairs.
Leo followed Redundant with Lucky Dog (2004) and Faces in the Crowd (2008), also staged at the Royal Court. He was also the Writers’ Tutor for the Royal Court’s Young Writers’ Programme between 2006-2014, teaching and mentoring a new generation of playwrights.
Other career highlights include I’ll Be The Devil for the Royal Shakespeare Company, Juicy Fruits for Paines Plough, Sixty-Nine for Edinburgh Pleasance, The Early Bird for the Queen’s Theatre Belfast, two plays for the Birmingham Rep – All You Need is LSD (in a co-production with Told by an Idiot), and a new version of Woyzeck written for a community cast of 100 actors/musicians/dancers.
Leo co-composed (with Dan Persad) and performed in Alison! A Rock Opera at the Royal Court, King’s Head Theatre and in live music venues across London. He also wrote the book and lyrics for Theatre Royal Stratford East’s 2022 pantomime Cinderella.
As a musician, composer and performer, he has released a number of albums including Alison!, Talk to the Trees, and The Collective Psychosis of the 21st Century.
Other work includes three plays written specifically for teenagers – Decades (Brit School/Bridge Theatre Company), Devotion (Theatre Centre), and Innocent Creatures (NT Connections).
Leo also wrote the critically acclaimed Boy at the Almeida Theatre in 2016.
Film and TV work includes Self Made (Gillian Wearing/UK Film Council) and Jerusalem the Golden (BBC Four)
His plays are published as single editions and as anthologies by Bloomsbury.
