Why Play (with) Structure
More than a Blockbuster Template
If you haven’t taken my Magical Dialogue class, I’ve rescheduled it for Saturday 9/6 2-5pm ET via Zoom (because this weekend there will be mass mobilizations!) Magical Dialogue offers a deep dive into how to use dialogue to create forward momentum. Especially if you never worked as an actor, or if you have a literary background instead of a theatre background, this class helps people understand the feeling of rising action and how to make that happen on the page. This weekend, rising action will happen in the streets!
I did an interview with Brigid Amos this week for The Theater Project (coming soon) and it got me thinking about structure for playwrights again. I don’t want to go into what I said for the podcast, but I have more to add.
I offer a 10 week course called Structure is Not a Dirty Word (starting September 20th!) to help writers change their relationship with and to structure. (I wrote a bit about the course here.) So you might be wondering why structure is so important, or why so few people teach it, or, I should clarify, why no one teaches it the way I do.
Most people think of Structure as a rigid set of rules that one must impose on their story. This is not my approach to Structure. Yes, if you want to write a Hollywood Blockbuster, there is a formula to follow. I studied with Robert McKee, Syd Field, and Bill Kelly years back. They taught a form of linear structure with notes like, “you have to have an inciting incident by the end of p. 10!” and, “if the climax doesn’t hit p. 75, fuggedaboutit!” I don’t teach that. (Get a screenplay book for that.)
I’m glad I spent the time to learn that, and I loved getting to hang out with McKee after class. He gave a super party at the Plaza in his suite with a balcony facing Central Park. I was proud to hold my own with Bill Kelly in a bar for a week in Aspen where I got to pitch ideas as the only female-born person at the table. But I decided that boilerplate structural norms were not for me.
While I have nothing against anyone else using that structure, (and I used it in my MFA thesis play you can read here) I can teach it. The first few weeks of the course we go over Aristotle and those skills which are super-useful. But I teach something bigger than that, something more inclusive. Because not every story fits that structure or shines from being coerced into that structure.
There are so many other structures that deserve attention including Shakespeare’s Episodic structure, Brecht’s Epic structure, Beckett’s Circularity, Williams’ Spiral, Suzan-Lori Parks’ Rep and Rev, and more. The class looks at those too. (No reading required except for a few simple handouts.)
But more important than that, and what truly drew me to study structure in an ongoing way, was and still is the possibilities of creating our own structures that serve our own stories. That is what my Structure Class offers.
We will write in and out of class and that writing will be a way to experience and internalize different approaches to structure, how to do it, how it feels. You will be given a way to see the structure innate in the stories you want to tell. You will learn how to let your stories (with your ability with and awareness of structure) hold the risks you want to take. I am creating a Structure II for an even deeper dive.
Each of us have our own stories, and these stories have their own shapes, symbols, image systems and characters with wants and needs in specific worlds that you build. Any of these parts of your whole story could inform your structure. Learning to recognize how to do that is what I teach. I hope you’ll join me.
The Prompt:
While working with a client today, we got to talking about what the character wanted before all this (the story) happened? What were the character’s dreams and aspirations?
Often we look back or create flashbacks from the present. What if we were to go to the past without knowing what is going to happen? What if you imagine your characters in their early years, before all this? Where do they live? With who? How? What does it smell like there? How do they thrive or suffer? What irks them? What fires them up?
What if you asked your characters back then where they thought they were headed? Who did they want to be (identity)? Is that different from how things turned out (in the middle of your story)?
Maybe you are having some Second Act Issues. This can mean you are struggling with raising the stakes, trying to create agency, action and forward motion.
Is your character stuck? If so, if you can ask them about their original aspirations, you might be able to unstick them. If their original ideas of identity and what they wanted in their life and the failures they’ve suffered get triggered, what happens? What if you stir the pot? What must they do?
Typically there are two times in a script when things happen TO the protagonist: the inciting incident and the midpoint. The rest of the time, the protagonist is trying to do the thing that will get them what they want. The stakes need to be high enough to get them to act on their want.
But when they reach the midpoint, something happens to them that knocks them down, makes them question why they are on this mission, and threatens to derail everything.
If they can remember who they thought they would be, they might get their mojo back. If they can renew their determination to move forward against the odds, they will take the chance that creates the highest point of tension (climax) and causes them to realize something (moment of recognition) that will inspire them to change (transformation).
Upcoming Saturday Classes on Zoom!
EVENTS & REVERSALS Saturday August 30th 2-5pm Eastern Time
MAGICAL DIALOGUE Saturday September 6th 2-5pm Eastern Time
These are for playwrights & anyone else who wants to understand how to create builds and pacing with dialogue & ways to get narrative to work better. You will leave with skills!
For more information CLICK HERE & scroll, For TESTIMONIALS CLICK HERE & scroll
Structure is Not a Dirty Word starts 9/20 - 11/22
10 weeks of Saturday afternoons, 3pm ET - 6pm ET, filled with hands-on experiential learning to inspire you to form a new relationship with structure. Improve your skills! In-class and outside of class writing exercises you can put to use in your current and future projects! Now offered for less ($500). Register today! (Please reach out to me via email for that at emmagoldmansherman at gmail dot com.)
Advanced Brave Group Coaching!
For those of you who have already done the 6 week group coaching, I offer weekly ongoing support Wednesdays at 3pm ET. If you intend to attend, let me know, and I’ll send the link. Next Advanced Group Coaching is Wednesday, August 27th.
Neuro-Affirming (NAF) Parts Work Group:
Meets Second Saturdays of each month (September 13th at 12pm ET - time zone converter here) to offer community, parts work experience and support for anyone neurodivergent (inclusive of Autism, ADHD, Audhd, OCD, cPTSD, traumatic brain injuries, and more).
You do not need an actual diagnosis to participate. Run by Emma and Jess (Level II), both of us Audhd, we are creating non-pathologizing and anti-ableist Parts Work content for healing and ease in neurodivergent systems. Sign up for our link here. Sliding scale from $5-25/session, but no one will be turned away.
Opportunities:
PlayPenn’s year-long residency for playwrights in Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, New York, New Jersey and DC, is only taking first 100 applicants! Send in your application here.
International Human Rights Art Festival open for 10-20 min self-produced submissions due August 15th. Stipend! To be performed in December at the Tank (NYC). More info here.
Enter the YALE Drama Series Competition deadline 8/15/25
American Blues Theater offers the 2026 Blue Ink Award for Playwriting due August 31st.
Applications for new play development at 7 Devils are now being accepted through August 31st. ($10)
Applications are now open for the 2025-2026 INKubator New Play Program! INKubator is an eight-month generative playwriting process for a select group of playwrights-in-residence in Jersey City, culminating in the annual INKubator New Play Festival in May. Playwrights will meet as a group and in-person monthly from October 2025 to May 2026 alongside program director Alex Tobey to share new pages, receive feedback, and develop the first draft of a brand new play. At the end of the process in May, each writer will team up with a professional director and actors to present a public staged reading as a part of the annual INKubator New Play Festival. DEADLINE TO APPLY: Tuesday, September 2 at 5:00PM ET More information: https://www.arthouseproductions.org/pages/inkubator-new-play-program Click here to apply: https://form.jotform.com/251964546053057
Applications for Irons in the Fire 2026 are now live, and they will remain open until Sunday, September 7th at 11:59pm. It's a Google Form, here. Unlike last year, we do not require any script pages to be submitted for the first round of applications. It’s all pretty self explanatory. Questions? Email info@faultlinetheatre.org. And check out their next Irons in the Fire presentation: IJU by Abigail C. Onwunali @ 6:00pm on Thursday, Sept. 11th (NYC)
Ixion seeks up to 8 scripts where DEFIANCE figures prominently to be considered for further development, including staged readings and possibly full production in June of 2026. No more than 4 actors. Simple setting. No more than 12 pages. Include only first initial and last name of author. Put script name and your last name in header or footer. Multiple subs allowed. No bios. Defiance can be in any form or any situation to explore relationships, dynamics and moments where opposition comes into play, could take on parent-child relationships, individual versus a collective or even a people versus an entity. Send to ixionensemble@gmail.comby 5 p.m. 9/30/25.
Women in the Arts & Media have a list of stage opps (and also screen opps) you can sign up to get monthly.
artwork by Scott Sherman at ScottShermanStudio on Instagram
Brave Space
With prompts, grounding practices, & discussions, Brave Space invites playwrights, poets, painters, potters, novelists, memoirists, musicians & artists working in any medium to make meaning in a safe community. Begin and/or bring your projects to completion.
Or use Brave Space as a body-doubling space to get other things done in community (write hard emails, clean out your closets).
$5-25 suggested per session. 4+x/week! On or off camera. No commitment, drop-ins welcome. Try it!
Female and nonbinary folks welcome any time. All Humans welcome on Sundays.
Brave Space Schedule:
Mondays & Wednesdays at 12pm ET; Fridays at 12pm ET w/fast feedback; and Sundays at 6pm ET with Sharing Second Sundays at 730pm ET (that means September 14th!!!) Email or reply for a link!
ACTUAL SCHEDULE: Brave Space as usual tomorrow, Friday, August 15th. Brave Space for All Humans on Sunday August 17th at 6pm ET. And a regular week of MWF Brave Space at 12pm (with Fast Feedback Friday) and Brave Space for All Humans on Sunday 8/24 and onward in regular fashion (MWFSU) until Labor Day when I will not be holding Brave Space until Friday, September 5th.
Amazing People Doing Amazing Things:
If you want to be listed here, please let me know what you’re up to and include your links!
Ethan Herschenfeld (in the photo with Jude Law below in a still from the upcoming Black Rabbit miniseries starting 9/18 on [redacted - a well-known channel that supports genocide] is swimming to raise money for swim4life to support AIDS support and women’s health in the Provincetown community. He swims MILES! So help him out with a donation if you can.
Jess Pearce and I collaborated on these offerings on Insight Timer. Enjoy it here. If you want more, come to NAF Parts Work every second Saturday! (September 13th!)
Three new micro-fictions of mine will be published in August in Boudin, the spicy online cousin to The McNeese Review. My micro-chapbook, “Possible Paths for the Minotaur,” is part of the Ghost City Summer Series! It’s free to download, or you can donate any amount and proceeds will go to the Trans Law Center.
My friend and mentor Angela T. Carr at WORDBOX is an amazing poet. She’s been caught in a systemic governmental trap. You can help to alleviate her suffering while enjoying submissions opps and classes, prompts and workshops here - any help you can offer is welcome.
POLITICAL ACTION:
I suggest, instead of feeling helpless in the face of the news, ignore corporate media and get up-to-date on issues that are important to you. Seek out Substacks or youtube providers or other newsletters and news outlets beyond the corporate hegemony. Here are a few examples and other ways to focus on issues that may be of interest to you.
Get Involved:
Chop Wood, Carry Water - a substack by Jess Craven that helps me focus on political action.
Third Act - a community of older Americans coming together for political action.
What you need to know about ICE.
Fight for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA).
Writers for Democratic Action.
READ and SUBSCRIBE:
ABORTION EVERY DAY a substack by Jessica Valenti - support real research about what’s really happening. MEN, this is scary shit, and your support is needed and appreciated!
THE CRUCIAL YEARS a substack by Bill McKibben - climate change and ways to understand it and to actually do stuff about it.
ERIN in the Morning, by Erin Reed - news about the trans community.
The Intercept, 972mag, and Mondoweiss - independent news.
DONATE:
Give to the Middle Eastern Children’s Alliance
Give to Doctors Without Borders
6 Ways to Support Palestine
Donate for Civilians in Palestine