ATG and Sieminski Theater Summer Theater Workshop-A Great Success
The six week playwriting course taught by Jason Odell Williams culminated with readings of the students' original scripts
Editor’s Note: My husband and I participated in the playwriting workshop and it was a total pleasure. The adult students gained a great deal of knowledge and sharpened their skills thanks to the expertise of our instructor Jason Odell Williams, the renowned playwright, actor, and Emmy Award nominee.
American Theater Group (ATG) and the Sieminski Theater in Basking Ridge teamed-up to offer a successful 6-week interactive Summer Theater Workshop for adults, high school, and college students. The free program invited aspiring playwrights to use their “lived experiences” to develop 10-minute plays. The workshops were made possible thanks to a Somerset County 2026 Local Arts Program Grant.
Jason Odell Williams, with his impressive theatrical experience, expertly led the two-hour workshops. Each class developed the craft of playwriting and explored the fundamentals of theatrical producing. Jason challenged students with clever prompts to help them create dialogue and settings essential to developing a play.
Jason also created an encouraging environment that made everyone feel good about their work. We asked him why positive feedback is so important for writers. He stated, “ I feel like writing is already so hard, why make it harder by being negative and telling people what’s wrong with their play? Also, no single opinion about a piece of writing is ever correct. I believe in the audience. If they are laughing or crying or leaning forward and riveted, then it’s working. If you can feel them being bored or not laughing where they should, the writer should look at the piece and try to fix it. One person’s thoughts about what they don’t like aren’t useful. When people share work out loud in a workshop setting, the best feedback is to hear what the group was enjoying and responding well to and then using that to go further. I don’t want people to say they love something if they don’t, but there’s usually at least one small thing that you can say you liked. Positive reinforcement goes further than negative.”
The range of plays created by the students was truly remarkable. Stories about life’s lessons, intimate conversations between family members, a whodunit, sports stories and more showed variety of experiences that inspired the writings.
Bob Glassman of Basking Ridge, New Jersey wrote See Me in My Office. He told us that he has long been a writer pf sports. Bob commented, “I wanted to branch out and try my luck at writing a play. I’ve always had a great appreciation for the theater and this is a wonderful opportunity.”
Jo Ann Poll of Metuchen has broad theatrical experience. Her play is titled Killing With Kindness. She commented, "I am now focused on developing a writing portfolio and wanted to test the basic beats of one of my feature scripts. I thought this would be a great opportunity to revisit playwriting, with the challenge of working within the confines of a 10-minute play structure. I thoroughly enjoyed everyone’s stories, and how varied, yet universal, they all are. Not only did we learn much from Jason, but also from each other, in a convivial atmosphere. The class has reinvigorated my passion for theater and lit a fire under me to work on that musical comedy.”
Christopher Byrnes of Basking Ridge, NJ is the author of Grandma. He told us, “I recently graduated from Raritan Valley Community College and one of my classes was a beginning acting class. The professor, Dennis Russo is a close friend to Jason and his wife and he sent an email to his students about this playwriting seminar. Since it was less than two miles away from my condo and for free, it seemed like a no brainer to take advantage. I have really enjoyed the quick writing assignments during the first two week of classes that Jason gave us as well as the quality of the feedback from the other members of the class. One of my requirements for my degree was to take a screenwriting class and this seemed like a nice cousin to add to my writing skills, particularly learning how to write effective and realistic dialogue.”
The Summer Theater Workshop culminated on August 30th when students had staged readings of their original short plays on stage at the Sieminski Theater. There was a total of of 16 presentations. The readings were performed by members of the workshop. The audience consisted of friends and family of the playwrights who truly enjoyed the program.
To learn more about the career of Jason Odell Williams, follow him on social media-FB: https://www.facebook.com/jasonodellwilliams; IG:https://www.instagram.com/jasonodellwilliams/ and visit NPX: https://newplayexchange.org/users/721/jason-odell-williams
To learn more about American Theater Group, please visit American Theater Group
To learn more about the Sieminski Theater, please visit Home - Sieminski Theater
Photo Credit: Courtesy of ATG
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