Girls Write Now

Girls Write Now

Log in

Join Our Email List

  • About
    • Intro
    • Mission
    • Impact
    • Black Lives Matter
    • Digital Media Growth
  • Community
    • Mentors/Mentees
    • Speakers
    • Alumni
    • Team
    • Board
    • GWN Circle
    • Agents of Change
    • Fdn/Govt
    • All Donors 2020
  • Programs
    • Writing 360
    • Writing Works
    • Salon Series
    • Community Chats
    • Summer Edition
    • GWN Live
    • Publications
  • Join
    • Enroll
    • Support
    • Careers
    • Get Involved
    • Contact
  • Girls Write Now Awards
  • News
    • Media Mentions
    • Blog
  • Calendar
    • Jan 28: Book Launch Event for Cicely Tyson
    • Jan 29: Friday Night Salon with Mahogany L. Browne
    • Feb 5: Friday Night Salon with Dr. Joy Harden Bradford
Home / Programs / Salon Series / Summer Salon Series: Anthropology of Character, A Scriptwriting Salon with Christina Ham

Summer Salon Series: Anthropology of Character, A Scriptwriting Salon with Christina Ham

On Thursday, July 30, playwright and TV writer Christina Ham led us through 2-person scene writing at Anthropology of Character: A Scriptwriting Salon! This salon explored setting and how it can help shape your story, characters, and theme as you look to write or rewrite your play or script. Setting can be a valuable asset to your story and not just a place where your characters dwell.

Where your character comes from can help inspire the stories you want to tell. In this salon, we explore how the specificity of place informs character and story. Where we live shapes who we are. Different regions of the country have varied dialects, belief systems, and axioms. This trend is equally pronounced within different countries, socio-economic statuses, time periods, and uprisings. In plays, this is no exception. Dramatists such as August Wilson, Lorraine Hansberry, Anton Chekov, Sarah Kane, Tennessee Williams, and Shakespeare made the deliberate choice to set their classic dramas in Pittsburgh, Chicago, Russia, Northern England, New Orleans, and Denmark respectively to tell their powerful dramas. The same can be said for such television shows as The Wire, Mad Men, Breaking Bad, Ramy, and I May Destroy You. But setting can be more than the environment in which your story is set, it can also be a reflection of your characters.

Prompt #1

Write a two-person scene about an argument that seems to be about one thing but is actually about another.

Prompt #2

Write a two-person scene that starts with a life-changing event.

Prompt #3

Write a two-person opening scene about an average day turned upside down by an unexpected visitor.

Christina’s Recommended Craft Books

  • Into the Woods: A Five-Act Journey Into Story by John Yorke
  • The Playwright’s Process by Buzz McLaughlin
  • STORY MAPS: TV Drama: The Structure of the One-Hour Television Pilot by Daniel Calvisi

You can listen to Christina’s writing playlist here.

Christina Ham was named one of “The Top 20 Most-Produced Playwrights of the 2018-19 Season” by American Theatre magazine. Her plays have been produced both nationally and internationally at the Kennedy Center, Arena Stage, Seattle Rep, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Tokyo International Arts Festival, and The Market Theatre in South Africa to name a few. A graduate of the University of Southern California, with an MFA in Playwriting from The UCLA School of Theater, Film, and Television, she was most recently a writer/producer on Netflix’s Sweet Tooth with Will Forte.

Our Summer Salons—now open to the public—are a space for our community to learn from and write with incredible authors, poets, journalists, and novelists. The Girls Write Now Summer Salon Series is an extension of our Writing Works Program. Registration is required in advance for all Girls Write Now: Summer Edition events.

Donate Now

Life Resources and Events

At Girls Write Now, we are saddened and horrified by the recent acts of domestic terrorism grounded in the systemic racism and inequality we work as a community to challenge and change every day. We are here to support you individually and as a community through our robust programming. Check out our calendar to see our current offerings or visit our Life Resources page to support you during this time. 

We’re Hiring!

Looking for more purpose-driven work in the new year? Check out available roles to join the team! 

Friday Night Salon with Mahogany L. Browne

Join us on Friday, January 29, 6-7:30PM EST for (Un)Spoken Rules of Growing Up Girl: Writing Poetry for Young Adults with Mahogany L. Browne!

GIVE. WRITE. NOW. And Thank you!!

Girls Write Now’s services are more essential than ever before—serving the hardest hit communities—and many of our young women and gender nonconforming youth have themselves become essential workers to help their families. They carry an enormous burden and face devastating loss, slipping further into poverty. To meet the need, we have enriched and extended our programs, leading the historical transition to virtual learning.

Get Involved!

Are you a licensed mental health professional who’d love to work with our community of writers and creatives? We’re seeking volunteer Wellness Advisors. Get more info & apply here!

Relive the Girls (Re)Write Now Awards

If you missed the awards, you can still watch it! Relive this revolutionary night of mini–master classes with honorees on empathy, art, activism & humor and Girls Write Now mentees on writing with purpose, climate justice & self-care. 

Writing from our Future Leaders

Taking Our Place in History: the Girls Write Now 2020 Anthology was published with support from Dutton and Amazon Literary Partnership, available for purchase from McNally Jackson Books and anywhere ebooks are sold!

Girls Write Now in the News

Girls Write Now’s work has recently been featured by the National Endowment for the Arts, Time Out New York, NYXT and more!

Girls Write Now

247 West 37th Street, Suite 1000
New York, NY 10018
212.336.9330
Please donate at girlswritenow.org/give
or make checks payable to Girls Write Now

Connect With Us

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Copyright © 2021 · Girls Write Now · Designed by Alex Yeske and built by Tadpole · Powered by WordPress and Genesis · Log in

Copyright © 2021 · Girls Write Now Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in