Practical training in theatrical production – from initial concept to premiere
You’ll receive exactly the guidance you need to methodically create your first – or one of your first – stage productions step by step. Upon completing the course and all assignments, you’ll have a premiere and directing work to include in your portfolio.
This course is suitable for actors, directors, dancers, musicians, and anyone developing their first play, as well as directors looking to structure their knowledge and find inspiration for new projects.
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I often hear people say how hard it is to start: ‘I know so little, I can do even less, others can do it, but not me.’
The purpose of this course is to get across a simple idea: you can. Anyone can. This profession isn’t reserved for a select few – it’s for everyone. It’s a craft, a skill that can be learned and nurtured like any other. Playing the violin requires hours of practice. Staging a play is hours of thinking, rehearsals, and the joy when everything comes together.
The purpose of this course is to get across a simple idea: you can. Anyone can. This profession isn’t reserved for a select few – it’s for everyone. It’s a craft, a skill that can be learned and nurtured like any other. Playing the violin requires hours of practice. Staging a play is hours of thinking, rehearsals, and the joy when everything comes together.
About the course
Upon completing the course, students will have a clear roadmap for creating a theatre production – from selecting a play to working with actors, music, and lighting. This course will show you that you have the right to create, stage, and direct.
16 classes and two production options:
16 classes and two production options:
- Contemporary one-act play for 1-3 actors
- Non-narrative work (choreographic piece, performance) up to 30 minutes
- Planning and gathering supporting materials, researching the theme, developing the production method, and addressing content, compositional, and genre-related issues
- Working on visual, conceptual, and sound design
- Working with actors and performers
- Graduation stage: interaction with the venue, audience, etc.
Programme
Week 1
Concept and planning. Type of production, genre, format of the final showing, and planning based on the desired outcome. Overview of contemporary theatre styles – immersive, site-specific, and web-based projects. Identifying students’ strengths and experience to determine the scope of the final project.
Week 2
Students present their project concepts and detailed plans. Questions and clarifications.
Week 3
Working on text, story, and dramatic structure. Three- and five-part structures, the Hero’s Journey. Structuring the project as a whole. The inner movie method.
Week 4
Students present their structured projects. Determining the situational structure.
Week 5
Spatial, visual, and sound design concepts – principles of working with hired professionals.
Week 6
Students present the visual, sound, and music aspects of their projects.
Week 7
Working on excerpts, analysing fragments, and detailing character behaviour.
Week 8
Presenting analysis of the work’s key excerpts.
Week 9
Working with actors and performers across a range of theatrical and performative forms. Casting. Physical Action, etude, transference, and other methods.
Week 10
Presenting acting/performing cast, and describing ways of working with them.
Week 11
Concept development, adjustments to the original vision. Checkpoint.
Week 12
Evaluating each project in its current state.
Concept and planning. Type of production, genre, format of the final showing, and planning based on the desired outcome. Overview of contemporary theatre styles – immersive, site-specific, and web-based projects. Identifying students’ strengths and experience to determine the scope of the final project.
Week 2
Students present their project concepts and detailed plans. Questions and clarifications.
Week 3
Working on text, story, and dramatic structure. Three- and five-part structures, the Hero’s Journey. Structuring the project as a whole. The inner movie method.
Week 4
Students present their structured projects. Determining the situational structure.
Week 5
Spatial, visual, and sound design concepts – principles of working with hired professionals.
Week 6
Students present the visual, sound, and music aspects of their projects.
Week 7
Working on excerpts, analysing fragments, and detailing character behaviour.
Week 8
Presenting analysis of the work’s key excerpts.
Week 9
Working with actors and performers across a range of theatrical and performative forms. Casting. Physical Action, etude, transference, and other methods.
Week 10
Presenting acting/performing cast, and describing ways of working with them.
Week 11
Concept development, adjustments to the original vision. Checkpoint.
Week 12
Evaluating each project in its current state.
Outcome
Real stage production. Premiere. Audience. Full-scale directing experience.
- Understanding of all stages of production from the ground up.
- Hands-on experience producing a stage play – from concept to the sound of applause.
- Theoretical knowledge of contemporary theatre, its genres, and styles.
- Skills for working with dramatic text, structure, story, key segments, and characters.
- Ability to collaborate with professionals and create design documents for lighting, sound, space, and set pieces.
- Effective communication with actors and performers.
- Grasp of different methods for working with performers.
- Continuing and developing your graduation project after the course, and using this experience to create new projects.
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II don’t want directing to feel like an inaccessible profession. The aura of genius and exclusivity kills genuine creative impulse. I truly believe that sometimes you just have to do it. Any production that actually exists is better than a masterpiece that never sees the light of day.
Alumni testimonials
- ANNA LADINOVA:My first theatre production was an absolute find for me. Before this, I had taken many other online directing courses, but something was always missing. Tanya finally gave me the answers I had been looking for. I really appreciated her teaching style: everything was clear, structured, and concise. Importantly, theory was always backed up with concrete examples. But the most important part was the hands-on work on my own project under Tanya’s careful guidance, with the support of fellow students. Overall, this course gave me exactly what I wanted – and even more! I directed a play and continue to apply these skills successfully in other productions. If I ever decide to study further, it will only be with Tanya!
- MARIA SELEZNEVA:Rabbit Hole. To me, this play feels like having surgery without anaesthesia. It tells the story of a family whose life was split into “before” and “after” when their three-year-old child died in an accident. Now, with their world in ruins, Becca and Howie are trying to figure out how to move on – managing the best they can, while inadvertently hurting those closest to them, because they cannot otherwise express their pain. I discovered this script a couple of years ago and kept coming back to it: mulling over ideas, testing concepts, thinking… and feeling scared. Scared of taking on such an imposing and intricate project that touches on profoundly intense emotions. I wanted to do no harm, to approach the subject delicately, and to unlock the depth already present in the play. Tanya Weinstein’s My first theatre production course felt like a breath of fresh air. Although this was already the fifth play in my directing portfolio, it was the first time I truly felt purposeful in my approach. Lectures, home assignments, and guest experts came together like bricks in a sturdy structure, elevating the production to a professional standard. Most importantly, the feedback and ongoing support over the months ignited my desire to create, experiment, make mistakes, and try again – to finally overcome imposter syndrome and say to myself: “I am a real director.” I am deeply grateful to Tanya for this course, where you cannot help but learn. The knowledge I gained already works in practice and will continue to guide me in every future project. P.S. It has been six months since completing My First Theatre Production. I have since enrolled in Part Academy’s professional directing courses, and Rabbit Hole is now successfully running. ❤️
- VERA YANKOVAYA:In the summer of 2024, I made a real breakthrough in my amateur theatre work. Before the course, I was the producer of our shows, but after My First Theatre Production, I became a director. And the change showed not only in the work I was doing during the course – even the previously staged and rehearsed productions came alive in a new way. I am eternally grateful to Tanya Weinstein and to fate for bringing us together. For her ability to deliver a huge amount of material in a concise, accessible way, and for the concrete knowledge I gained. Understanding how to plan a theatre production, structure it, work with the text, with the actors, with individual scenes, and with the lighting concept – these were the key points that helped me truly see how everything should be built and what to aim for. And most importantly, actors also began to understand better what exactly we were doing, what we wanted to convey to the audience, and what tasks lay before us. Now I do my best to attend other Part Academy events, especially those led by Tanya, because I love learning from her, deepening my knowledge, and reinforcing what I’ve learned. I have also made new theatre contacts, and we have already begun working together. At the end of April, my play Thin Rowan premiered to a sold-out house.
Study plan
- Project concept and production planning.
- Project structure.
- Visual, sound, and music design.
- Analysis of the project’s key scenes.
- Casting and describing methods of working with actors/performers.
- Preparing questions about the project in its current state.
- Planning the project’s lifecycle after the course ends.
- Preparing the final project presentation.
How to prepare
К началу курса студенту нужно выбрать материал и подготовить синопсис работы. Если материал не выбран, то нужно определиться с темой — заполнить анкету со ссылкой на материалы и ответы на самые простые вопросы:
What you will need
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Телефон или компьютер с интернетом
Телефон или компьютер с интернетом
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Приложение zoom, динамики, микрофон, камера
Приложение zoom, динамики, микрофон, камера
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Желание учиться и творить
Желание учиться и творить
About the teacher
Tanya Weinstein
Part Academy artistic director, theatre and film director, and choreographer.
SPSU, Faculty of History, Department of Ethnography and Anthropology (2003)
SPbGATI, Theatre Directing (2008)
Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet, Master’s Programme in Composition of Contemporary Dance Forms (2014)
UWM, Film Department (internship, 2017-2018)
Tanya has directed more than 50 stage productions in Russia, Europe, Asia, and the USA. She has worked with Meyerhold Center (Moscow), Praktika Theatre (Moscow), Svenska Teatern (Helsinki), the Akimov Comedy Theatre (Saint Petersburg), Viirus Theatre (Helsinki), and Teatro Sociale di Como (Milan). She has also collaborated with university theatres in Berkeley, Loyola, Milwaukee, and Chicago. As a film director, she has created two feature films, a six-episode series, and a number of short films and music videos.
“Make art before anything else. The more people make art, the better humanity becomes. And nothing will convince me otherwise.”
– Tanya Weinstein, director, course teacher, Part Academy artistic director
SPSU, Faculty of History, Department of Ethnography and Anthropology (2003)
SPbGATI, Theatre Directing (2008)
Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet, Master’s Programme in Composition of Contemporary Dance Forms (2014)
UWM, Film Department (internship, 2017-2018)
Tanya has directed more than 50 stage productions in Russia, Europe, Asia, and the USA. She has worked with Meyerhold Center (Moscow), Praktika Theatre (Moscow), Svenska Teatern (Helsinki), the Akimov Comedy Theatre (Saint Petersburg), Viirus Theatre (Helsinki), and Teatro Sociale di Como (Milan). She has also collaborated with university theatres in Berkeley, Loyola, Milwaukee, and Chicago. As a film director, she has created two feature films, a six-episode series, and a number of short films and music videos.
“Make art before anything else. The more people make art, the better humanity becomes. And nothing will convince me otherwise.”
– Tanya Weinstein, director, course teacher, Part Academy artistic director
Student creations
How to purchase
About the academy
Part is a modern academy of performing arts that trains professionals working in film and theatre and supports them in creating their own artistic projects.
For over 15 years, we have been giving our students the opportunity to become part of the wider creative industry and express their own unique vision of art.
For over 15 years, we have been giving our students the opportunity to become part of the wider creative industry and express their own unique vision of art.