Workshops
Grounding the Spark: Cultivating Genuine Presence in Creative Practice with Sarah Lipton
Where does a truly authentic story begin? When we write from our heads, we often hit the dry concrete of writer’s block, internal critique, and the anxious pressure to produce. But when we write from Genuine Presence, the page becomes a living space of discovery, resonance, and raw truth. Drawing from 30 years of contemplative practice and the Genuine Presence Protocol, this interactive workshop offers playwrights a somatic, step-by-step roadmap to ground your nervous system, clear conceptual noise, and inhabit the moment before pen touches paper. Through gentle breath practices, environmental sensing, non-judgmental reflection, and timed writing prompts, you will leave with a repeatable ritual to step onto your rug, take your seat, and write from your most authentic, sovereign voice.
Sarah Lipton is a contemplative teacher, author, and strategic advisor with over 30 years of formal practice in Buddhist contemplative traditions. Rooted in two decades of original curriculum development and direct experience navigating high-stakes organizational systems, Sarah’s work centers on helping artists, visionaries, and leaders step out of conceptual noise and ground directly into the present moment. As a lifelong writer, podcast host (GENUINE), and creator of the Genuine Presence Protocol, Sarah’s passion lies in supporting creatives to drop beneath the frantic pressure of production and touch the raw, fertile ground of authentic experience. She teaches that true creation does not spring from force, anxiety, or intellectual straining, but midwifes naturally when we take our seat in genuine presence—allowing the work to arise from an unshakeable, embodied core.
Worldbuilding for Playwrights with Brandon Zang
How do we put fantastical worlds on a stage? Why do we write (and enjoy) escapist stories that travel to the furthest edge of human imagination? This workshop covers the ways genre writing can be used as social critique, autobiography, and fabulation, as well as the techniques of staging the otherworldly. By the end of the workshop, writers will have a chance to experiment and propose their own fictional worlds, and be empowered to inject the whimsical, the marvelous, and the impossible into stories about real people today.
Brandon Zang (he/him) is a Vancouver-born playwright and educator whose work uses speculative worldbuilding to explore diaspora, belonging, and liberation. His plays have been developed and produced by Chuang Stage, Boston Playwrights’ Theatre, Lifeline Theatre, and The Road Theatre Company, among others. His honors include the Voaden Prize, David Mark Cohen Playwriting Award, National Student Playwriting Award, and Pacific Rim Prize. Brandon teaches playwriting at Boston University and works as a freelance dramaturg and translator. He attended the 2026 Green Mountain Playwright Retreat through a fellowship from the American College Theater Festival and the Kennedy Center for the Arts.
The Blank Page with Rosemary McLaughlin
Join playwright and educator Rosemary McLaughlin for a playful, generative workshop designed to get you writing and keep you writing. Through a series of prompts, exercises, and guided explorations, Rosemary will help you discover characters, situations, images, questions, and possibilities that can become the seeds of a play. The emphasis is on generating new material, following unexpected impulses, and allowing the writing to surprise you. No finished play or specific idea is required.
Rosemary McLaughlin is a playwright in residence with the Women’s Playwrights Circle @ Speranza Theatre. She’s been awarded multiple Fellowships from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts in both playwriting and poetry. Her work has been produced in NY, NJ and regionally and her play, Dykes of Hoboken, was recently selected as a semi-finalist in the National Playwrights Conference. She is currently working on Rumors of Caravaggio, in which the life of an American tourist becomes enmeshed with that of the legendary Baroque painter. She received her MFA from Rutgers and directs the playwriting program at Drew University.