Our workshop will provide you with the opportunity to interact with other playwrights and theatre professionals and receive feedback over the 4 month course, meeting once a month. At the end, you will have a polished script, ready for submission. You will receive valuable insight on how and where to submit your script for production consideration, and your play will receive a reading, to add to your resume. The professional connections and know-how you will gain at this workshop is INVALUABLE!

This workshop is by invitation to playwrights who have created and submitted full length plays of merit to Horse Trade. The workshop will consist of four monthly meetings covering ground rules for critique, characterization, editing, and visualization of the script. The workshop process will culminate in an excerpt of 10 minutes directed and performed by The Drafts Ensemble. Based on audience feedback and the input of workshop facilitators, one workshop member will be chosen for a full length reading as part of the Made at Horse Trade Festival in August 2012.

The Drafts are a non-equity ensemble of actors who are relatively new to the New York theater scene.

The Director's Lab is a group of emerging, professional New York directors who will give feedback and direct an excerpt from your play.

Carmen Betancourt, a native of South America has lived in NYC most of her life. Her current  plays consist of  The Musician in the Maid’s Room, Oasis, Pola, Burial Grounds, Render Unto God, Edge of the Jungle, Their Wings were Blue (Performed in the ’06 NY Fringe and ICWP Her-rah Festival). Her play, Penny Candy was performed at the LaGuardia Community College Playwrights festival, Queens theatre in the Park, and various other NY venues, and received honorable mention at the 13 St. Rep New Works of Merit competition.

She is a member of DG, TRU, ICWP and NALAC

Joseph P. Krawczyk Writing plays since my early twenties, I’ve had staged readings, workshop productions, equity-approved showcases, and an Off-Broadway production. As a documentary filmmaker, I have worked with talents such as William Shatner, Eli Wallach, and James Whitmore. My work has garnered awards from the New York Film and Video Festival, Houston International Film Festival, The Chicago Film Festival, and a Tri-State award for the Best United Way video.  I am especially proud of The Gift of Time, a documentary on volunteerism, which was shown at the White House in 1990, as well as Liberty’s Light, documenting the centennial of the Statue of Liberty.  I am also a member of the Dramatists Guild.

Judah Skoff was recently named winner of the 2012 New Jersey Playwright's Contest for his play A MATTER OF DREAMS which will have a world premiere production at the Hunziker Black Box Theatre on the campus of William Patterson University this April. Other awards include the National Playwriting Competition, sponsored by Young Playwright's Inc., and two New Jersey Governor's Awards in the Arts for creative writing and playwriting. Judah's plays have been performed at theatres and festivals around the country including, the Abingdon Theatre, the Producer's Club, the State Theatre of New Jersey, Playwrights Theatre of New Jersey, The Salon, The Theatre-Studio, the Great Plains Theatre Conference, the Last Frontier Theatre Conference, New York University, Pace University, and elsewhere. Judah was a participating artist at Backyart, a multi-disciplinary artist's showcase in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, were excerpts of his play TREMBLE were produced. Judah has been a finalist in such competitions as the Hamilton Fringe Festival's International Playwriting Competition, the New Century Writer's Awards, the American Renegade Theatre's National Playwriting Competition, and the Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary One-Act Play Contest. Judah's writing has been published in Red Ochre Lit and Red River Review. Judah graduated from Brown University where studied English and playwriting.

Martin Lentz is a Philadelphia based playwright with degrees from Ursinus College and Georgetown Law. He has served on a merchant vessel at sea and in the paratroops in addition to practicing law. His first play--"The Recruiter" ( of which no script survives) was produced at Ft. Bragg North Carolina. More recently a staged reading of his drama "Zone Two" was produced by the Creative Livingroom in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. Other plays in his portfolio include "Brothers of the Cloth";  "House Arrest"; "Expiration"; "Music Lessons";"Peace & Love";"Reunion"; "Fame"; and "Homecoming".

Memberships: Dramatists Guild of America; The Philadelphia Dramatists Center (PDC) and the PDC Writers Circle.

Richard Zinober I was born in New York City and grew up in Queens and on Long Island.  I received an MFA in creative writing from Columbia University.   Currently I live in western Minnesota and teach at Minnesota State University Moorhead.

My playshave been produced at Trinity and All Saints College in Leeds, England, Pepperdine University, the Minneapolis Fringe Festival, the Newport Performing Arts Center in Oregon and the Muddy Creek Players Festival of New Plays in Monroe, New York.  My fiction has been published in The Literary Review, Inscape, Sundog:  The Southeast Review, New Voices and Intro 11. 

Terence Patrick Hughes’ plays include LINES with the Horse Trade Theatre Group, Finding the Rooster and A Muse in Manhattan with the 13th St. Repertory Theatre, and the award-winning Farewell Evenbrook at Theatre Row. The playwright is currently crafting a ten-play cycle entitled The Trials of Oscar the Great. The cycle’s most recent play, The Kiss of Caiaphas, was developed at the Lark Theatre and was a Finalist for both the 2011 Centre Stage New Play Festival and the Ashland New Play Festival. Hughes, his wife, and two children share their time in New York City and Woodstock, NY.