Aoise Stratford is a dramaturg, playwright, and lecturer at Cornell University’s Department of Performing and Media Arts, as well as director of education at The Cherry Arts, a not-for-profit arts facilitator and presenting organization. Her plays have won several awards and been produced around the world, including at National Theatre London, Solo Chicago, and the New York City Fringe. Locally, Ms. Stratford has co-authored two walking headphone plays for The Cherry and adapted “A Christmas Carol” for The Hangar Theater. Her work on The Cherry’s season seeks to provide meaningful production context for audiences and to spark, foster, and facilitate community conversations — as well as inspire action — about displacement, dispossession, migration, and oppression. Ms. Stratford holds a Ph.D. in Theatre History and Dramatic Literature from Cornell and an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of San Francisco.
Course Overview
Dialogue has the power to bring characters to life and drive the story forward in subtle, impactful ways. In this course, you will craft authentic, purposeful dialogue that advances plot, reveals character, and enriches stories with layered meaning. Practical exercises in dialogue construction, exposition management, and subtext development will help you create conversations that feel natural while serving multiple narrative functions. You will also build a systematic approach to revising and refining dialogue.
The following courses are required to be completed before taking this course:
- Developing the Story and Idea
- World-Building and Character Development
- Building Blocks of Scene and Structure
Key Course Takeaways
- Craft dialogue that simultaneously serves multiple storytelling purposes
- Balance exposition and context to create natural-sounding conversations
- Create rich subtext through the strategic use of behavior, contradiction, and ambiguity
- Navigate between high and low context dialogue for different narrative effects
- Apply systematic revision techniques to strengthen dialogue and eliminate weak spots
How It Works
Course Length
2 weeks
Effort
6 to 8 hours of study per week
Format
100% online, instructor-led
Course Author
Aoise Stratford
Senior Lecturer
Cornell University College of Arts and Sciences
Senior Lecturer, Cornell University College of Arts and Sciences
Who Should Enroll
- Aspiring writers (fiction, playwriting, screenwriting, memoirs)
- Journalists
- Content writers
- Actors
- Teachers
- Publishing and editing professionals
- Individuals looking to adapt or develop stories to a new medium
- Anyone with an interest in narrative storytelling
Get It Done
100% Online
100% Online
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