The Anti-Play Workshop

The Anti-Play Workshop

Description: In this workshop, participants will dismantle the conventions of drama to investigate what emerges in their absence. Across 12 weeks, we will create and experiment with theatrical form. Participants are invited to work on shorter experiments, fragments and scores or build toward a longer anti-play project over the course of the workshop. Both approaches will be fully supported. 

Sessions combine guided provocations, generative exercises and group discussions. We will read and look at examples from avant-garde theatre, experimental literature, and performance art, while also making our own impossible texts: plays that collapse under their own weight, scripts that resist staging, and scores that lead nowhere. Each week, participants will have the opportunity to share work with the group. 

This process is open to playwrights, theater-makers, performance artists and the generally curious. No prior experience required, just a willingness to experiment. 

Apply Here: https://forms.gle/NKZx9P7YMJzCrUXH8

Note on Work Samples: Your work sample can be in any medium (writing, video, performance, etc). Pick something that highlights who you are as an artist.(You can upload or leave a link to your work, either works)

Deadline to Apply: September 13th

Notification by: September 16th

Dates: Wednesday Nights, 7:00pm-9:00pm Central Time, October 1st-December 17th 2025

Location: Remote meeting digitally through Google Meets. 

Submission Fee: None

Cost of Workshop: Pay-What-You-Can. No one turned away for lack of funds. 

About the Facilitator: Ramona Rotten is a multidisciplinary artist and writer based in Chicago, Il, where she serves as the artistic director of Meat Machine Theatre. Her work spans experimental theatre and performance art, exploring themes of voyeurism, embodiment and the fluid roles of spectator and participant. Fascinated by the obscure, obscene and strange, Rotten's art pushes the boundaries of what performance can be. To view previous projects, please visit www.ramonarotten.com and @rottenreligieuse on Instagram

Questions? Email Ramona at rottenreligieuse@gmail.com