This four-week writing workshop invites students to learn the art of taking one thing and turning it into another thing. It’s an adaptation course for anyone who wants to adapt a source of any kind into a fully-formed show or screenplay. Got a book, a poem, an essay or a stack of letters your grandmother left behind that you’ve always envisioned as ripe for the stage or screen? Learn to plumb it for its themes and then, Pokémon-evolution like, change its form.
Functioning as a mini writer’s room, this class will explore adaptation as its own form.
Students with works-in-progress or even just a seed of an idea will be invited to work through writing exercises, solicit structured feedback, and eventually come away with 15-20 minutes of material for a solo or ensemble show, screenplay, theater script, or beyond.
Students can expect 1:1 time with the instructor, useful prompts for writing and adapting, real-world examples of unusual adaptations, and a clear path forward for their own work.
Class Dates:
Mondays
November 23rd, November 30th, December 7th, December 14th
6:30pm - 9:30pm
Elysian Upstairs Studio
About the Instructor
Gregory Nussen (they/them) has studied adaptation since high school, and presented a lecture at the 2023 Association for Adaptation Studies on various adaptations of Anton Chekhov's Uncle Vanya. Their solo show QFWFQ, a free-form adaptation of writing by Italo Calvino, sold out its Edinburgh run in 2026 and was called "the best of the fringe" by The Guardian. It won Best Solo Theatre and the Sydney Exchange Award at the 2025 Hollywood Fringe. It picked up an additional four nominations, including BroadwayWorld's Best Solo Production. It was a Judge's Pick at the 2026 Melbourne Fringe Festival and is an official selection at the inaugural Solo Theatre Film Festival in Los Angeles.
NYC credits include The Tempest (Off-Broadway, CSC), A Four-Letter Word (CSC/Plastic Theatre/World Event Young Artists in the UK), Old Paper Houses (Piehole) and A Midsummer Night's Dream (Pulse Ensemble). The Diary, their previous solo show, premiered Off-Broadway at Theater for the New City. They played Christopher in the regional premiere of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time (Phoenix Theatre Company). They have previously taught at Columbia University and Palomar College, and hold an MFA in Theatre from Columbia, an MA from NYU and a BA from Emerson College. AEA, SAG-AFTRA.
Class cancellation policy: No refunds, exchanges, or transfers.