James has over 5 years experience teaching scriptwriting and poetry writing workshops & courses in schools, theatres, universities and other institutions across the country. He has 100s of hours of experience teaching classes and courses via online platform Zoom. On Zoom, James also mentors many scriptwriters and poets all over the world in custom designed 1-on-1 writing workshops. To contact James about 1-on-1 mentoring or about running a writing workshop/course for your organisation, click here.
Teaching Biography
From September 2022, James will be a part time Lecturer in Scriptwriting at The University of East Anglia, teaching undergraduate and postgraduate modules alongside Steve Waters, Timberlake Wertenbaker and Ben Musgrave.
Since January 2022, James has been a Visiting Lecturer in Scriptwriting at Norwich University of The Arts. James has also guest lectured at The University of Suffolk.
In March 2022, James co-tutored with Chris Thorpe and Tanika Gupta a week-long online writing course for Arvon called Playwriting: Asserting and Celebrating Diversity. James is set to teach several more masterclasses and courses for Arvon.
Since Autumn 2021, James has worked with Creative Arts East to devise and deliver poetry writing workshops to older adults in village halls and community centres across the East of England.
Between 2017-2021, James McDermott taught creative writing at Norwich Theatre where he created and ran the courses Introduction To Scriptwriting, Advanced Playwriting and Writing For Performance.
Since 2018, James has taught creative writing to New Wolsey's Young Company and has taught drama at Limelight Studios Norwich.
For Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds, James delivers the ACE funded Tiny Plays Big Ideas in which James teaches primary school children across Bury St Edmunds how to write a short play. The strongest script submissions are then staged at Theatre Royal BSE. The project is now in its second successful year.
With Greshams School, James co-created The Greshams School Playwriting Festival in which James teaches writers representing each house in the school how to write a short play. The strongest submissions are then staged in Greshams' Auden Theatre. The festival is now in it's forth successful year.
With The Marina Theatre Lowestoft, James co-created the ACE funded Untold Tales Playwriting Festival in which James taught primary school children across Suffolk how to write a short play. The strongest script submissions were then staged at The Marina Theatre. The project ran for three years between 2017-2020.
With INK Festival, James co-created and delivered the ACE funded Golden Age, a series of writing workshops in care homes across Suffolk in which participants were taught how to write about their lives in the hope the project abates memory loss and loneliness. The resultant texts were performed by professional actors for residents and their families at The Dell Care Home Lowestoft.
With Norwich Pride, James delivered a four week Playwriting With Pride Course in which James taught queer writers tools and techniques to create queer characters, stories, theatrical forms and structures. The course was delivered at Norwich Theatre Royal.
For queer literary organisation Out On The Page, James devised and delivered on Zoom a 6 week LGBTQ Playwriting Course in which queer writers were coached through the writing of an LGBTQ themed play. In Autumn 2021, James also devised and delivered a six week online poetry writing course exploring queer eco-poetry.
With Revoluton Arts, during the COVID-19 lockdown, James delivered 12 week online playwriting and poetry writing Zoom classes for participants worldwide as well as a 6 week online screenwriting course.
James has delivered creative writing workshops for many other organisations including The University Of Essex, West Suffolk College, Norfolk Library Service, Prima Donna Festival, London Queer Writers, Cambridge Junction, Luton Hat Factory and Leicester Curve.
Playwriting Tutorials for Marina Theatre Lowestoft
During the COVID19 lock-down, James created a series of short films for Marina Theatre Lowestoft in which he teaches tools and techniques to help viewers write a play in self-isolation. The series of short films are below.
Teaching Biography
From September 2022, James will be a part time Lecturer in Scriptwriting at The University of East Anglia, teaching undergraduate and postgraduate modules alongside Steve Waters, Timberlake Wertenbaker and Ben Musgrave.
Since January 2022, James has been a Visiting Lecturer in Scriptwriting at Norwich University of The Arts. James has also guest lectured at The University of Suffolk.
In March 2022, James co-tutored with Chris Thorpe and Tanika Gupta a week-long online writing course for Arvon called Playwriting: Asserting and Celebrating Diversity. James is set to teach several more masterclasses and courses for Arvon.
Since Autumn 2021, James has worked with Creative Arts East to devise and deliver poetry writing workshops to older adults in village halls and community centres across the East of England.
Between 2017-2021, James McDermott taught creative writing at Norwich Theatre where he created and ran the courses Introduction To Scriptwriting, Advanced Playwriting and Writing For Performance.
Since 2018, James has taught creative writing to New Wolsey's Young Company and has taught drama at Limelight Studios Norwich.
For Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds, James delivers the ACE funded Tiny Plays Big Ideas in which James teaches primary school children across Bury St Edmunds how to write a short play. The strongest script submissions are then staged at Theatre Royal BSE. The project is now in its second successful year.
With Greshams School, James co-created The Greshams School Playwriting Festival in which James teaches writers representing each house in the school how to write a short play. The strongest submissions are then staged in Greshams' Auden Theatre. The festival is now in it's forth successful year.
With The Marina Theatre Lowestoft, James co-created the ACE funded Untold Tales Playwriting Festival in which James taught primary school children across Suffolk how to write a short play. The strongest script submissions were then staged at The Marina Theatre. The project ran for three years between 2017-2020.
With INK Festival, James co-created and delivered the ACE funded Golden Age, a series of writing workshops in care homes across Suffolk in which participants were taught how to write about their lives in the hope the project abates memory loss and loneliness. The resultant texts were performed by professional actors for residents and their families at The Dell Care Home Lowestoft.
With Norwich Pride, James delivered a four week Playwriting With Pride Course in which James taught queer writers tools and techniques to create queer characters, stories, theatrical forms and structures. The course was delivered at Norwich Theatre Royal.
For queer literary organisation Out On The Page, James devised and delivered on Zoom a 6 week LGBTQ Playwriting Course in which queer writers were coached through the writing of an LGBTQ themed play. In Autumn 2021, James also devised and delivered a six week online poetry writing course exploring queer eco-poetry.
With Revoluton Arts, during the COVID-19 lockdown, James delivered 12 week online playwriting and poetry writing Zoom classes for participants worldwide as well as a 6 week online screenwriting course.
James has delivered creative writing workshops for many other organisations including The University Of Essex, West Suffolk College, Norfolk Library Service, Prima Donna Festival, London Queer Writers, Cambridge Junction, Luton Hat Factory and Leicester Curve.
Playwriting Tutorials for Marina Theatre Lowestoft
During the COVID19 lock-down, James created a series of short films for Marina Theatre Lowestoft in which he teaches tools and techniques to help viewers write a play in self-isolation. The series of short films are below.
