Practical Information
Course given by the artist-facilitator: Bevin Dooley
Dates: Thursdays, from September 24th to November 26th 2026, 7pm to 9pm
Age requirement: Must be 18 years or older on the first day of the session
Prerequisite experience:Participants of all levels of experience are welcome
Price: $350 +tax
Notes: This class is offered in English
Questions about the class? Contact us: courspublics@ent-nts.ca
Class Description
As much as humans often think it, we are not separate from the nature that surrounds us.
Writing the Natural World is focused on writing theatrical pieces that examine our relationship to the environment. Whether you’re interested in exploring climate activism, human-animal interactions, the impact of AI on water systems, the dangers of extreme weather, or how that one camping trip forever changed how you think about nature, this course will offer you skills, tools, and inspiration to bring these stories to life.
Each participant is asked to arrive on the first day with an idea or a seed for a piece that they can grow over the ten-week session. The projects will be developed through by free writing, guided exercises, group feedback sessions, and one-to-one dramaturgical feedback. We will also explore the different ways theatre artists and companies engage with the natural world through their work, read from a variety of plays, essays, and other texts for inspiration, and – as long as the weather cooperates – get outside to explore nature!
The class is intended for writers of all experience levels, whether they are experienced playwrights who want to focus on the environment for their next script, or nature lovers who want to take a shot at writing their first piece. The course will culminate with a sharing of excerpts from the students’ work for invited guests.
Artist-Facilitator: Bevin Dooley
Bevin Dooley is a theatre creator and educator based in Tiohtià:ke/Montréal. Primarily a writer, her works include Nyctophobia, part of Here There Be Night (Workshop West Playwrights Theatre); IN CAMERA (CGAS Found Festival); Slack Tide (Edmonton Fringe). Their play The Drowned was the runner up in Infinithéâtre’s 2022 Write-On-Q Competition. She has worked as a dramaturg and playwriting mentor with Imago Theatre, Infinithéâtre, NextFest Arts Festival, Alberta Playwrights Network, Alberta Musical Theatre Projects, and the University of Alberta’s New Works Festival. Bevin holds both a BA in Drama from the University of Alberta and MFA in Playwriting from The Lir Academy/Trinity College Dublin. Their current projects include Aperture, a play with integrated film about masculinity, public image, and accountability, and Jenny Wren, a play for young audiences about a girl who enlists her local wildlife to help sabotage the construction of an AI data centre. Bevin works with Geordie Theatre School as their Community Liaison and with Playwrights’ Workshop Montréal as co-facilitator of the New Stories Project. She is also part of the creative team for Climate Play, a national verbatim theatre project co-led by Yvette Nolan and Joel Bernbaum.
