Discover a creative space to connect with fellow playwrights and celebrate the art of storytelling through the stage. Whether you’re drafting your first script, fine-tuning a one-act, or reimagining theatrical conventions, this meetup invites you to share insights, explore challenges, and spark new ideas. We’ll discuss the unique elements of playwriting—from crafting compelling dialogue and building dramatic tension to navigating production opportunities and collaborating with directors and actors. Bring your works-in-progress, questions, and passion for the stage, and leave energized to shape your next great production. This meetup is facilitated by Porch instructor Sam Heyman.

Sam Heyman (he/they) is a gay, non-binary playwright, fiction writer, and educator based in Nashville, TN. A graduate of Denison University and a long-time member of The Porch, Sam has written, taught, performed, learned, and lived in the Nashville area for much of his life. Their prose has been published in Hashtag Queer, Typehouse Literary Magazine, and Ordinary Space, and their plays have been presented and produced on physical and virtual stages across the country, including the Lanford Wilson New American Play Festival and The Exit Theatre’s Short Play Festival in 2024. Sam’s plays have been developed with support from the Sewanee Writers Conference, the Lambda Literary Writers Retreat for Emerging LGBTQ Voices, the Valdez Theatre Conference, the Desert Playwrights Retreat, and the Midwest Dramatists Conference, among other organizations. Sam is passionate about new play development, adapting his own fiction for the stage, and experimenting with form in whatever way he can. Currently, Sam serves as the producer of the monthly virtual Playwrights Thriving Reading Series and facilitates play readings for friends and colleagues as he is able.