Since tomorrow is September 1, which means back to school for a lot of people, I thought I’d do a little round-up of drama-related courses for adults coming up in the next few months.

The main place doing courses is the Gaiety School of Acting. As well as the full-time acting course, they have lots of short courses in Dublin and Cork. The courses from now until Easter are now up on the website. They have a really wide selection from introductory acting classes to writing and directing classes, as well as acting for camera, stage combat, stand up comedy and loads more. I have done a couple of courses with the GSA before and enjoyed them. I’m not planning on doing any more right now because I don’t think I can commit to a three month term at the moment. When the classes cost so much, and you’ve paid for them up front – you don’t want to miss any!

I am considering a couple of the one-day courses – Directing with Paul Meade (who taught one of my Practising Playwriting classes and was very informative and easy to listen to!) and the Casting & Audition Workshop. I’m also tempted by the Shakespeare Workshop because that language is so much fun to work with but money is an issue!

GSA has courses for people who want to write for the stage – the introductory course Dramatic Writing, and the year long course The Writer’s Room. The one that I did last year was the second part of The Writer’s Room but that doesn’t seem to be an option this year.

Fishamble also run playwriting courses, which concentrate specifically on writing for the stage. Their nine-week evening course is full (though you can ask to be added to their waiting list) but there still spaces on the three-day October Bank Holiday course.

The Irish Writers’ Centre also has two-day course on Playwriting.

Actor’s Training Ireland may have some more voice, acting and singing courses coming up in the next couple of months. I didn’t get an e-mail announcing the new courses and I’m not sure if the dates listed are for this year or last year! I’m easily confused! But I’ve sent them an e-mail and will let you know.