The Writers Workshop at City Garage
Are you ready to tell your story?
We tell stories.
It’s how we understand the world, each other, and ourselves.
What story do you want to tell?
Are you working on a play and want to hear your words onstage? Are you looking to refine your one-person show and find out what works and what doesn’t? Do you have an idea you love but aren’t quite sure how best to bring it to life?
Writing, all writing, is a lonely business. You and the blank page. You and an empty room where you work to create vivid characters and a compelling story. Something that moves us, excites us, or gives us a delightful escape, no matter wild the fantasy, or comic or absurd the journey.
All writing, no matter the form—play, screenplay, television script, one-person show, comedy or tragedy, short story or novel—is always about one thing:
Story.
And story is about the most essential thing of all:
Character.
The two inform each other and drive each other. Character is who you are. Fate is what you’re stuck with. Destiny is what you do about it. Story is the result.
No matter what you’re working on right now, no matter what your ambition, your work must tell a compelling story.
Join us in the Writers Workshop at City Garage to tell yours.
The goal of the workshop is not to teach but to explore. Helping you move forward on a journey of your own. By interacting with other writers. By hearing your work live onstage. By asking yourself objective questions.
Sometimes you can get lost in your own head. In the intimate, collaborative environment of the Writers Workshop at City Garage you can get direct, positive feedback and guidance, helping you get to where you want to go.
The Process:
The workshop is led by Charles A. Duncombe, an award-winning writer and theatre-maker with nearly four decades of experience in stage, television, and screenwriting. In-person sessions at City Garage are held twice a year, in the Spring and Fall. Each session runs for eight weeks, meeting every Saturday from 10:00am to Noon (some exceptions for holidays). At the end of the eight weeks the writers present their works-in-progress to an invited audience using actors from City Garage (or with actors the writers know and would like to bring in). Private, one-on-one sessions, are available year-round.
What You Get Each Week:
• Comments and feedback on your most recent pages;
• Discussion of a specific aspect of story, character, structure, form, or the writing process itself to help you on your journey;
• Assignments and exercise to help you break down blocks, overcome obstacles, expand your thinking, and discover aspects of your work—and yourself as a writer—that might surprise you.
Public Readings:
• At the end of the eight weeks, see your work come to life. Work with actors to better understand how what’s on the page plays onstage. Invite your friends, supporters, and industry colleagues to see what you’ve done and discover what you want to do next with it.
When?
The Writers Workshop at City Garage meets from 10:00am to Noon on Saturdays (see sessions below for specific dates).
Where?
City Garage, Bergamot Station Arts Center, 2525 Michigan Ave., Building T1, Santa Monica, Ca. 90404. Free parking onsite. (Be careful with GPS/Google Maps. Sometimes they’ll take you the wrong way.)
How Much?
$400/per eight-week session.
When are the Public Readings?
Scheduled on the first weekend after the eight-week session.
Private Sessions
Can’t make the in-person sessions? Private, one-on-one sessions, held remotely, are available year-round. They can be scheduled to fit what works best for you: once a week, twice a month, once a month—whatever best supports your process and helps you get the results you’re looking for. Contact Charles for more information.
Questions, Further Information: charles@citygarage.org
Spring Session, 2026: March 14 – May 9
10:00am to noon at City Garage, 3.14.26 – 5.9.26 (off Saturday 4.5 for Easter weekend).
Public reading weekend, tbd.
Fall Session, 2026: September 12 – October 31
10:00am to noon at City Garage, 9.12.26 – 10.31.26.
Public Reading weekend, tbd.
Ready to sign up?
If you’re ready to go, email Charles at charles@citygarage.org. He’ll ask for a writing sample, a description of the project you want to work on, and a little bit about what you would like to get out of the process. If it feels like a good fit, we’ll give you a link to sign up for either the Spring or Fall session or for private sessions to be scheduled as you wish.
About Charles A. Duncombe
Charles is a writer, director, producer, and designer. He has worked for nearly four decades in stage, television, and film. He is the Executive Director of City Garage in Los Angeles, which has been producing innovative contemporary drama for more nearly forty years.
He has been nominated numerous times for LA Weekly Theatre Awards for his stage adaptations, including MedeaText: Los Angeles/Despoiled Shore (2000); Frederick of Prussia/GeorgeW’s Dream of Sleep (2001); The Mission (Accomplished) (2009); The Trojan Women; LA/Darfur Dreamscape (2010). His translations/adaptations (with Fréderique Michel) of The Marriage of Figaro and The School For Wives received nominations for Best Translation (Marriage won). His play Atrocities (2000) was a “Pick of the Week” in the LA Weekly and his play Patriot Act (2004) won the Fratti/Newman Award for Political Playwriting and opened in New York at the Castillo Theater as part of their 2008 season. His adaptation of Müller, Hamletmachine: The Arab Spring (2015), was nominated by Stage Raw for Best Adaptation. His recent plays as a writer at City Garage are Caged (2013), Bulgakov/Moliere (2014), Timepiece (2015), Othello/Desdemona (2016), Phoebe Zeitgeist Returns to Earth (2016), Beach People (2022), which received four Robbie Awards and two Stanny Awards, and #Measure4Measure (Top Ten,” Stage Raw) and Border Crisis (2025). In New York in 2004, he and Michel received an “Otto,” a national award for political theatre, honored alongside Robert Wilson, El Teatro Campesino, and Charles L. Mee. His and Michel’s work with Fassbinder texts has been featured in two German documentaries: Fassbinder in Hollywood, and Fassbinder: Love, Life, and Celluloid. Three of their Heiner Müller productions have been discussed in the book Müller in America published in New York in 2003. In 2009, he and Michel and won the LA Weekly’s “Queen of the Angels” award for “decades of directing and producing scintillating, politically charged theater that challenges audiences to reconsider their assumptions about the nature of politics and the nature of theater itself.” In 2011 they won the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle award for “Sustained Excellence in Theatre.” An article in the Los Angeles Times in 2018 described their company as “A long-time presenter of European avant-garde theatre, City Garage specializes in provocative, challenging material that would rarely be attempted elsewhere in LA.” In 2023, Michel and Duncombe received Stage Raw’s “Lifetime Achievement Award.”
Throughout those years of theater-making, Charles has also worked as a writer and producer in commercials, independent features, music videos, reality, and documentaries, among which was Frank Capra’s American Dream (Primetime Emmy nomination; ACE Award) as well as network specials for Fox, ABC, and CBS, and NBC. His screenplay “Say You Love Me Too” won the 2025 Page International Screenplay Bronze award. He is a member of the WGA.