A masterclass in dramatic writing with Bianca Montanaro

Alongside their main class, students are regularly offered masterclasses led by industry professionals, who come to share their knowledge, practice and artistic experience.

This time, students had the opportunity to explore the fundamentals of dramatic writing with Italian playwright, screenwriter and film critic Bianca Montanaro.

Our student Sofia Chernova attended the session and shared her experience:

“Being a student at Cours Florent means constantly growing, questioning yourself and deepening your artistic tools.

Bianca Montanaro guided us through the essentials of narrative structure in dramatic writing. Even though we had already touched on these notions in class, her approach helped us see the material from another angle – one that connects the technical with the emotional. I found this extremely useful, because dramatic structure is not only about form: it reveals what moves us as authors and what stories we truly want to tell.

One of the key points Bianca emphasised was the importance of understanding a character’s inner pattern of growth – a developmental arc present in every narrative, even when we do not consciously construct it. She encouraged us to see characters not as functions of the plot, but as living beings shaped by change, conflict and transformation.

For the session, each of us brought a scene from a theatre or film script, along with the character we wanted to explore more deeply. By the end of the class, we revisited the essential questions that help uncover a character’s psychology. Once again, I realised how vital it is to look for subtext – what lies beneath the surface, sometimes barely spoken.

One particularly impactful exercise was creating a monologue for our chosen character, answering specific guiding questions. This pushed us to truly embrace their psychology — not only through words, but through intention, internal contradictions and emotional truth. It was a revealing experience that helped me access the inner world of the character in a much more concrete way.

Once again, this masterclass offered a fresh perspective and confirmed how these encounters with professionals enrich our training and nourish our artistic journey."