Plays and their Shapes: A 4-Week Class on Structure with Playwright Tony Meneses
Whether we’re writing Naturalism or something more out there, how we structure our plays is a place for a lot of imagination. We can play with plot, character development, exposition, even spectacle, all through how we shape our worlds. Linear chronology is oft the de facto structure, but this class will challenge how we render an audience’s experience even if we do write traditional beginnings, middles, and ends. The goal is to innovate and surprise the container that we place our storytelling in.
Tony Meneses was born in Guadalajara, Mexico, and raised in Albuquerque (N.M.) and Dallas (Texas). His plays include Guadalupe in the Guest Room, The Women of Padilla, twenty50 and The Hombres. He’s an alumnus of the Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab, Ars Nova Play Group, the Sundance Institute Playwrights Retreat at Ucross, Playwrights Realm Writing Fellowship and Youngblood. His works have previously been developed at the Lark Playwrights’ Week, the Berkeley Rep Ground Floor, the WildWind Performance Lab, the Denver Center New Play Summit, and The Old Globe Powers New Voices Festival. He’s a two-time recipient of the Kennedy Center Latinx Playwriting Award, is published by Dramatists Play Service, and has been previously been commissioned by the Denver Center, Two River Theater and The Juilliard School; he is currently under commission from The Old Globe. Education: The University of Texas at Austin, Iowa Playwrights Workshop, and Juilliard.