Join us for our first 2025 Spring Term Showcase event as students from Playwriting with José Rivera share their coursework. The class, taught by award-winning playwright José Rivera, focuses on the practicality of writing for the theater, leading students through a variety of exercises – crafting monologues, exploring archetypes and dreams, analyzing the building blocks of stories, and more – to build their fundamental knowledge of playwriting. Now, those students will present 10-minute pieces formed during the workshop, featuring work by Yoko Akashi, Tracy Daza, James Edwards, Joey Florez, Kevin Lynch, Juan Jose Mojica, Janet Noh, Mateu Parellada, Fareeda Pasha, Luis Perez, Colin Prato, Devin Shacket, Madison Stranahan, Valerie Trapp, Luise von Finckh, and Melvin Yen at Helen Gallagher Studio Theatre at HB Studio, 120 Bank Street.
HB teacher José Rivera’s 26 full-length plays, including his Obie Award-winning plays Marisol and References to Salvador Dalí Make Me Hot, have been seen nationally and internationally and translated into a dozen languages, while his famous essay “36 Assumptions About Playwriting” is used in playwriting classes nationwide. His screenplay The Motorcycle Diaries was nominated for a Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar (making him the first Puerto Rican writer so honored), as well as a BAFTA and WGA Award. Rivera also co-created and produced the TV series Eerie, Indiana and was a staff writer on Penny Dreadful: City of Angles. During the pandemic Rivera wrote all 16 episodes of the TV adaptation of the beloved novel One Hundred Years of Solitude on Netflix.
Under the guidance of Rivera, these students have built a strong foundation for their playwriting journeys. Friends, family, and fellow artists are invited to support them as they demonstrate their hard work in a welcoming, educational setting.
