A continuation of work begun in Introductory Playwriting, in this class, students will complete either one full-length play or two long one-acts (40-60 pages) to the end of gaining a firmer understanding of characterization, dialogue, structure, and the playwriting process. In addition to questions of craft, an emphasis will be placed on the formation of healthy creative habits and the sharpening of critical and analytical skills through reading and responding to work of both fellow students and contemporary playwrights of note.
Prerequisites and Restrictions:
THR 205 and permission of the instructor. Please email Jane Cox, janecox@princeton.edu, for permission to enroll.
This course rotates a professional playwright every spring, supported by the Berlind Playwriting Fund.
MIGDALIA CRUZ is an award-winning playwright, lyricist, translator, and librettist of more than 60 works including: The Book of Miaou: Don’t Drink Everything Your Mother Pours You, El Grito Del Bronx, Salt, Yellow Eyes, Latins In La-La Land, Dreams of Home, Miriam’s Flowers, and Frida, produced in venues—across the U.S. and abroad—including INTAR, BAM, Mabou Mines, Old Red Lion, National Theater of Greece, Houston Grand Opera, Ateneo Puertorriqueño, Teatro Vista, and CollaborAction. An alumna of New Dramatists, she is the recipient of several awards including the Helen Merrill Distinguished Playwright Award, two NYFA grants, two NEAs, and a McKnight. Migdalia wasnurtured by Sundance, the Lark, and by María Irene Fornés at INTAR. She was a writer-in-residence at Latino Chicago Theater Company from 1990-1998, premiering several plays including Miriam’s Flowers, Lucy Loves Me, Cigarettes & Moby-Dick, Fur, Lunes Lunatico, Che-Che-Che: a latin fugue in 5/8 time, and Lolita de Lares, which received a 20th anniversary production at Urban Theater Company in 2016. Migdalia has taught at Princeton (where she was also commissioned to write a piece for the students to honor her mentor, Maria Irene Fornés), NYU Tisch, and the Fornés Playwriting Workshop at Notre Dame University (Chicago), Yale, UNM, Brava, UC Riverside, and elsewhere. Among her over 25 published works, most recently, were two of her translations (Alaska and Sky on the Skin from the Mexíco/U.S. Word Exchange Project at the Lark, ed.by Caridad Svich). She is currently a mentor for the Latinx Playwrights’ Circle in NYC and the co-chair of the Playwriting Fellows Program at the Dramatists Guild Foundation.
