Cover art of The Craft Issue: arts and crafts patchwork of varying, artistic mediums such as painting, writing, sewing, etc.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Craft
On Structure
Sep 01, 2019
Craft
Structure artwork

Joey Stocks: I’ve noticed writers can get cagey when asked to talk about dramatic structure. I’m not sure if it’s the way I’m asking, or if the topic makes them uncomfortable, so I thank y’all for being here.

Most often, the response I’ve heard is, “I don’t have anything to say about structure,” which may be true. I’ve also been told, “I don’t know anything about structure,” which I hope isn’t true. Recently, a writer said to me, “Structure? Beginning, middle, end. What else is there to say?”

So, now I put that question to you. What else is there to say?

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Eleanor Burgess

’s work has been produced at Manhattan Theatre Club, McCarter Theatre Center, Geffen Playhouse, Huntington Theatre Company, the Alliance Theatre, Writers’ Theatre, Milwaukee Rep, and more, and developed at New York Theatre Workshop, The New Group, Page 73, and Primary Stages. She studied history at Yale College and Dramatic Writing at NYU.

C. Julian Jiménez

is a Queer, Puerto Rican/Dominican playwright. MFA: The New School. Playwriting awards: 2009 Public Theater EWG, 2017/2018 Pipeline Theatre PlayLab, & 2018 - 2025 New Dramatists Residency. Productions: Man Boobs (Pride Films & Plays), Animals Commit Suicide (First Floor Theater), and Locusts Have No King (INTAR). He is an Assistant Professor at Queensborough Community College.

David Henry Hwang
David Henry Hwang

’s stage works include the plays M. Butterfly, Yellow Face, Golden Child, Chinglish, and The Dance and the Railroad, as well as the musicals Soft Power, Flower Drum Song, and Disney’s Broadway and international hits Aida and Tarzan. Called America’s most produced living opera librettist by Opera News, Hwang has written thirteen operas. Ainadamar, with music by Osvaldo Golijov, made its Metropolitan Opera debut in Fall 2024 and The Monkey King, with music by Huang Ruo, will premiere at San Francisco Opera in November 2025. He is a Tony Award winner, a Grammy Award winner, a three-time OBIE Award winner, and a three-time Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama. A professor at Columbia University School of the Arts, he was inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame in 2018 and received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Dramatists Guild in 2025.

MJ Kaufman
MJ Kaufman

’s work has been seen at the Public Theater, WP Theater, the New Museum, InterAct, Colt Coeur, NAATCO, and around the country as well as in Russia and Australia. They co-founded Trans Lab, a fellowship for TGNC artists. They like to bike, cook, and play with their dog Milkshake.

Young Jean Lee
Young Jean Lee

has written and directed ten shows with Young Jean Lee’s Theater Company and toured her work to over thirty cities around the world. She is currently working on a screenplay commission for Cinereach and a Broadway play commission from Center Theatre Group and Second Stage.

Tags
structure,
dramatic structure
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