Theater Studies
José Rivera is an award-winning playwright and the first Puerto Rican screenwriter to receive an Oscar nomination. His residence at Duke in September 2023 includes class visits, workshops and working with students to create the Fall 2023 New Works Lab production, Lunar Rhapsody.
Rivera's residency culminates with a staged reading of Lunar Rhapsody on September 29 at 5:30 pm in the Sheafer Lab Theater, Bryan Center.
Admission is free.
Rivera's first reading of Lunar Rhapsody took place last summer at the Contemporary American Theatre Festival. We caught up with him and asked him about his plans for staging Lunar Rhapsody's second reading at Duke.
How did you come to write A Lunar Rhapsody?
About eight years ago there was a lunar eclipse in New York. I was living in the East Village at the time and went out to sit on a basketball court in Tompkins Square Park, along with other people, to watch the eclipse. It felt like an interesting community event; there was a feeling of awe and anticipation in the air. Unfortunately clouds prevented us from seeing much of the eclipse. I always thought that was an interesting setting for a play, especially if you add characters from another dimension and introduce an element of mystery.
Lunar Rhapsody received its first public reading in July 2023 at the Contemporary American Theatre Festival. What you are looking for with the second public reading at Duke?
The reading [at CATF] went extremely well. We only had one rehearsal but the actors were real pros and rose to the occasion beautifully. At that time, I was still not sure about some of the scenes in the play. After the reading, having a better grasp of what I needed to do, I rewrote the play — and that's the draft we're working on at Duke. The Duke workshop will be the first time I'll hear this new draft and help me test out the revisions in the play and refine the story even further.
In addition to working on the reading with Duke students, how else will you be engaging with them during your residency?
I'll be going to visit a number of classes and speak to students. I'll be giving Neal Bell's screenwriting class a look into my process writing "The Motorcycle Diaries." I'll be leading a writing exercise and talking about Cloud Tectonics at Neal's and Jeff Storer's playmaking class. I'll talk to a costume design class and examine their design ideas for References to Salvador Dali Make Me Hot. In addition, my partner Sara Koviak will lead several dance masterclasses.