Playwriting: Crossing the Border

Posted by Nick Martinez in Creative Writing

What are the borders in our lives? The physical, psychological borders that strain our society? That is the central question SFUAD’s playwriting class hopes to answer in its spring production of Borders: Crossing the Line.

Students work together on a writing exercise in the style of a Greek chorus. Photo by Ash Haywood

Dale Dunn and Lynn Goodwin are in their second year of teaching playwriting, a class that started as an independent study. But, the duo felt the craft of playwriting deserved a more permanent home in SFUAD’s curriculum.

“It’s a wonderful outreach project for the university,” Dunn said.

In the class’ first year, Dunn and Goodwin produced Left to Our Own Devices: Staying Connected in the Digital Age. It was performed off campus at Warehouse 21.

“When we performed last year a lot of people came up and said ‘well I’ve never seen anything by the university,’” Dunn began. “A lot of people hesitate to come out to the campus, but having the show in downtown Santa Fe opens up access to a lot of different audience members who were thrilled to see the variety of students that we have here, and hear their different opinions of what’s going on.”

Lynn Goodwin leads students through a meditation in the beginning of each class. Photo by Ash Haywood

The production was performed in partnership with students from the New Mexico School for the Arts, a performance high school in Santa Fe. They plan to continue the collaboration this year as well. When asked if some of the dark, adult subject matter was too much for high school students, Goodwin was dismissive.

“Oh no,” she said. “Sometimes they’re worse than you guys.”

Goodwin and Dunn were well aware of the tumultuous times we are living in, which heavily informed their opinion for this year’s subject: borders. Between foreign soil struggles, like ISIS and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as well as domestic court cases that highlight our current racial tension, the duo felt that a nuanced look at universal division was needed.

“[We want] students to see where they are, and feel like they have a voice in the world, that their voice is heard,” said Goodwin

Creative writing majors collaborate during a writing exercise. Photo by Ash Haywood

A typical class starts with a discussion on a play students read for homework. The plays vary from classics like A Streetcar Named Desire, to untraditional plays like The Laramie Project and Ajax in Iraq. This transitions into a general discussion of craft, often using other plays as examples. Lastly, a significant portion of class time is spent writing and workshopping pieces.

One of Dunn and Goodwin’s favorite aspects is the diversity of voices in the classroom, with majors ranging from Creative Writing to Music, Performing Arts to Film.

“We’re always surprised by the shape that it takes, because of everyone’s different point of view,” said Goodwin.

Santa Fe will have to wait until early May to see just what those different opinions are.