5 Questions With Dania Ramos

The 12th reading in our FORUM series is ROOM 30 by Dania Ramos who has worked with Playwrights Theatre as a teaching artist, an actor and a director in the Madison Young Playwrights Festival and New Jersey Young Playwrights Festival.

The reading will take place on Friday, December 9, at Fairleigh Dickinson University, Dreyfuss Theatre, 285 Madison Avenue, Madison, NJ. The reading will begin at 7:00pm. Click here for directions. Click here for a printable map of the campus (the Dreyfuss Theatre is located in Building 9).

Dania’s plays have been featured in the Rose City Project at PTNJ, the Playwrights Summer Institute at NJCU and Luna Stage's On the Road educational series. She’s a current participant in the NJ Emerging Women’s Playwriting Project at PTNJ. Dania received a 2003 NJSCA Playwriting Fellowship and a 2011 Norman Mailer Center Young Adult Fiction Workshop Scholarship. She’s a member of the Dramatists Guild of America, the Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators, and Actors Equity Association. Dania holds an MA in Creative Writing from Wilkes University and a BFA in Theatre Performance from Montclair State University.

1. What inspired you to write Room 30?
I’ve stayed at several old-fashioned inns and I’ve always felt as if each guestroom held stories of others who had spent time there. I started picturing unexpected characters in these quaint settings—desperate misfits seeking refuge for various reasons. Eventually three connected storylines emerged, each set in a different decade, with characters reaching across time to affect one another.

2. Being a teaching artist, what do you think is the most valuable attribute you bring to the students that you teach?
Validation of their creativity. I find it fascinating to see where their imaginations lead them—often my students are surprised at how excited I get about some wild idea or a wacky character they’ve created.

3. You also direct and act. Do you think when you are writing that you come at it from a writer’s perspective, an actor’s or a director’s?
I think having a background in other areas of theatre informs my writing but I don’t deliberately approach playwriting with an actor’s or director’s perspective. I’ve found that being concerned with interpretation and production elements too early in the process can hinder the development of a play. When I’m drafting a script, the story and characters rule.

4. What is the worst advice you ever received?
Just wing it.

5. When you were 10, what did you want to be?
Olympic gold-medalist in gymnastics and an astronaut.

Click here to purchase a ticket to see ROOM 30 at at FDU.

You can also find additional information on our website about the entire FORUM reading series.

$10 per reading
$25 for a FORUM pass (attend all 23 readings in the series)