Class Description

Instructor: C. Julian Jiménez (Playwright) Semester: Fall 2025 10-Week Session This playwriting workshop flips revision on its head! Through fast-paced lectures, bold writing prompts, and hands-on scene diagnostics, writers will discover how to reimagine their plays from the last page back to the first. Instead of just editing, participants will unlock hidden layers of character, structure, and dialogue—finding breakthroughs where they least expect them. C. Julian's "Reverse Revision" process is designed to spark fresh ideas and elicit big discoveries from the words already crafted on the page. Writers will leave with tools that transform their drafts into plays that demand to be seen. Week 1: Setting Goals for Revision Write a synopsis of your play. Week 2: Reading to Clean Identify qualifiers, clichés, questions, and profanity. Week 3: Character Tests Experiment with provoking characters. Week 4: Scene Triage Revise a scene to enhance or simplify. Week 5: Scene Importance Tests Reorder scenes to test clarity and impact. Week 6: Provoking Characters Push characters into opposite choices. Week 7: Combining Scenes & Characters Merge overlapping scenes or characters. Week 8: Slaying Your Babies Cut scenes, dialogue, or characters that do not serve the play. Week 9: Play Swaps & Reading the Play from the Beginning Swap plays with a partner, share diagnostics, and reread your own play for revision. Week 10: Sharing Successes and Pitfalls Reflect on the process and discuss strategies for sustaining multiple revisions. C. Julian Jiménez (he/they) is a Queer Puerto Rican and Dominican writer who refuses the pressures of respectability. Their work confronts a society obsessed with binaries, celebrating Queerness as its own radical norm. Their creative nonfiction is published in Divagations Magazine: Experiments in Life Writing and Fruit—Queer Literary Journal, and their plays are published by TRW Plays. Julian is a Professor of Theatre and Chair of the Department of Communication, Theater, and Media Production at Queensborough Community College.