The best writing is the work that has blood in it; the material that sears and glows inside a writer’s head. I want my students to write the things that are alive in them. Too often the dramaturgical note is asked, “what are the stakes for the characters?” and precious little else is said or asked. Just as important is the question “what are the stakes for the writer?” What are you risking, challenging, calling to question in writing this piece? Write what scares you; write what brings you alive. Writing a play is like falling in love: an idea latches hold, and trails you like a shadow. Those are the ideas worth finding, and the ones worth writing down. The ideas that haunt us are the ones we’re searching for.
Ean Miles Kessler: Rutgers, BFA Acting. Studied at Shakespeare’s Globe in England under esteemed director and Tony nominee, Tim Carroll. While at the Globe, Ean performed the title role in Hamlet on the Globe Stage. His work has been produced nationally and internationally, and his plays have been seen and performed across NYC. Select Off-Off Broadway Playwriting credits: Brotherly Love; King’s River; The Bcam; Beautiful Hands (Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Short Play Festival Semi-Finalist). Publications: Brotherly Love (“Shorter, Faster, Funnier,” by Vintage Books); Funny Valentine (“Plays for Two,” by Vintage Books). His play Devil Lay Me Down received its world premiere at Theater for the New City.
Ean is a graduate of the Playwright Development Program in Miami, FL, where he had a two year residency. Ean’s plays Mountain Kings and Frankie Moon’s Long Gone were both workshopped at the Playwrights’ Center in Minneapolis. Frankie Moon received staged reading at Naked Angels Theatre Company (Chicago), and a Saturday Series Reading with Chicago Dramatists. The play was named as a finalist for the 2020 Carlo Annoni Prize in Italy, and a semi-finalist for Landing Theatre Company’s 2021 New American Voices Playwriting Festival. Most recently he was a guest artist at PACE University in NYC. Previously, Ean was the Department Head of Theater at Conchita Espinosa Academy, where he was the founding Artistic Director of Blessed Unrest, CEA’s resident youth Shakespeare company. Currently, Ean is the Network Director at Chicago Dramatists, where he also hosts The Sound & The Journey Podcast. Ean has been a proud Dramatist Guild Member since 2012. www.eanmileskessler.com