RICHARD RAYA
WRITING
While pursuing his Game Design MFA at Tisch, Richard has been able to take several courses in Tisch’s famed dramatic writing department. There, he’s created short, mid-length and full length plays.
Richard’s plays each feature funny and realistic dialogue, vulnerable characters, and, often, hyper-realism that suddenly swerves, briefly, into the absurd, the terrifying, or heightened and magical realism. Inspired by his friends and family and his upbringing in the diverse Bay Area, he enjoys writing boys and young men, diverse and chaotic friend groups, and intelligent characters of color that swing from cogently discussing colonialism to laughing over everyday minutiae.
Made to Sit
A short 20 page play about four boys of different class, race, and family backgrounds who try to go fishing while at a sleepaway camp in the Sierra Nevadas, and find the deeper struggles in life that unite them.
The Mouse, Of Course
No Man's Land
Richard’s first full length play. A “Western,” it’s set in 1885 San Jose, California, and centers on a Mexican-American family in danger of losing their home to encroaching development. Richard called upon his legal training to conduct extensive research into legal precedent from the time period concerning land use and citizenry that informed the courtroom scenes and central conflicts of the play. Also drawing heavily from personal experience, No Man’s Land is actively seeking out staged reading and workshop opportunities.