Robert Menna has worked as a playwright, director and dramaturg on well over 100 plays. He is the author of a dozen works, including a commission from the Denver Center to adapt Newbery Award Winner Avi’s The End of the Beginning as a touring production for schools across Colorado. His show Joy! represented the United States at the World Festival of Children’s Theatre in Germany. His plays include When We Were Heroes, Spoiled, The Light at Arles, Titanic: Live! and Scary Whispers, Tiny Bites.
Previously, Robert Menna served as Dramaturg/Literary Manager at Seattle’s Intiman Theatre, founded the Seattle Playwrights Alliance, and worked as co-Artistic Director of the Ojai Playwrights Conference. As an educator, Menna co-directed the Denver Center's "Living History" program, which immersively linked theatre, history, ethics and literature for over 10,000 high school students annually. He also taught dramaturgy for many years to graduate acting students at the National Theatre Conservatory and continues to teach writing classes and workshops as well as consult on screenplays. He holds an MFA from the University of Washington, is a regional Vice-President of Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas (LMDA), and is a member of the Antaeus Playwrights Lab, Ensemble Studio Theatre-LA Playwrights Unit and the Dramatists Guild.
Plays
A woman whose marriage is on the rocks has to choose between soothing her daughter’s fears and fulfilling her dreams of love and artistic passion with a stranger. When the daughter is mistaken for an angel by the man’s dying mother, the two join forces to prevent the affair. How can we live when tragedy haunts us? How do our hopes and fantasies help us and hinder us? A tender comedy exploring the importance of delusions in love, art and life.
This parody celebrates the love story of romantic Rose and not-quite-all-there Jack — a tale that resonates so strongly that its heart shines through, no matter how much comedy it been found in it! Both tender and hilarious, TITANIC: LIVE! includes cue cards and a kit for audience participation (which can include squirt guns, if you’d like). Even someone looking suspiciously like Celine Dion makes an appearance! This show has been a huge hit in multiple cities.
What happens when rebellious people barely out of their teens suddenly find themselves in charge of the French Revolution then running the country? Their world runs amok — sometimes comically and sometimes tragically. And in the midst of it all, you find the love story of Danton and his wife, the combative Robespierre, a horse that almost seems to talk, and a very tiny soldier who looks a lot like Napoleon. The audience participates, speaking from cue cards and even learning to speak French (badly) as the show begins.
When Owen’s parents drop him off at summer camp, he soon discovers he is in an insane asylum and his parents are gone forever. Owen struggles to survive, sometimes in funny ways, among a wild cast of characters including: a girl who only grunts, a despondent clown, a woman who only talks to her hand puppet. This is the heartfelt tale of real people who, like us all, are handicapped in unexpected ways and have to find unique paths to safety, friendship, love and home.
A highly personal drama that follows eight young people — three close-knit girls and those around them — as they experience World War II from different vantage points, both overseas and at home. This play utilizes actual video footage and radio broadcasts, which are optionally provided with the script.