Tell Me Your Story

By Clyde Santana

This interactive workshop explores the essential building blocks of compelling storytelling, including character, plot, premise, and story world. Through Clyde Santana’s World of the Play framework, participants will gain practical tools for developing new work and creating richer, more dynamic narratives. Attendees will receive workshop templates and resources to support their creative process long after the session ends.

Drawing from more than 40 years of experience teaching playwriting and screenwriting, Clyde shares insights gained from mentoring emerging playwrights and leading writing workshops in Virginia Beach, Philadelphia, and Gaithersburg. The workshop offers a contemporary approach to creating new plays in today’s theatrical landscape, with particular attention to the challenges and opportunities facing minority playwrights and women as they develop and produce new work.

Thursday, July 30, 9:00am – 11:00am
Ayers, Benton Convention Center (Benton South)

For more than three decades, Clyde has collaborated with the late Gail E. Davis on children’s stage plays. “Phantom of the 87th Street Playground” was produced in Florence, South Carolina, under the direction of Herman Levern Jones. In 1989, “Alphatricity,” a children’s musical fantasy co-written by Clyde, Davis, and Ted Ferguson, was presented at the Chrysler Museum Theater in Norfolk, Va. “Phantom of the 87th Street Playground” had its world premiere at Bushfire Theater of Performing Arts in Philadelphia, Pa., in 1991. Two years later, Bushfire produced “Bo! The Musical,” co-written by Clyde, Davis, and Ferguson in 1993.

His fantasy stage play “OOPS was developed at Zeiders American Dream Theatre {the Z} and In March 2024 received a full stage production at the Zeiders American Dream Theater. Additionally, “Likker Outta Control” won the Proteus Festival Audience Favorite Award 2022 and received a two-week production in November 2022 at the Z. “Insects and Giants” also developed at the Z received a two-week production in January 2026 at the Amazing Theatre Company. Currently, “Dr. Smile,” created and co-written by Clyde, Kira Helper, and Valli Meeks, completed an 11-performance run at the Z in May 2026.