LTA Class Instructors - Meet Rich Amada

What’s your background?  What do you want us to know about you? Inspired by the example of America’s first “Renaissance Man”—Benjamin Franklin—I have a background speckled with various professions and avocations. Among the elements of my personal history, I’ve been a TV news reporter, a playwright, a marketing professional, an actor, a lawyer, a published author of both fiction and nonfiction, and a teacher of dramatic scriptwriting.

How long have you been teaching at LTA?  How did you get involved at LTA? I’d acted on LTA’s main stage prior to my joining its faculty. I started teaching dramatic scriptwriting there in 2011. It came about when I was talking with a friend who had long-time ties to LTA, and he told me that he couldn’t recall a time when the theatre had offered classes in playwriting. He suggested I contact the board president to inquire as to whether LTA would be interested in having me teach playwriting classes. I did. The president directed me to then Governor of Education, Roland Branford Gomez, and the rest, as they say, is history.

What type of classes do you teach?  Do you have any upcoming classes at LTA? I teach “Scriptwriting for Stage and Screen 1” (a beginner’s class in which I provide students with the basics of the craft while leading them through the process of writing their first short play), and I teach “Scriptwriting for Stage and Screen 2” (a group for advanced scriptwriters who already know the basics and want to improve their writing through readings and discussions of their works with their peers). Members of the advanced group also have periodic public readings of their works in which everyone is invited to attend a reading performance of a brand new dramatic work as well as participate in the post-reading discussion. The beginner’s class is offered every Winter/Spring semester, and the advanced group is offered in both the Winter/Spring semester and the fall semester.

Aside from theatre, what else do you like to do?  Hobbies? In recent years, I’ve plunged into the romance literature profession. The publisher, which specializes in romance and romantic adventure stories, has published my fiction books, which include: “Heartstrings” (a fantasy about a violinmaker’s most glorious instrument transforming and coming to life as a woman); and “The Mail Order Bride of Horse Creek” (a story about a Russian girl who escapes the violence of the Bolshevik revolution by agreeing to be the mail order bride of a Wyoming pig farmer). My latest novel is titled “Ghosts Under the Bed,” and it’s about a Washington lawyer who begins a transatlantic romance with a London radio personality via the Internet. Yes, it’s a love story for the Digital Age! And, when friends ask me if the story’s based on my own life, I tell them, “Not unless I had a love affair with an Englishwoman that I’ve somehow completely forgotten about.” 😊

 

To learn more about classes and workshops at LTA, visit www.thelittletheatre.com/education.