BIO:​​​

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I’m James Manuel Meneses, a New York based playwright and independent theater producer. I currently serve as Assistant to the General Manager at The York Theatre Company.

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I write plays about family and the things we don’t know how to talk about. I’m drawn to stories where realism gives way to memory, dreams, and imagination. My work is rooted in lived experience, shaped by a Chilean -Chinese immigrant upbringing, growing up alongside an autistic sibling, and navigating grief and mental illness across generations. At the heart of these plays is a question: how do we survive when love, heartache, responsibility, and silence collide?

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I’m a proud Co-Producer on Michael McKeever’s critically acclaimed play The Code (London, Southwark Playhouse), Playwright and Producer of the Equity Showcase run Healing Mined (NYC, Theaterlab), and Book writer and Producer of the industry reading of Here Is Gone, a Science Fiction, Goo Goo Dolls jukebox musical. My plays Dream Fragmentation and While You Wait were produced by the Greenhouse Ensemble and staged at the Bernie Wohl Center and Franciscan Community Center, respectively.

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I’m a member of the Dramatists Guild and an alum of the Next Stage producing mentorship led by Tony Award winner Ken Davenport. I’ve studied playwriting at Primary Stages/ ESPA with Lia Romeo and at HB Studio with Julie McKee, and was previously part of the Greenhouse Ensemble’s twice-monthly writers group using Liz Lerman’s feedback practices, alongside Pulitzer Prize nominee Jon Marans.