from the classroom to OOB in five and a half weeks

The Dramatic Writing MFA program is dedicated to preparing playwrights to enter the profession at the highest level. That's why the constant submission of students' scripts to professional production opportunities is integrated into the coursework.

For the 10-minute play assignment in Theatre Lab this fall, first-year MFA student Murphi Cook wrote Nothing Says Happy Like, a post-apocalyptic comedy about a dedicated Spam salesperson. Five and a half weeks later, the play is being produced Off-Off-Broadway as part of a short play festival. Go see it.

36 Deadlines

By the midpoint of the fall semester, Dramatic Writing MFA students have written an adaptation from Aeschylus, three TV scripts, a screenplay outline, three monologues commissioned by specific actors, and a ten-minute play; revised all of the above projects; presented full-length plays in progress multiple times in workshop; shot a TV script on video; identified a science/technology consultant for the Sloan Competition; and submitted to the Alliance Theatre Kendeda Competition, Theatre Masters, the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival, PlayPenn, and the Great Plains Theatre Conference. Now we can get down to work.

On not shooting yourself in the foot

This may be the best blog post ever from David Bower. Read the whole thing.

Only submit worksamples that represent you well. Does it have your spirit? Does it have your voice? Does it match the level of thought that you put into the work you put on stage or on the page? A worksample that seems out of synch with the company will confuse the panel. A worksample that seems out of synch with the application will create distrust. A worksample that is poorly chosen, produced, or executed will irrevocably turn them off. No matter how much we talk on these panels about the challenges of getting good documenation of work in this sector, people ARE figuring out effective ways to represent themselves and those people remain standing at the end of the worksample reviews. The rest fall off the list.

I go through a lot of Swiffer pads when I’m writing a lot.

Golamco on mini-Babybels, the hopeless inadequacy of earbuds, and why he would make a good astronaut.