Here's the annual pitch:
The Carnegie Mellon
University School of Drama
Dramatic Writing
Program
As a writer
for theatre or film, you’re not writing to be read;
you’re making a blueprint that contains all the
information your future collaborators will need to create an event.
Carnegie Mellon is
uniquely positioned to offer an intense experience that combines training in
playwriting, screenwriting, television writing, and new theatrical forms. As an
integral part of the Carnegie Mellon School of Drama, the oldest degree-granting
theatre program in the United States, the Dramatic Writing program provides
ongoing collaboration with the next generation of important actors, directors,
and designers. Writers collaborate with these colleagues every week of the
semester in Theatre Lab, as well as working on a television project twice a
year.
Dramatic Writing MFA
candidates have the opportunity to see their plays fully produced in the New
Works Series. These productions are helmed by emerging directors under the
supervision of Marianne Weems, and industry guests are brought in to respond to
the plays.
The program is one of
only six leading institutions chosen to participate in the Alfred P. Sloan
Foundation Film School Awards, which awards $35,000 in screenplay prizes annually
to two students within the Carnegie Mellon Dramatic Writing program.
The Dramatic Writing program
is headed by Rob Handel, a founding member and managing director of the
Obie-winning playwrights’ collective 13P, and a resident
playwright at New Dramatists. The curriculum fosters leadership through a unit
called “Envisioning a Theatre,” in which students examine revolutionary
movements in theatre; write manifestos of their own; and build a plan for
starting a theater company.
Recent and upcoming guest
faculty include Mac Wellman, Jeffrey M. Jones, Sherry Kramer, Richard Nelson,
Tarell Alvin McCraney, Madeleine George, and Peter Sinn Nachtrieb.
Carnegie Mellon is
dedicated to equipping writers to enter a highly competitive industry at the
highest level. MFA candidates have met recently with directors Daniella Topol,
Leigh Silverman, and John Collins, as well as decisionmakers from Woolly
Mammoth, The Gersh Agency, Pixar, Legendary Pictures, and Fox Filmed
Entertainment. Students
benefit from the strong support of School of Drama alumni in the field,
including Stephen Schwartz (Godspell, Wicked), Stephen Bochco (Hill Street Blues, L.A. Law), and John Wells (ER, Third Watch). Recent alumni include Jonathan Larson Award
winners Chris Dimond and Michael Kooman, James McManus (Princess Grace Award),
Jason Williamson (Dramatists Guild Fellowship), and Kevin Christopher Snipes
(SPF).
The program has
longstanding ties to Pittsburgh’s City Theatre, which is devoted to the
production and commissioning of new plays. There are unlimited possibilities
for collaborating with the many new-media initiatives taking place across the
university, recognized as a world headquarters for entertainment technology.
How to apply: Dramatic Writing
applicants must submit either one full length play or one full length
screenplay in addition to all university and school applications. The
application deadline is January 1 annually.
