MFA scriptwriting program spreading its wings...

A few weeks back--March 28 to be exact--a group of theatre artists who are a part of our MFA program in Writing for Stage and Screen staged a reading at the historic Players Club in NYC.  The script was To Moscow by our faculty member Karen Sunde.  The director was Robert Lawson, also on our faculty.  The producer was Steve Ashworth from Edmonton, Canada, a recent graduate of our program.  And two of the lead actors, Lisa Bostnar and Gordan Clapp, are members of our program's acting ensemble.  To top it off, a large group of current students, faculty, and alums were in the packed audience and were a part of the talk-back session following the reading.

That's playwright Karen Sunde sitting on the stage, producer Steve Ashworth standing next to her, Gordon Clapp behind Steve, and Lisa Bostnar (in pink) with the other actors.

And here is the write up of the reading in the Greenwich Village paper Westview News.

I mention this event because it's a great example of what goes on with a writer's work once it starts to hit the development arena.  The hopes are that this project will experience a bigger life with this collected ensemble of artists.  And it also is a testament to our MFA program and our commitment to helping all of our writers get their work launched into the world and brought to life on the boards. For as we find ourselves constantly explaining, a script is a means to an end and not an end in itself.

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I'm the Program Director of the low-residency MFA in Writing for Stage and Screen being offered by the New Hampshire Institute of Art.  Our last residency ran January 3-11, 2016 and we are now considering applications for starting the program with our July 2016 residency that runs July 21-31.  I'm also a playwright and screenwriter, producing partner in my production company Either/Or Films (The Sensation of Sight and Only Daughter), a professional script consultant, and the author of The Playwrights Process.