Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing

Writing for Stage and Screen in Lesley's MFA Program in Creative Writing

Lesley's is one of the few low-residency MFA programs whose graduate students work on their scripts with local professional actors and directors.   We're also one of the few programs affiliated with the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival, where students have the opportunity to be recognized as playwrights at both the regional (New England) and national levels. In 2009, three of Lesley's Stage and Screen students were invited to compete for Region I's Ten-Minute Play Award - one Lesley student going on to win the award. In 2010, three Lesley students were once again recognized regionally for ten-minute plays. Moreover, one student has been nominated for the National Partners American Theatre Award for Playwriting Excellence.

Each fall, we produce the Lesley Student Reading Series - also sponsored by the Kennedy Center - where Stage and Screen students interact with actors and directors from the Boston area.

Writing for Stage and Screen curriculum includes:

  • The Art of Dialogue
  • The Mythical Structure of Screenwriting
  • The Three-Act Structure
  • Writing the Short Play
  • Aristotle in the New World
  • The 36 Dramatic Situations
  • The Black List Scripts

Writing for Stage and Screen Faculty

  • Kate Snodgrass, Artistic Director, Boston Playwrights' Theatre, Heideman Award-winner, and winner of two Independent Reviewer's of New England Awards for "Best New Play"
  • Jami Brandli, jury winner of HotCity Theatre's GreenHouse New Plays Festival, Elliot Norton Award-winner, and finalist for Disney/ABC's Writing Fellowship
  • Barry Brodsky, Independent Reviewer's of New England Award "Best New Play" nominee, and David Mark Cohen nominee for the& Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival
  • Sinan Ünel, John Gassner Memorial Playwriting Award winner, 2001 New Century Writer Award winner, and Huntington Theatre Company fellow

Writing for Stage and Screen Visitors

  • Theresa Rebeck, renowned playwright and screenwriter, and co-finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, whose work includes Mauritius, Spike Heels, Harriet the Spy, and NYPD Blue
  • Debbie Danielpour, author of feature and television scripts including Stand Accused, Star Trek: The Next Generation, and Deep Space Nine
  • Deborah Kovacs, Senior Vice President of Publishing at Walden Media, a film studio specializing in the adaptation of children's classics including The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
  • Brett Marks, Producing Associate, The Lyric Stage Company of Boston
  • Bevin O'Gara, Artistic Associate, Huntington Theatre Company, and a founding director of 3 Monkeys Theatrical Productions
  • Jean-Paul Ouellette, filmmaker of independent films for such companies as Cannon Pictures, New Line Cinema, and Orion Pictures
  • Wesley Savick, Playwright, Director, and American Theater Critics' Association "Best Play" nominee
  • Christopher Webb, Director, Actor, and former member of the Tony Award-winning Denver Center Theatre Company
updated 03/12/10 | 11:43 AM

Highlights
  • Poets & Writers magazine names us in the top ten low-residency writing programs.
  • The Creative Writing MFA Handbook says we're one of "the more distinguished low-residency programs."
  • Charlene Donaghy's ('10) ten-minute play, “Who You Got to Believe,” is included in The Best American Short Plays (Applause Theatre & Cinema Books, 2011).
  • Michael Graves' ('07) collection of stories, Dirty One, is available from Chelsea Station Editions.
  • Melanie Henderson's ('10) Elegies for New York Avenue, won the 2011 Main Street Rag poetry award (Main Street Rag Press).
  • Sara Levine's ('06) picture book on vertebrates, What Kind of Animal Are You: Building Animals with Bones, will be published by Millbrook Press in fall 2013.
  • Scott Weems ('10) will publish Humorology, an exploration of the psychology and neuroscience of comedy and laughter, with Basic Books.

 

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