The MFA Chronicles
Notes from my time in Point Park University’s MFA in Screenwriting & Playwriting program.
- Back in the saddle!
September 2, 2021
My second year in the Point Park University MFA Screenwriting & Playwriting program started on Monday, August 30, 2021. Here’s a list of my classes and associated syllabi: MWSS 620 Thesis I MWSS 630 Writing…
- That...was...AWESOME!
February 24, 2021
Tonight was the first live video meeting of the semester with my cohort of playwrights and man was it great! The other students in my class are so talented and inspiring - it’s just such a thrill to read and…
- A Mini-Breakthrough
February 15, 2021
Art is war. It truly is. After many months contemplating American Pop! as a show about how to bridge political divides through our shared devotion to my favorite snack food, I concluded that like it or not the…
- Read, See, Do
February 3, 2021
In preparation for our major spring writing projects, our professor requires each student in class to prepare a “Read, See, Do” list . Instructions as follows: Since I’m writing a feature length solo show this…
- Back at it!
January 30, 2021
The winter holiday was short-lived and here I am back in action for my second full semester of the PPU MFA program. This semester I have three classes (syllabi linked below): Contemporary American Playwriting…
- I am officially a Quarter-Master!
December 18, 2020
The fall semester concluded today with the submission of my final assignments for class. Whew! One down, three to go! Truthfully, this fall was a fairly hellacious experience (in a good way). I learned a lot…
- Motivated Monologue and 10 Min. Play
November 24, 2020
The writing assignments are coming fast and furious now! We’re reading a ton about traditional/formal approaches (Aristotelian structure & Euclidian characters) vs. unconventional styles and theater of the…
- Changing narrators
November 11, 2020
One of the more interesting assignments this semester is unfolding in my Dramatic & Cinematic Theory class. It’s a four-part assignment: 1) Write a brief narrative (2-3 pages). It can be a screenplay, a stage…
- 1/2 way to 1/4 way home!
October 23, 2020
It’s mid-October and I’m half-way through my first semester of the two-year experience that is the PPU MFA program . What does that mean exactly? Well, if I was on a road trip from Washington, DC to Los…
- Rhetorical analysis of a scene from Airplane!
October 21, 2020
For my first paper in Dramatic & Cinematic Theory, I am writing an essay about the nature of comedy in film. Specifically, I argue that in comedy film, narrative voice, style, tone, and rhetoric dominates…
- Bass Player Needed
October 2, 2020
I’m about one month into the program. My Writing for Screen & Stage I class is going quite well. The first seven weeks of the course are dedicated to screenwriting; the second seven weeks are dedicated to…
- Scene writing
September 15, 2020
Here’s note from Prof. Pelfrey in our module 3 lecture materials that I found encouraging: If you can write a scene you can write a movie. If you can write a good scene, you can write a good movie. If you can…
- Fall 2020 classes
September 13, 2020
I’m enrolled in two classes this fall - Dramatic & Cinematic Theory and Writing for Screen and Stage I . Dramatic & Cinematic Theory is instructed by Andrew Swenson and requires a metric sh*t-ton of reading.…
- And so it begins...
September 1, 2020
I’ve been writing and producing digital media content for over fifteen years - a mishmash of short films, podcasts, web series, multi-media live performances, and such. While I’ve had the benefit of a few…