[Playwriting MFAs]

On 4/16/2020 at 12:04 AM, tradagram said:

Hi guys,

Hope everyone is well and safe.

Now that I'm committed to CMU, just want to send a big huge giant Thank You to you all for being here, discussing things, sharing information and in general being ultra supportive. I've learnt so much for this forum it practically prepped me for grad school ?

I'd like to contribute by sharing a bit of my experience as a foreign student applicant, hopefully it'd help a future candidate who also look to study in such a locatity-specific field, in a language not their native. Before mid 2019 I've been much more a visual art creative producer than a writer in any sense, though I did produce a few of my stage plays. My scripts thus have not been written in a traditional, formal way but more visually and conceptually informed. I wrote to a few programs before application season began to ask them if what I looked for in an MFA (cross-disciplinary playwriting) matched what they offered. It was BU's Kate Snodgrass who kindly provided such attentive feedback that helped me craft a more focused application afterwards (thanks Kate and big cheers to whom studying there this year ? )

So when it came to applying, my first choice was Brown for the fact that they promoted writing for the bath tub or a hallway. Me likey. My second choice was UCSD, erhm... not sure if sharing this info would make me look too idiotic but oh well, it was because they'd provide candidates with a summer stipend to go see shows around the world. Gee me likey that too. Of course those were top programs, I have no doubt of the program quality, just sayin' when you look at them from afar these seemingly smaller things mattered quite a bit. CMU was more than perfect for their visual art/scientific flair but did not offer as much financial support and it was a huge factor for me, so I sent in my work praying that the universe saw how compatible my aspiration was with CMU's and would nod on it somehow. Then I had a talk with a revered figure in experimental theatre in Southeast Asia, who did his PhD at NYU, and he said I should go to New York because not only theatre but also visual art were abundant there (beside whatever else) and he had the impression I'd thrive in that environment. I took his sensible advice and ego-boosting compliment to apply at Columbia. My 5th option was Iowa as I valued ultra vigorous writing training and also fantasized a writing get-away of sort, but I'll admit that I might not be a good fit for them, nor they for me.

As it went, out of the fancylord institutions above, I only got an interview with CMU and was put in waitlist afterwards. However much I was ecstatic about the possibility of admission, I was also dead scare of not getting in any school, which in my eyes signified that my writing in specific and capacity as a playwright in general were not "good enough". The convos in this forum and Draft slowly reaffirmed that 1) a mutual fit was more likely a factor than individual capacity, especially in contemporary playwriting, and 2) this is a practice, not a competition, meaning your continuous work would count much more than the entrance to a particular (fancy) school, and 3) there's next year, which might be a better option for many aspiring writers. Strategizing the applications will earn you a much better chance of a great fit (academic, funding, logistic, professional opportunities etc...) than applying widely out of wishful thoughts and angonizing over half a year like I just did. These things helped me greatly in thinking about the growth of a playwright, and I hope it'd help some future applicants in choosing a sensible path.

Then came Covid that draped everything in a mist of uncertainty.... But that might be worth another convo.

Again, I'm grateful for this forum and you guys for being weirdly open and encouraging. Maybe we're a weird bunch. No other thread is as long and as friendly as this one. Maybe we'll help our peer weird writers/thinkers/doers (you helped me so so so much y'all ? ?). Maybe by us doing our own theatre things we'll help the world out a bit. Maybe we'll feel good doing so. I hope you do, cuz we need to feel good to retain on this long and difficult path ?

So that's my two cents today. Cheers folks! ??????❤️
 

PS: I should also send a love note to the folks at Draft after I get over my sort of  fear for non-anomity… ??

 

This was really cool to read! Thanks for sharing your story, I can definitely relate to a lot of your journey as someone who also only got interviewed at CMU and was wait listed and was also terrified of not getting in anywhere and what that meant about me as a writer. It's so hard to internalize rejection, especially a grad school rejection, as a part of your growth and not a comment on your potential. It's also cool to hear that your work is somewhat non-traditional and visually driven because I would also describe my writing that way which makes me wonder if that's part of the reason we wound up in the same cohort. I'm super excited to study with you in the fall and grow in our practice together  

[Playwriting MFAs]

10 hours ago, tradagram said:

so i'm accepted by CMU off the waitlist ? still waiting to hear form Iowa but i'm more than likely will accept CMU offer... i like the robot-making atmosphere there...   @SuddenBeth maybe we'll get to be classmates ?

 

Ahhh that would be awesome!!! I officially accepted the CMU offer so if you go there then we will be. Congrats on getting off the wait list!

[Playwriting MFAs]

8 hours ago, Cowboy38 said:

Congrats!!! When do you have to let CMU know by?

 

8 hours ago, Cowboy38 said:

Also does anyone know when we are supposed to hear from Ohio?

I have to let CMU know by the 26th. Ohio said in an email a while back that they where supposed to start sending stuff out April 1st I believe

[Playwriting MFAs]

Just off the waitlist at CMU!!!!   I cut myself off from the forum for a good while there because I was pretty sure I was down for the count and preferred to live in denial (and my heart is ever so slightly broken from the fact that I didn't get into Iowa but congrats to the folks who did!) so I'm still reeling from this plot twist. I'm still technically waiting on Ohio but the deadline to accept the offer from Carnegie comes before I will hear back from them. I'm torn between asking CMU for more time or just accepting the offer because on one hand I would much rather live in Pittsburgh than Athens Ohio but on the other I think Ohio is free from what I can tell which is definitely a factor for consideration.

[Playwriting MFAs]

Waitlisted at CMU as well ?. Better than a rejection. I'm trying to look at it as at least my work was considered grad school worthy even if it wasn't picked by them this year. I see some folx have had northwestern interviews so I'm guessing I should count that as a rejection as well since I haven't heard from them? Still holding out hope for Hunter, Iowa, and Ohio. I know Ohio's application deadline hasn't past yet and I'm hoping Hunter still has a few waves of interviews left to send out. Anyone else apply to Iowa?

 

 

[Playwriting MFAs]

Just had my interview with CMU. It was super short, like ten minutes long.They basically just asked me why I wanted to go to CMU and if I had any screenwriting experience and then let me ask them a couple of questions and that was it. They didn't even  ask me the question that they had prepped me for in the email which was about how I defined success. Has anyone else had their interviews yet? Was your experience similar? I'm not sure if I should be worried that they didn't spend that much time one me because they knew I wasn't a good fit or if they were confident that I would work well in the program and didn't feel they needed  any more info. They did offer to hook me up with someone who was an alumni who worked in my city so I feel like that is maybe a good sign???

[Playwriting MFAs]

8 hours ago, ovrzlous said:

Hello all! Longtime lurker and first time applicant (Yale, UCSD, NYU, Columbia, Juilliard). Figured I'd come out of the woodworks to embrace this community! How's everyone doing emotionally? I didn't realize how much anxiety I was carrying around waiting for decisions until it sideswiped me earlier in the week. 

How have you all been staying active as you wait? And for those of you who have applied in the past and experienced rejection, what advice do you have on bouncing back and not tethering your self worth so closely to your work and a decision?

Good luck to all! Congratulations @Zadicanon your interview!

My main strategy has been to spend my time planning out what my next year might look like if I don't get in anywhere. I'm kind of at a point in my life where I need a big change so I've been looking into moving out to NY or Chicago and maybe taking sketch classes at UCB or Second City or IO Theater or something like that  as well as seek out other writing classes/ opportunities/ fellowships.  It's been helpful to have something planned that I'm excited about so if everything goes tits up I'm emotionally prepared and not at a total loss.

Also I've got two shows I'm working on right now, one is a sketch show and the other is a drunk Shakespeare show that I'm acting in/ directing and I'm taking an online sitcom spec writing class through Second City for fun. Basically I'm trying to load myself up with projects that I'm passionate about to keep my mind off things. I'm trying to be really strict about not checking the forum too much also because I feel like that could become a really obsessive/ anxiety inducing process if I let myself rely on it too much.

[Playwriting MFAs]

1 hour ago, jck349 said:

Just got the email too!! Congrats! I figure I'll email them first thing tomorrow morning... Don't want to seem TOO eager haha

I got an interview as well! I emailed the immediately lol, guess there's no hiding my obsessive email checking now.

[Playwriting MFAs]

On 1/24/2020 at 5:26 PM, sns1106 said:

When I visited CMU in August, the graduate admissions director told me they get 10. Which seems crazy to me

 

On 1/24/2020 at 6:26 PM, jck349 said:

Whaaaaat that is definitely crazy. Maybe that's because nobody can figure out the gradCAS website (I kid, I kid).

Yeah that's insane! How many do they take???? Also that means that we've got like a third of the applicants on thread right now lol.

[Playwriting MFAs]

On 1/14/2020 at 10:37 AM, jck349 said:

@sns1106 I love Pittsburgh! I've got a lot of family there. Still a bit bitter I didn't get into the CMU BFA program haha.

And as far as general anxiety goes, I'm at the point where, even though all my apps are in, I have the feeling that there was some hidden final submit button somewhere that I didn't know about... Woooo

Dude, I literally came like less then a day away from this happening to me for CMU! I pressed submit on the page where I uploaded my writing samples and didn't realize I had to go press submit on the gradcas app as well. Then gmail fucked me over and started doing this thing where it hid my important emails and I could only find them if I searched specifically for them so I missed the THREE emails they sent me about it. In a sheer stroke of luck CMU extended the deadline of their apps to the 8th because of some technically issues and somehow my phone put this info into a google reminder which I saw the night of the 7th.  I seriously almost had a freaking heart attack!! I checked everything like 10 times for the other schools after that to make sure that didn't happen again.

[Playwriting MFAs]

Hey There!

First time applicant here, about to submit all my January 15th apps as soon as my last two letters of recommendation are sent in.  I've already applied to CMU and I'm also doing Hunter, Northwestern, Iowa, and Ohio.

I have two questions before I officially press submit to validate my choices or make last minute changes: 

1.) How much do y'all think formatting matters for the plays we are sending in? I have written all mine by the samual french guidlines with one or two modifications for aesthetic reasons and also out of necessity. One of the plays is kind of avant guard in staging and so my stage direction format is modified out of necessity to best communicate that. This is something I don't think I can change but also am not too worried about because it's justified within the script. In my other play have a few small deviations from samual french like having my stage directions in italicized and not in parenthesis. Mostly this is out of habit and I also I just like the way it looks and reads better. Most of the playwrights I've talked to say that formatting should be whatever best communicates your play and it's style most effectively (within reason) Should I change the way my play is formatted? Is samual french ok to use or is there another format I should be using?

2.) For the ten page sample for Northwestern right now I have some text at the top that describes how the show works and the set up and then go right in to the climax of the show. Is this a good idea? Or should I choose a bit of the play that is maybe a little easier to dive into without getting the full back story and time to get to know the characters? The play is super character driven so I'm slightly worried the climax won't hit as well without the set up and character growth that leads up to it?

Thanks friends and happy somewhat end to the application to the application stage!