Playwriting MFAs

[newengland1]

3 hours ago, jamesprongs101 said:

@Boxedwine@The Walter Before  YAY!! Congrats guys. Does anyone know the exact number of interviewees to Yale? One of my best friends also got the invite. 

Sidenote, if anyone's down I wouldn't mind grabbing a coffee and saying hello IRL. But I also understand if ur like, nah i'm chill. 

I live in New Haven (apart from weekends in NYC) and would love to get coffee with a fellow almost-grad student, though I didn't apply to Yale. (NYU, Juilliard, CMU, Ohio, Rutgers, Brooklyn are on my list.)

Edited February 25, 2016 by newengland1

[Boxedwine]

@jamesprongs101 I think they give out nine. NINE. We are one of nine! On this thread we are three of nine, I guess. 

I would love to meet in IRL. I haven't gotten my itinerary, yet. Have either of you gotten yours?

I know my schedule is tight while I'm there because I need to be back in Seattle on Friday morning to go on a writers retreat with some playwriting buddies. So after my interview on Thursday, they're gonna immediately shuttle me off to the airport. But I would love to meet up and be socially awkward together if it works out to do so. 

[alikat]

Aw, have fun at coffee y'all and break legs at your interviews!!! Excited to hear about the results. Fingers crossed!

[The Walter Before]

I'm coming in Thursday night so it sounds like I'll miss you. But maybe we'll see each other in the fall! (or not. I'm pretty sure I have zero chance but I'm pumped to have made it this far)

@newengland1 I'd love to hear about your interview experience at NYU. I just had mine today and it was super weird. It was with Daniel Goldfarb, the playwriting head, who seems super cool. He talked a lot about the program and answered all my questions, but he only asked me one question and even that was barely a real question (about my favorite playwrights right now). Nothing about the piece or my background or why I wanted to be a playwright.

And the whole thing last 28 minutes. I'm not sure if I just totally bombed it or if they're not trying to use these interviews to get to know writers? It was all super weird.

 

[newengland1]

@The Walter Before Your experience sounds very similar to mine. I can't tell from what you wrote if yours was by phone or in person, but mine was via phone, with Richard Wesley, who couldn't have been more disarming. My Hunter interview last year was patently disastrous, mostly due to nerves, so I tried to be calm and prepared this time, and I knew I needed to be able to talk about my work in a compelling way. Richard's tone of voice was so gentle and welcoming that any sense of obligation I felt quickly disappeared. As with you, he wanted to know what questions I had that hadn't yet been answered. So I asked a few, but as we chatted the conversation rambled a bit, though I thought in a good way. He was in good spirits and just so kind. And he asked me only one question ... not at all about me or my play. So now I'm trying to figure out how the interview might have been helpful to him ... as surely they are interviewing more people than they can admit in one pass. I didn't at all feel that I bombed it, and I'm sure you didn't either! But it certainly wasn't the kind of interview I was expecting. And really that was a relief.

Did you get any sense of when decisions would be made / sent out? Or how many applicants they take? I didn't think to ask that.

Good luck at Yale. I've lived in New Haven and worked at Yale for 8+ years, and know the place all too well ...

[jamesprongs101]

@The Walter Before and @Boxedwine 

I got my itinerary earlier today and I have to (somehow) be in New Haven before 9:45 am (I'm dreading this train journey). But I should be done with interview stuff at noon-ish. 

 

I'm sure Walter will be at the meet and greet or whatever but you u are going right out boxedwine? 

 

Also congrats on the NYU interviews guys I'm sure they went really well!

Edited February 26, 2016 by jamesprongs101

[Boxedwine]

@The Walter Before and @jamesprongs101

I got my schedule yesterday. I'm flying in some time on Wednesday and doing the meet & greet with current students that evening. On Thursday, I interview with Jeanie O'Hare and Jennifer Kiger. And somewhere in there I'm going to have a campus tour and a meeting with a financial aid person. 

So it sounds like they do it all again on Thursday night? They'll be another meet & greet for folks interviewing on Friday? I'm fascinated. Well, if on Thursday, you happen to see a harried person walking frantically some place, give me the ole Spock's live long and prosper and I'll know it's you. Or, do some really complicated hand signal that involves a whole body squat, just to be doubly sure I saw it. 

Walter - I'm in the same boat. I don't think I have very much of a chance, but I'm gonna fight like hell to tell them who I am. I mean, they're flying us out without ever having spoken to us. That's kind of awesome... And terrifying. 

Also - according to google maps, my hotel is really close to something called "Insomnia Cookies." So let's live the dream. 

[newengland1]

@Boxedwine Cookies are great. For something more authentically New Haven, go a block further, to Mamoun's, on Howe. They're open til 3am and have delicious middle eastern pastries. (Also not far is Louis Lunch -- which is in a long-running contest for oldest hamburger place in America, or something like that. It's like a 200-year-old McDonalds, on Crown St.)

[newengland1]

Some news about CMU. I didn't get the snail mail rejection letter, and figured it was probably en route. But today received a nice email from Rob Handel asking for a second script, which I just sent off. It's a super early draft of a brand new play, so I'm jittery. I'll report back if I hear anything more.

[lrb0192]

Hey guys. So, I just got back from my UCSD visit yesterday and it was overall a pretty awesome experience. Very packed schedule meeting one-on-one with each faculty member and grad student within the department. They are all super personable, so there was no trouble making conversation. The campus is beautiful, but the common discrepancy seemed to be that La Jolla is generally a little boring. Aside from that, there's a strong graduate community, great graduate housing options, consistent teaching of undergrad classes, and most importantly, a lot of time gifted to the writer. 

I don't really know what to expect waiting for the final decision. I believe I was one fo five visiting, and they are most likely taking two this year. The odds sound pretty good, but I definitely felt some apprehension over me being on the younger side of the applicant pool. Then again, that could just be me projecting my personal anxieties! Anyways, best of luck with the interviews everyone! 

So grateful to be sharing in this experience with you all.

[GlenwoodRed]

Guys if you're in New Haven you have to eat at Frank Pepe's. It isn't even a question.

[newengland1]

@lrb0192 Yay! You survived. I can relate to the strange sense of waiting post-interview ... I'm doing everything now to distract myself from thinking about them, with middling success.

@GlenwoodRed Re: pizza, Pepe's for sure. Sally's, Modern, BAR, and Kitchen Zinc are all also respectable ;-)

[GlenwoodRed]

anyone hear from Brown? Been waiting for a gorgeously composed denial letter from Erik Ehn, still radio silence

[LettucePray]

53 minutes ago, GlenwoodRed said:

anyone hear from Brown? Been waiting for a gorgeously composed denial letter from Erik Ehn, still radio silence

Hi, all, first time poster but I've been lurking for a while. Haven't heard anything from Brown either, but looking forward to hear either way. I've heard nice things about Erik Ehn's letters.

[Idca]

Well guys I officially got my rejection from Yale. They just sent me a status email 15 mins ago.  Oh well, I'll get in another year. For me it's not about getting into grad school, but getting into that specific program.

Anyway, since I'm just getting out of undergrad this May I have time. In the meantime I've applied to theatre companies to work as an apprentice next year, and I'll continue writing and producing. 

Good luck to everyone with your interviews and such! I'll continue lurking in the shadows and reading about your app adventures  .

[Zebras4Ever]

Hey @Idca I just got mine too, so you're not alone : ) It sounds like they changed the text of the rejection letter this year. In the past people posted about how the letter was very cut and dry, whereas mine seemed formulaic but complimentary, so that was nice of them.

[GlenwoodRed]

2 hours ago, draconianstars said:

Hey @Idca I just got mine too, so you're not alone : ) It sounds like they changed the text of the rejection letter this year. In the past people posted about how the letter was very cut and dry, whereas mine seemed formulaic but complimentary, so that was nice of them.

Did yours feature that extra sentence of "please know we were impressed by your writing"? 

I sorta had hoped that maybe that was Jeanie reaching out hahaha

[Idca]

Yeah it did, sorry. Like @draconianstars said it was probably formulaic yet complimentary. 

[jamesprongs101]

I'm sorry guys that blows. After finding out about Yale and a Fellowship I was up for I felt like a very special snowflake until I got form letter rejections from GREAT PLAINS, PLAYPENN and PREMIERE STAGES in the span of 48 hours so...keep it up. This is a roulette game, not a true meritocracy. 

[newengland1]

Totally. The same play that's an O'Neill semifinalist this year and got me an interview with NYU-Tisch was just rejected from Great Plains and PlayPenn. G-d knows what we can do besides work our butts off and run with what we get. Persist!

[jamesprongs101]

Hey @Boxedwine and @The Walter Before working on a theory...how do you identify gender-wise? Because both me and the two other people I know interviewing identify and present as "male", which seems of note. Curious about you all.

[Boxedwine]

@jamesprongs101 I identify as female. The gender breakdown is definitely noteworthy. Also, there might not be nine candidates flying in. There may be fewer than that. I'll know soon. I take off tomorrow morning. 

Also - Did everyone have Anne Erbe added to their itinerary? 

What's your theory? 

Edited March 2, 2016 by Boxedwine
additional question

[jamesprongs101]

Interesting @Boxedwine, just that there will only be one male in the program next year, so they might be doing a male heavy year this year. One of my friends who applied who i think is a very stellar candidate and a female didn't get an invite and that's been odd to me but as I've heard of more ppl I've started to think about the breakdown and realized that it's a woman heavy program once the two senior males leave with Lindsey Ferrentino bc the current 2nd year class is all women. 

[jamesprongs101]

4 the record, I'm very into the next class being all women once again as well which is why I'm sort of shocked that I know so many boys coming up, marketplace diversity being an important factor in my mind when it comes to the bigger institutions acceptance rates.

Edited March 2, 2016 by jamesprongs101

[Boxedwine]

@jamesprongs101 Interesting. I would be very disappointed if it was an all male year for selfish reasons as well as political ones. But I just found out one of my male friends is also a candidate interviewing on Friday (perhaps, he overlaps with one of the male candidates you know? What a small world, if so). It would not necessarily be outside the realm of possibility for them to seek a mostly or all male cohort. But, I'm gonna try not to think about that and just hope they are picking based on people and that I might be a type of person they want. I'm stoked they're flying me out. Even if I don't get in, what a way to go. Wine and dine me, Yale. Wine and dine me... I can do all the positions... I'm very, very good. 

...

I'm terrified I'm going to say something inappropriate.