Playwriting MFAs

[lurking32]

Another hopeful!  This thread makes me feel a lot less insane so thanks to all. Waiting is the worst. 

 

My list:

 

Columbia

Yale

Brown

NYU

Yale

 

Considered many others but long lists tend to overwhelm me.  I'm just hoping for the best, and if nothing pans out, I can shake my list up for application round 2.  Wishing I had left UCSD on my list.

[cobbler]

Has anyone heard from UCSD by any chance?  Haven't seen it come up too much.

[Trilogyfan]

I've been another one of those lurkers who got into a program for this year but still receive email updates, and I wasn't going to come on or comment until I saw the threat start to mention ageism. For what it is worth, friends on both ends of the spectrum, I got into a top program in NYC and I am in my mid-forties, and several of my classmates are under 25. I do think that, in the end, it's about the quality of your writing sample, at least for school admissions. After that, we're in another ballgame I suppose.

 

Anyway, good luck, all. 

[mcw98]

Thanks TrilogyFan & GlenwoodRed for the comments.  Yes, all about the writing... hoping for the best.  Good luck to everyone!

 

This forum is very comforting...

[roguesenna]

My MFA in DWRI is from the Savannah College of Art and Design. I went there for... reasons. I don't recommend it. Their program is very underdeveloped and my experience was just short of for-profit college treatment. I barely escaped with my sanity (but I did get a serious boyfriend and a writing portfolio out of it so... you know).

 

I think you're right about Vogel. I forgot that she'd moved to Yale. I've worked with Lisa Kron before (she is an expat of my home town and alumni of my college) and she's worked with Vogel at Yale.

 

As far as productions I had a few in Michigan when I was in undergrad and one in Georgia when I was in grad school, but none recently. I've been writing a lot of screenplays lately and right now I'm working on a prose piece (gasp!) that I hope to later adapt to a TV pilot (whew!).

[playbyplay]

AUGH that is criminal! I will fight them for you. Watch me.

---

 

once again, for those who don't know me, I have an MFA in Dramatic Writing and am just lurking cause I'm interested to see what happens. And in case I can answer any questions that come up.

 

Fave Playwrights: Stoppard, Vogel (jealous of you future Brown students!), Ruhl, Shakespeare (obvs).

Fave Plays: The Balcony -- Jean Genet, Six Characters in Search of an Author -- Luigi Pirandello, Othello -- Shakespeare, more if you're curious.

 

Also, I don't post my work online in segments of more than a couple pages because I don't have any of it officially registered. If you're going to post work online, I recommend visiting the WGA website first. I'm not sure if they do plays or not, but definitely screenplays and teleplays. If not, mail yourself a copy of your play in a sealed envelope and don't open it. I'm sure you all know this crap, but just in case you don't.

 

 That said, if people want to start a thread to exchange work I'd be down for that.

 

[oh. FTR, I am a Theatre PhD applicant, not just a random creepy lurker]

Thanks Rogue. 

 

I agree about registering. WGA does register plays and you can always do a 'poor man's copywrite' which is print your material, seal it in an envelope and mail it to yourself. 

[playbyplay]

I did have a musical up in a festival here in NY, but I'm not sure what difference it'll make application-wise! Pretty sure it all comes down to that sample.

 

I had a dream last night where I called YSOD and asked what the most important part of the app was. The woman told me "address" and she wouldn't elaborate. 

 

hahahaha

 

side note: I have a friend who applied to law schools a few years ago. He went out partying to celebrate graduating from college and woke up the next morning at 6am to a phone call from Yale. When they told him he was accepted, he was still half drunk and asked if it was a joke. It was not. 

[Starsandsound]

That's awesome! Where at?

A theater called 2cents in LA. I'll be visiting, yay sunshine!

Do you live in NYC?

[Starsandsound]

That's awesome! Where at?

A theater called 2cents in LA. I'll be visiting, yay sunshine!

Do you live in NYC?

[Starsandsound]

No idea how to delete a double post! Also, my Mac just crashed?!?!? You guys. Ah. AH.

[Starsandsound]

Got it back oh Lordy

[Starsandsound]

Rejection from Brown via web posting.

[mcw98]

Rejected from Brown!  Not surprised.  Okay, on to the next...

[playbyplay]

Rejected from Brown!  Not surprised.  Okay, on to the next...

Me too. 

 

Condolences. 

[GlenwoodRed]

Out at Brown too, but I really liked Erik Ehn's letter. Not surprised - they were much more experimental than me, I think. At least that's what I'll go with. Please let me get that call from Yale!

[mcw98]

I loved that letter too.  

[Starsandsound]

Out at Brown too, but I really liked Erik Ehn's letter. Not surprised - they were much more experimental than me, I think. At least that's what I'll go with. Please let me get that call from Yale!

I agree, that letter really helped. I was like, yeah! I'm still in theater! Easy to forget when you're stressed. It was a wonderful gesture.

[cobbler]

What did the Brown letter actually say?  I'm curious.

[cobbler]

Btw, I did not apply to Brown, so I have no clue what their admissions process is.

[Starsandsound]

What did the Brown letter actually say?  I'm curious.

 

About Admissions:

 

Your faith honors the program; we are grateful for the window you’ve given us on your work. The energies that led you through this process will continue to fuel your growth; you will find, refine, create opportunities to build and exercise your voice in widening circles of collaboration.

 

Our incoming class is always painfully small – we only accept two students. Each year, our short-list is always easily twenty students long. I regret we don’t have wider doors.

 

Selections, then, don’t come down to picking the two “best” writers; there are many “bests” – and many ways to assess the texts (and videos, and paintings and all the great, diverse material that came in). And these tools of assessment are hardly fool-proof (and certainly nothing saves me from being a fool). 

 

Each year we accept two voices we think will resonate closely with the mix in the cohort as it stands. We’re therefore always looking for something slightly different, year by year, and the quest is subjective (hopeful and uncertain).

 

Many thanks for engaging with us on your journey forward. Your practice is important to the sanity of society; we wish you patience, perseverance, and the joy of authentic expression. I regret we will not be sharing a classroom; I am glad we will be sharing theater.

 

Sincerely,

 

Erik Ehn

Director, Writing for Performance

[GlenwoodRed]

Now I'm thinking, if Brown went out a week earlier than last year....did the Yale interviews go out as well?

[cobbler]

Wow, that is one of the nicest letters I have ever read.

[Starsandsound]

Now I'm thinking, if Brown went out a week earlier than last year....did the Yale interviews go out as well?

 

You stop that right now. BAD. DOG.

 

I mean...

 

aaagh

[Starsandsound]

Wow, that is one of the nicest letters I have ever read.

Cobbler yeah, it's kind of lovely. <3

[Singsalot]

Hi All:

 

Re: YALE.

 

Reading past years it seems like the notification weeks tend to vary, so I wouldn't worry about Brown being a week earlier than it was last year. BUT--if interviews are going to be the first or second week in March, and they pay to fly people to New Haven, it makes sense that they'd want to schedule at least two weeks out. So I expect finalists would be notified this week or next.

 

Waiting is hard.