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Playwriting MFAs


dampka

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I went and checked on my UCSD app and I noticed the same thing, that the application deadline is listed as 1/30, though my submission date is still 1/06, which I think was the original deadline. Interesting? Guess that moves the timeline back a bunch...

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Funding is what I'm a tad worried about, but I'm worrying too soon. They get 850 applications (no joke that's what they quoted in a Times article in 2013) so we'll see what happens. I'll just apply and see what happens. Thank you for all of your advice.

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So: talked to a playwright-colleague and mentioned that Indiana wasn't accepting anyone. She looked kinda sheepish and said "That's my fault." I guess she was offered the position to head up the program and decided not to take it. I thought Ruth McKee was pretty new there, but I take it she's leaving and they don't have a replacement?

 

Haven't heard anything yet...anyone? Any schools starting to contact people yet?

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Ohhhhh. That's rather odd, especially for a program with their funding. Ruth McKee was rather new too.. Did your friend give any insight of these continuous changes. 

 

Haven't heard anything yet! From my going back on this thread, we're not hearing back for interviews until mid to late February. Is that accurate?

 

Since Yale moved up the deadline, do you think they'll be letting us know earlier? 

 

Lol I'm very anxious about this already and nothing's really happened yet.

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Just had to send out new copies of official transcripts to two schools who are still showing my applications as incomplete online. Sort of annoying, especially since it took a while to get actual hard copies of the transcripts. What is this thing about them needing to be in a sealed, signed envelope? So bizarre.

 

Getting antsy now that it is February. Wish I had some news! :)

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Yeah, still thinking of applying to Ohio, especially since Indiana fell through. No, my friend didn't give any other details, but we were in the middle of a different conversation; I can ask for details next time I get a chance.

 

Mid-to-late Feb sounds right for most schools, yeah. Also curious about the change in Yale's timeline.

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@Princess -- I actually sent in sealed signed ones at the time I submitted my application (these are for BC and The New School). For some reason BC is not logging either of them, and TNS is only logging having received one (even though they were sent in the same mailing ...)

 

I can't imagine how much mail these places receive, so it's understandable that things get lost. I don't know why people need hard copies at all -- I much prefer uploading unofficial ones to the online applications. Anyway!

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SINGSALOT -- That blows! (Although I know that Brooklyn often loses things. You are about the 7th person who has said this about them... Truly.)

I realize it is useless information, as facts and timelines vary greatly year-to-year, but I wonder if someone went through all of the posts on here and compiled a list of when each school has, historically given notification of interviews, acceptance, and rejection -- where we would now find ourselves in comparison on this, February 3, 2015... Probably only a FEW notifications arrived in previous years before this time. I realize that. And I am not about to comb through the whole chain and try and figure it out. That would just be feeding the monster. But I am dying on so many levels... #waitingsucks

Edited by PrincessIsInAnotherCastle
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How did you hear about Michener genericincognito? I checked my status on my application and it says my application is "Still In Review", but they do rolling rejections I hear, but no news is good news I guess. 

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I found out by checking the website on a whim. Being cut relatively early in the process feels like salt on the wound. Like, damn, I didn't even get a second look? Doesn't seem to bode well for my other applications. 

 

Oh well. Just got to write a better play, I suppose. Except I'm not really sure what that looks like. It's hard to be objective about one's work, isn't it? 

Edited by genericincognito
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I wouldn't let Michener worry you too much. They could have an alphabetical process, or something. Sometimes readers get behind so they have to scramble to find others, they do rejections in batches, etc. They do rolling rejections so mine may be on the way hahahahaha.

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Genericincognito -- Fret not.  It is all arbitrary and there is no rhyme or reason.  There are people on here in the past who were rejected right away from three schools and accepted at others.  (A real world example:  Some people LOVED Annie Baker's Pulitzer Prize-winning play THE FLICK.  Other people haaaaaated it.  Many were just indifferent and wished it wasn't quite so long).  

There is absolutely no right or wrong when it comes to judgment calls about the quality of a writer's work.  Do something nice for yourself.  Try to envision what YOUR great play might "look" like.  And sit down and write a little bit of it.  

 

I UNDERSTAND how much it sucks.  Truly.  Hang in there...

Edited by PrincessIsInAnotherCastle
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Thanks for the comforting words! Friends and family can chime in with upbeat advice, but it always feels most impactful coming from playwrights in the same boat. 

 

Speaking of The Flick, I wonder what MFA committees would think of it. Because in my opinion, it doesn't really resonate on the page on account of being so understated and subdued. 

 

I guess you just got to go with your gut and stay true to your own aesthetic. That seems to be Annie Baker's guiding principle and it has served her well.  

Edited by genericincognito
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Honestly, it didn't resonate in the theater for me much, either...  It, at times, felt like one of those Andy Warhol movies that happen over eight hours -- and in real time...?  (NOTE:  I have only ever HEARD about these Andy Warhol films.  I saw about 2 minutes of one once and was, like, "Yeah.  I get it.  I have other stuff to do.")  

For my part, I don't know why THE FLICK is a PLAY vs. an independent film, say.  (Other than the author SAYING it is a play.  Which IS enough of a reason to "make it be" a play, on one level, I believe.)  That being said, it was obvious that most everyone in the audience the night I saw it felt similar frustrations.  So much so, in fact, that the Artistic Director of Playwrights Horizons had to write  an open letter to his subscribers to address their rather vocal annoyance with the piece.

As to what an MFA committee would think of THE FLICK?  Who knows...?  There are TONS of plays that I find to be intellectual exercises rather than actual plays.  (BENGAL TIGER AT THE BAGHADAD ZOO is one of these, for my money.  It's not even particularly well written, in my opinion.)  But... BOTH of those folks, Annie Baker and Rajiv Joseph -- both are also INDISPUTABLY talented writers whose work I have "clicked into" in other pieces.  

Taste is just so varied.  So individual.  If I had seen THE FLICK on a day when I was in a better mood, or with an audience that wasn't AUDIBLY verbalizing their annoyances DURING the play... would it have changed my experience...?  Maybe.  Probably. But maybe not. 

I guess my point is that there is so much randomness to the decisions of the "taste makers."   What one person says is a GREAT play, another person thinks is rubbish.  Neither is "right" or "wrong."  ALL THAT WE CAN DO -- truly -- ALL that we can do is the work itself.  Just do the work.  Let others say and decide what they will.  If you need to write, then write.  Just Keep on Keeping On...

Edited by PrincessIsInAnotherCastle
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Keep on indeed!

 

I partly agree with you about Bengal Tiger although at least it's about an interesting subject and is overtly theatrical. Unfortunately, I can't say the same about The Flick. 

 

This song has become my MFA application soundtrack:

 

Also this: 

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