We’re excited to have opened the window for applications to our Stephens College MFA in TV and Screenwriting’s Fall 2020 cohort.
This gives potential students a chance to submit their materials on time to be in contention for our Jan Marino Scholarship (for a woman writer 55 or older) and for being next year’s Graduate Assistant.
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Being a low residency program means you travel to Hollywood for 10 days at the beginning of each semester (once in August/once in January) for a workshop experience worth 3 units.
We hold workshops at the historic Jim Henson Studios (originally the Charlie Chaplin Studios) in Hollywood, California.
Each semester students will take 3 courses after the workshop. They have one mentor for a television script and one mentor for a screenplay. The television mentors change each semester because in fall you write a spec script/in spring a pilot; the screenplay mentor is onboard for the whole year, as the fall semester is all about developing an outline and writing Act One of the screenplay, and then the spring semester is completing and revising the script. Our instructors are all chosen because they are working writers and members of the Writers Guild of America (WGA).
In year two, there’s a second screenplay written (with a different mentor) and a thesis project, which can be anything from a web series to a limited series pilot and bible to a group of short films to an actual written thesis.
Taught with a female gaze, students do selected readings and view films each week that feature female-focused stories, and then they post responses to the material. At the end of each semester, students turn in a profile of a screenwriter.
In 2017, 22 of these profiles written by MFA students were compiled into the book WHEN WOMEN WROTE HOLLYWOOD, published by McFarland Press.
Throughout the two years, we have the History of Screenwriting course, which I teach, so that I stay in touch with all students across their two years in the program.
If you are a writer looking to move your material to the next level so it will secure you a spot in the industry – or a college educator who wants a graduate degree to move up in the academic world – then our program is perfect for you.
Join us Fall 2020 in Hollywood!