Our inaugural class — with Program Director, Ken LaZebnik, instructor, Dr. Rosanne Welch, and David Wilks (Mindfulness Meditation for Writers Instructor) — for the new MFA in Screenwriting program from Stephens College, held at the Jim Henson Studios in Hollywood, California.
The Stephens College Low-Residency Master of Fine Arts in TV and Screenwriting will prepare you to compete in the high-stakes world of professional screenwriting. The second-oldest women’s college in the country, Stephens is an institution on a mission: To increase the voices and impact of women in television and film.It’s a mission that has drawn both the attention and the support of some of the most successful and well-known women writers in Hollywood—women who care deeply about ensuring that women’s voices and stories are heard.
Program Highlights
You’ll begin the program in Hollywood (we meet at the beautiful Jim Henson Studios) where you’ll spend 10 days in classes and workshops, and return for another 10 days six months later.
Between residencies, you’ll work online with at least four different mentors. Our entire faculty is comprised of working writers, members of the Writer’s Guild of America, including Ken LaZebnik, Carol Barbee, Kathleen McGhee-Anderson, Barbara Nance, Rosanne Welch and William Rabkin.
Our community of professors and professional working writers are here to help you develop your vision, your voice and your career as a screenwriter. And they’ll do it on your schedule, on your time and in-between all of the other demands of your crazy-busy life.
Learning the craft of writing is essential but so is learning the business of selling what you write. Providing you with access to prominent show-runners, writers from the film world, development executives, agents and managers is a vital component of this program.
Dr. Rosanne Welch (https://rosannewelch.com) speaks on “Feminism in the Whoniverse” of Doctor Who, the BBC television program now in its 50th year. She reviews each of the Doctor’s female companions and speaks on how they are represented in the program and how they represented the women of their respective periods.
Transcript:
So, in this scale they pick Donna. I have a problem with that. Donna ends her life with The Doctor married to a guy. That is the ultimate goal in her life and she’s not going to have a job. How’s she going to make money for the rest of her life. (Crowd: She’s married) Well, she’s married, sure, she’s married a guy, but she does it get something handed to her. Who remembers how we get rid of Donna? Lottery ticket. The Doctor hands her a lottery ticket, because traveling in space and time he goes to the future, figures out what lottery ticket’s going to win, then buys it in the past and hands it to her. So, there’s not — she talked to women more in her scenes but I’m getting the whole feminist vibe of Donna. Frankly, if it’s up to me…Martha.
Feminism in the Whoniverse was presented at the Cal Poly Pomona University Library where Dr. Welch teaches in the IGE (Interdisciplinary General Education) program.
This is the 4th talk on various aspects of Doctor Who that Dr. Welch has presented. You can find these talks using the links below.
Mindful(l) Media is a new show and podcast from Dr. Rosanne Welch helping the audience to be more Mindfull about the Media we both create and consume as it relates to the portrayal of Gender, Diversity, and Equality.
Today’s show is brought to you by Audible.com. While I watched hours and hours of television in my childhood, I also read tons of books – and as a professor I have found that you can easily tell the readers from the non-readers by their spelling and their level of vocabulary so I always tell students to find time to read. It’s also deeply peaceful to get lost in a story. If you love audio books you can support us here at 3rdPass Media by starting your free 30-day trial with Audible today. Choose from over 100, 000 books.
Dr. Rosanne Welch presents “How Doctor Who Redefined Masculinity: A Study of the Doctors and their Male Companions” at the Cal Poly Pomona University Library. Dr. Welch teaches in the IGE (Interdisciplinary General Education) program.
Transcript:
These are the archetypes of masculinity in general literature and stories, right. So, Adventurer, Gentleman, Statesman, Warrior, Lone Wolf and Family Man. which seems to, sort of, argue with each other right there, but we’ll see how they play out on all of our different men. I would say that all of them have these qualities. there you go. End of lecture. But, I think the first three –and as I was picking through all of The Doctors and what I had to say about them — the first three are reflected more largely in our original 8 Doctors. So, we have this set right here as we know. So, they show us Adventurers — because they escape with the TARDIS and off into the world and time and space. They’re all Gentlemen and they’re all pretty much Statesmen. As are these four. Peter Davison being my favorite, but they all — and also we very much get the Clown with Sylvester McCoy down at the bottom.
A clip from this 5th talk on various aspects of Doctor Who presented by Dr. Welch. You can find Dr. Welch’s other Doctor Who talks using the links below.
The Stephens College Low-Residency Master of Fine Arts in TV and Screenwriting will prepare you to compete in the high-stakes world of professional screenwriting. The second-oldest women’s college in the country, Stephens is an institution on a mission: To increase the voices and impact of women in television and film.It’s a mission that has drawn both the attention and the support of some of the most successful and well-known women writers in Hollywood—women who care deeply about ensuring that women’s voices and stories are heard.
Program Highlights
You’ll begin the program in Hollywood (we meet at the beautiful Jim Henson Studios) where you’ll spend 10 days in classes and workshops, and return for another 10 days six months later.
Between residencies, you’ll work online with at least four different mentors. Our entire faculty is comprised of working writers, members of the Writer’s Guild of America, including Ken LaZebnik, Carol Barbee, Kathleen McGhee-Anderson, Barbara Nance, Rosanne Welch and William Rabkin.
Our community of professors and professional working writers are here to help you develop your vision, your voice and your career as a screenwriter. And they’ll do it on your schedule, on your time and in-between all of the other demands of your crazy-busy life.
Learning the craft of writing is essential but so is learning the business of selling what you write. Providing you with access to prominent show-runners, writers from the film world, development executives, agents and managers is a vital component of this program.
I will be part of this panel discussion at the Redlands Film and Beer festival, October 22-25, 2015 with Daniel Petrie, Jr.. Join us as we use Star Wars to discuss a host of screenwriting concepts and how this movie, and it’s writer, Lawrence Kasdan, changed screenwriting forever.
REDLANDS >> Redlands nonprofit SLATE Inc. (Supporting Local Artists of Film Through Empowerment), has announced the first panel discussion leader for this year’s Film and Beer festival: the “Beverly Hills Cop” writer.
Daniel Petrie Jr., best known for writing and producing such popular ’80s films as “Beverly Hills Cop,” “Beverly Hills Cop II” and “Turner and Hooch,” will be on hand to answer questions in the first panel discussion.
The 2015 festival will use the theme “Star Wars” to help stimulate film industry discussions among festival attendees.
“The first industry panel we are doing is about how ‘Star Wars’ changed filmmaking and impacted the industry,” said SLATE Inc. founder Lucas Cuny. “Petrie is an industry insider who has served twice as the president of the screenwriters guild. He will be a great addition to the discussion.”
Petrie graduated from the University of Redlands in 1975. Cuny said Petrie’s industry experience and ties to Redlands make him an ideal addition to the festival.
“People can relate to someone who spent time here and has gone on to big things in the film world,” Cuny said. “He is an old friend. We were discussing the first Slate festival while I was very early in the planning stages. He said to me, ‘Everyone has a film festival. What is going to make yours different?’ That’s when I thought let’s get some beer involved, especially being in an area with craft breweries and a great food scene.”
Rosanne Welch, a radio, TV and film department adjunct professor at Cal State Fullerton will also serve on a panel discussion. Welch was a professor of Cuny’s while he was working toward his master’s degree at CSUF over the past few years.
Proceeds from the Redlands Film and Beer Festival will be used for ongoing efforts to benefit local film and media artists.
Dr. Rosanne Welch (https://rosannewelch.com) speaks on “Feminism in the Whoniverse” of Doctor Who, the BBC television program now in its 50th year. She reviews each of the Doctor’s female companions and speaks on how they are represented in the program and how they represented the women of their respective periods.
Transcript:
The other thing they tested, when they did this, was the two male writers of the program of the last generation of it. Russell Davies, who I mentioned already is an out-of-the-closet gay man in England, has a better scale of passing this feminist Bechdel Test then does Steven Moffat, a heterosexual, married guy. A man who spends his life with a woman does think about how women are represented in his work, nearly as much as the gay man.
Feminism in the Whoniverse was presented at the Cal Poly Pomona University Library where Dr. Welch teaches in the IGE (Interdisciplinary General Education) program.
This is the 4th talk on various aspects of Doctor Who that Dr. Welch has presented. You can find these talks using the links below.
From 1966-1968 NBC aired The Monkees on Mondays at 7:30pm, opposite Gilligan’s Island on CBS and Iron Horse on ABC. During that time Raybert Productions, headed by Bert Schneider and Bob Rafelson, produced 58 half-hours of what Time Magazine contributor James Poniewozik recently described as “far better TV than it had to be.
During an era of formulaic domestic sitcoms and wacky comedies, it was a stylistically ambitious show, with a distinctive visual style, absurdist sense of humor, and unusual story structure that was commercial, wholesome, and yet impressively weird.”
Originally, the producers conceived The Monkees as a response to the youth and music movement of the early 60s, a time when every young person seemed to be slinging a guitar on their back and hoping to change the world. In the shadow of Hard Day’s Night the producers cast four relative unknowns who could act, sing and play instruments – Davy Jones, Micky Dolenz, Peter Tork and Mike Nesmith – and hired Jim Frawley to teach them improvisation and become their in-house director. Beyond mere fame, The Monkees deserves ranking as a TV Cultural and Comedy Classic because, according to Micky Dolenz, “It brought long hair into the living room and changed the way teenagers were portrayed on television. It made it okay to have long hair in the same way Henry Winkler as the Fonz late made it okay to wear a black leather jacket and Will Smith in Fresh Prince of Bel Air made it okay to be to be young, black and like rap.”
From an artistic standpoint the show introduced a new generation of viewers to the kind of fourth-wall-breaking, slapstick comedy created by Laurel and Hardy and the Marx Brothers as well as to the idea of friends in their late teens living on their own without adult advice or supervision, a powerful idea at the height of the Vietnam war.
While there is continued controversy over the fact that the musical group has yet to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, time has shown that the television show deserves the accolades it earned. Now it deserves a deeper reading and that is exactly what The Metatexual Menagerie That Was The Monkees will provide.
Go beyond the fandom and delve deeply into what The Monkees meant to “the young generation” and to our current world.
Chapters will include:
Introduction: I’m (Still) a Believer
Sweet Young Thing: Contextualizing The Monkees with a Short History of Teenagers on Television
Authorship on The Monkees: Who Wrote The Monkees and what was that Something They Had to Say?
Look Out, Here Comes Tomorrow: Counter-Culture Comes to Television and Middle America via The Monkees
The Kind of Girl I Could Love: Feminism, Gender and Sexuality in The Monkees
Shades of Grey: An Ethnic Studies look at Minority Representation on The Monkees
We Were Made for Each Other: The Monkees Menagerie of Metatextuality
We Were Made for Each Other: The Sequel: Nascent Television Aesthetic Techniques on The Monkees
A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You Identity Construction and Confusion on The Monkees
9 Theme(s) from The Monkees: Narrative Structure, Literary References and Themes on The Monkees
Salesman / What am I Doing Hangin’ Round? The Cultural Collateral of The Monkees
Music Innovation and the seeds of MTV
I’ll Be True To You: Fandom and The Monkees
Dr. Rosanne Welch teaches screenwriting in the RTVF Department at California State University, Fullerton and for the Stephens College MFA in Screenwriting. As a television writer/producer her credits include Beverly Hills 90210, Picket Fences and Touched by an Angel. She has been published a chapter in Torchwood Declassified: Investigating Mainstream Cult Television (I.B.Tauris); and an essay in Doctor Who and Race: An Anthology and co-edited The Encyclopedia of Women in American History (ABC-CLIO). Her fondness for The Monkees began while sitting in front of a small, black-and-white kitchen television at the age of five.
Why Monkees Matter: The Writing Staff of The Monkees Brought the 1960s Counter Culture to Pre-Teens
Presented at the Cal Poly Pomona President’s Symposium
Dr. Welch is available for interviewa on Why The Monkees Mattered and The Monkees in general. She is a long-time fan of The Monkees and extremely knowledgeable on both The Monkees television show and their music. She has given several presentations on The Monkees in college classrooms across Southern California at the Cal Poly Pomona President’s Symposium.
Update (July 3, 2016): Why The Monkees Matter Now Available on Kindle Reader, Smartphones and Tablets! –
Checking Amazon.com just now, I see that “Why The Monkees Matter” is available for purchase in Kindle format.
You can read the book immediately on your Kindle device OR on your smartphone, tablet or personal computer using the free Kindle App or web site.
(The print edition is still marked “Pre-Order” on Amazon, but I expect that to change after the July 4th holiday).
You can buy your copy of “Why The Monkees Matter” and start reading in seconds — perhaps while you enjoy some holiday hammock time on your own “Pleasant Valley Sunday”!
Update (June 30, 2016): I have received reports that people who pre-ordered directly from the publishers have started to receive their books. Yea! The book is also currently available as an Amazon Kindle Editon for your immediate purchase and download. Amazon still shows the Print Edition as Pre-Order but I expect that to change any minute.
Update (April 8, 2016): Our first level of pre-orders are open today! You can pre-order “Why The Monkees Matter” directly from the publishers, MacFarland, on their web site. — Pre-Order “Why The Monkees Matter” today!
Update (March 7,2016): The “final” title has been approved and, unfortunately, the publication date has been moved back to Fall 2016. That said, this still allows you to make it a great Holiday gift for all your Monkee Fan friends and family — Rosanne
I’ve been watching some old made for television movies from back in the days when that didn’t sound so derogatory — early made for television movies were things like Playhouse 90 where the work of up and coming New York playwrights and other quality material was being beamed into American homes — it was only over the years when TV movies turned into ‘victimized chick of the week’ or ‘disease of the week’ type sagas.
So watching some of these early dramas has made me notice a few things… such as the quality of the writing, the way stories spoke UP to the intelligence of the viewer (in an era when fewer folks had college degrees) — and the waste of talent that takes place in Hollywood. I guess I thought it was a more modern event, this not giving actors of color a greater chance to use their gifts for our entertainment. In my childhood television viewing — From Baretta to Starsky and Hutch to The Streets of San Francisco — it did not escape me that the white guys (and they were always guys) got to be the cops and the people of color seemed always to be the crooks, pimps and prostitutes that the nice white cops were investigating.
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