Cheered by critics and audiences everywhere, IL POSTINO (THE POSTMAN) is the record-breaking Academy Award(R)-winning (Best Dramatic Score, 1995) romantic comedy that delivers heartfelt laughs! Mario is a bumbling mailman who’s madly in love with the most beautiful woman in town … and who’s too shy to tell her how he feels. But when a world-famous poet — Pablo Neruda — moves into town, Mario is inspired. With Neruda’s help, he finds the right words to win the woman’s heart! This unforgettably funny comedy proves that passion … with some artful deception … can win the most improbable love!
Soon to be an HBO series, My Brilliant Friend, first in the New York Times bestselling Neapolitan quartet about two friends growing up in post-war Italy is a rich, intense, and generous-hearted family epic by Italy’s most beloved and acclaimed writer, Elena Ferrante, “one of the great novelists of our time.” (Roxana Robinson, The New York Times)
To highlight the wonderful yet largely forgotten work of a collection of female screenwriters from the early years of Hollywood (and as a companion to the book, When Women Wrote Hollywood) we will be posting quick bits about the many films they wrote along with links to further information and clips from their works which are still accessible online. Take a few moments once or twice a week to become familiar with their names and their stories. I think you’ll be surprised at how much bold material these writers tackled at the birth of this new medium. — Rosanne Welch
Dorothy Parker (née Rothschild; August 22, 1893 – June 7, 1967) was an American poet, writer, critic, and satirist based in New York; she was best known for her wit, wisecracks, and eye for 20th-century urban foibles.
From a conflicted and unhappy childhood, Parker rose to acclaim, both for her literary works published in such magazines as The New Yorker and as a founding member of the Algonquin Round Table. Following the breakup of the circle, Parker traveled to Hollywood to pursue screenwriting. Her successes there, including two Academy Award nominations, were curtailed when her involvement in left-wing politics resulted in the being placed on the Hollywood blacklist.
Dismissive of her own talents, she deplored her reputation as a “wisecracker.” Nevertheless, both her literary output and reputation for sharp wit have endured. — Wikipedia
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His loyalty lasted a lifetime… Surgeon, merchant, vintner, and writer Filippo Mazzei influenced American business, politics, and philosophy. Befriending Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, Mazzei was a strong liaison for others in Europe. Mazzei was Jefferson’s inspiration for the most famous line in the Declaration of Independence: “All men are created equal.” Clearly, Mazzei had a gift of language and often used his words to share his ideas about religious freedom. Mazzei encouraged other Italians still living overseas to join him in a country rich with opportunity and promise. Often, when returning from Italy, he booked passages on ships for people who desired to travel to America and employed them on his estate—just to ensure a better, more fruitful life for everyone. During those travels, Mazzei found himself at the center of many fights for freedom. He was truly a friend to freedom around the world.
For her 5th Doctor Who lecture to the CPP community, Dr. Rosanne Welch discusses how society – and the show’s writing staff – prepared the audience for a major change in this 50-year franchise – the creation of the first Lady Doctor!
Transcript:
Mickey is probably one of my favorite companions. Right? Because he starts out as Rose’s boyfriend. He loses her to The Doctor — so that kind of makes him a loser because he lost his girlfriend. That’s kind of sad, right and they played with that a little bit. He wasn’t quite as good as The Doctor, but he worked at it. He discovered that he wanted to be more in the episode where Sarah Jane came back and what he really does that is so cool is when he has a chance to pick a parallel universe or a real universe, he wants to stay in the universe where his grandmother is still alive. His grandmother is the most important influence in his life. Not a grandfather. Not a dad. A woman who he wants to spend more time within his own life. SoI thought that was a super cool thing for him to choose to do. And of course, at the very end of David Tennant’s era, he visited all his past companions and did something to save their life before he regenerated and we discovered that in the interim Mickey and Martha have fallen in love and gotten married. So, he picked the most equal and powerful woman that he could be with if he couldn’t have Rose. Right? So, he grew up and moved on to an adult relationship, not a dependent younger relationship..
Rosanne Welch PhD teaches the History of Screenwriting and One-Hour Drama for the Stephens College MFA in Screenwriting.
Writing/producing credits include Beverly Hills 90210, Picket Fences, ABCNEWS: Nightline and Touched by an Angel. In 2016 she published the book Why The Monkees Matter: Teenagers, Television and American Pop; co-edited Women in American History: A Social, Political, and Cultural Encyclopedia; and placed “Transmitting Culture Transnationally Via the Characterization of Parents in Police Procedurals” in the New Review of Film and Television Studies. Essays appear in Torchwood Declassified: Investigating Mainstream Cult Television and Doctor Who and Race: An Anthology. Welch serves as Book Reviews editor for Journal of Screenwriting and on the Editorial Advisory Board for Written By magazine, the magazine of the Writers Guild.
It’s always fun when a new issue of the Journal of Screenwriting arrives in my mailbox, but this one’s pleasing on several fronts.
First, in my capacity as Book Reviews Editor, I’m able to publish several of my now-graduated students, often for the first time.
In this issue I am also the co-author of an article extolling the marvelously successful conference held at Otago University in 2017.
Also, two of the articles come from that conference – one by my friend Carmen Sofia Brenes (Chairperson, full professor of poetics and screenwriting at the School of Communication of Universidad de los Andes) is about the 2016 film Jackie, about the life of American icon Jackie Kennedy, written by an American, Noah Oppenheim, and directed by Chilean Pablo Lorrain.
The second article is (not so jokingly) “10 Ways to f#ck up Your Female Characters” by two New Zealand female producers, Fiona Samuel and Kathryn Burnett. I’ve already talked about that one with many an MFA student.
Brilliant inventor, electrical engineer, and wise entrepreneur, Guglielmo Marconi was best known for inventing long-distance radio transmissions and the telegraph system.
But his success wasn’t solely a product of his curious mind. Marconi attributed his prosperity to the people in his life who encouraged him to achieve his goals. Fostering his relationships with his mother, his wives, and other female friends allowed Marconi to grow and explore as an inventor without the fear of isolation, political disassociation, and covert racism hindering his dreams.
Although he spent most of his time spanning the globe and using the entire planet as his creative palette, the people he chose to associate himself with were critical to his well-being, his inventive nature, and his general physical and mental health. Without his close-knit relationships, long-distance transmission may have never come to fruition.
I had such a fun catch up lunch with 2017 Stephens MFA alums and Val yesterday at, of all places, IKEA because alum Amy Banks was in town to attend an all day workshop at the Disney Studios for writers with First Nation backgrounds (in their continued work to provide diversity on their channel).
Amy set it up with me and fellow mentor, Val Woods. Then alums Julie Berkobien and Lauren Smith were also free to drop by. I loved hearing about the various work they were all doing and how their MFAs both helped them get hired and, more importantly, helped them excel in their new positions! It also served as an accidental reunion of several writers of our When Women Wrote Hollywood book of essays, which we will be launching to the Columbia, Missouri community in just a few weeks, during the Citizen Jane Film Festival!
The Soul of a Child: A Novel Based on the Life of Maria Montessori places the brilliant educator and reformer in the context of her time. It examines the relationships, inner struggles, and inspirations of Maria Montessori, a woman with heart, empathy, and resilience. As a strong woman who lived through two world wars, the rise of Fascism in Spain and Italy, and the dawn of the nuclear age, she remained undeterred in her faith in the possibility of positive change through education. Her life spanned both the joys of innovation and the horrors of destruction of the twentieth century. Her influence on education and humanism remains resonant and enduring. This is her story.
![32 Mickey Smith from Gender Diversity in the Who-niverse [Video ] (1:07)](https://rosannewelch.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/gender-dw-32-mickey-smith.jpeg)
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