Date: Thursday, October 25, 2018 Time: 12:00pm – 1:00pm Location: Special Events Room 4829, Cal State Fullerton Pollack Library, 800 N State College Blvd, Fullerton, CA 92831 Campus: Building 15
In her talk screenwriter and professor Rosanne Welch will discuss everything Star Wars from George Lucas to Leigh Brackett to Lawrence Kasdan. From Luke Skywalker to Han Solo to Lando Calrissian (both original and prequel versions) to Poe. From Leia Organa to Rey to Jyn Erso. From Jaws to the whole Star Wars franchise to Raiders of the Lost Ark in a look at how Star Wars changed films and fandom forever.
“In 1911, Meredyth began working as an extra at the Biograph Company, and eventually wound up as a stock player for D.W. Griffith. In addition to acting at Biograph, she also began to write and direct one- and two-reeler films. It had occurred to Meredyth that she could make more money if she both wrote and acted, so she began doing so for several different studios.”
You’d Better Learn to Hold Your Liquor: Bess Meredyth and A Career in Early Hollywood Sydney Haven
* A portion of each sale from Amazon.com directly supports our blogs ** Many of these books may be available from your local library. Check it out! † Available from the LA Public Library
You have stories to tell. We’re here to make it happen. Come to Hollywood to learn from some of the best working writers in the industry. Stephens is an institution on a mission: To increase the voices and impact of women in television and film.
WHY STEPHENS?
Our program — with its bold, daring mission — has drawn the attention and the support of some of the most successful and well-known writers in Hollywood. Our faculty includes some of the best working writers in the profession, and our curriculum includes an in-depth look at the business side of TV and screenwriting. Explore more: program highlights, student achievements and stories.
HOW DOES IT WORK?
Stephens is proud to be the first college in the nation to offer a low-residency MFA program specifically for TV and screenwriting. Our students come to Los Angeles twice a year for 10-day workshops at the beautiful Jim Henson Studio. Between workshops, students work one-on-one online with at least four different mentors over two years. Two years + four workshops in Hollywood = your M.F.A.
As in past years, my Stephens College MFA in TV and Screenwriting students will presenting on important women screenwriters during the festival, too. — Rosanne
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:
In the old era, but also largely in the new era, all the men have been given the chance to be depicted as sensitive human beings, which gives them a 3-dimensional complete humanity. Which I think is very important. Now in the very early days, as I said, Lethbridge-Stewart is the father of Kate, so that is how we invented her character in the future. So he started out in the early days with Jon, came through guest starred as an older actor of course on The Sarah Jane Adventures and he came into modern Who in one episode where everybody was turned into a Cyberman who had died. All the people buried in cemeteries had their bodies converted into Cybermen and yet he’s in a cemetery when his daughter gets kicked out of an airplane and she’s going to die except he catches her and saves her life which is a super-cool thing and because he loves his daughter. He’s a super-Dad which is a super-sensitive cool thing to be and so that’s why when the actor actually died they had The Doctor honor him with that portrait which I thought was pretty cool. So even back in the day, we had a relatively sensitive man.
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.
Did you know there was an Italian Heritage Month? And that it is October?
It was declared in 1989 so stay tuned to some fun things I’ll be posting this month to celebrate the contributions Italians have made to America since the days even before the country was founded (which you can learn about in my book “America’s Forgotten Founding Father: Filippo Mazzei”.
ITALIAN GENEALOGY: DISCOVERING YOUR ANCESTRAL RECORDS IN ITALY & THE USA – ITALIAN CULTURAL INSTITUTE (OCT. 14, 2017)
Taking place at the Italian Cultural Institute (IIC) this two-day workshop offers practical methods for researching documents relevant to families that emigrated from Southern Italy to the U.S. No knowledge of Italian is needed. Event recognized by the Consulate General of Italy in Los Angeles. Two sessions, $90 (non-member) / $85 (IIC members). Info and registration at (310) 824-7408 or classes.iicla@esteri.it.
Today’s Stephens College newsletter has a great piece about the Los Angeles launch party for When Women Wrote Hollywood with details about our upcoming launch at the Skylar Bookstore in Columbia, Missouri during the Citizen Jane Film Festival. — Rosanne
Book launch party on Aug. 11 in L.A. Pictured (L-to-R): Sarah Phillips ’17 M.F.A., Khanisha Foster ’17 M.F.A. (with her daughter), Lauren Smith ’17 M.F.A., Laura Kirk ’17 M.F.A., Amelia Phillips ’17 M.F.A., Julie Berkobien ’17 M.F.A., Toni Anita Hull ’04 B.F.A., ’17 M.F.A. and Dr. Rosanne Welch, book editor/Stephens professor.
Stephens College’s M.F.A. program now proudly boasts “When Women Wrote Hollywood,” a book of essays that focuses on the lives of female screenwriters of Golden Age Hollywood. The book, which published in July, is written by members of the inaugural graduating class of the Stephens M.F.A. in TV and Screenwriting. In the collection of 23 essays, Stephens Class of 2017 alumni write about female writers like Anita Loos, Adela Rogers St. Johns, and Gene Gauntier, whose work helped create unforgettable stories and characters beloved by audiences — but whose names are excluded from most film histories.“The mission of our M.F.A. program matched the mission of this book brilliantly — to increase the number of female screenwriters and female-centric stories told in Hollywood,” said Dr. Rosanne Welch, the book’s editor, and a Stephens assistant professor. She said her students used the essays as a way of thanking the earlier pioneering female writers who came before them.“When I introduce our Screenwriting History course, I remind students that we stand on the shoulders of those who came before us,” said Welch, a veteran television writer and scholar of screenwriting history. “Students are shocked at how many of these women were left out of most history books and are passionate about researching them for their final projects. When I read this first batch of essays, I knew they were worthy of publication.”The book is available on Amazon. It can also be purchased during Stephens’ Alumnae Leaders Weekend (Nov. 2-3) at the coinciding Citizen Jane Film Festival. In addition, a book launch event with local contributors will be held from 1-3 p.m. on Nov. 3 at Skylark Bookstore in downtown Columbia. Books can be purchased and signed by the authors.
“In an interview with Pamela Green the director of the soon to be released documentary Be Natural, a film that takes the exploration of Alice Guy Blaché’s life and career to new depths, Green shared, “Anytime you mention early cinema, she has to be mentioned. If you talk about Hollywood before Hollywood, she has to be mentioned. If you talk about an artist and an entrepreneur at the time, she has to be mentioned.””
The Nature and Genius of Alice Guy Blaché Khanisha Foster
* A portion of each sale from Amazon.com directly supports our blogs ** Many of these books may be available from your local library. Check it out! † Available from the LA Public Library
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