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.
* 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! † Books available at the LA Public Library
Born in Italy at the tumultuous end of France’s influence in Europe, Giuseppe Verdi went on to become the world’s most recognizable name in opera.
Set against the rise of the Italian states in the middle of the nineteenth century, The Faithful depicts an artist bedeviled by his role not just as a composer, but as an unassuming icon of the Italian Unification and the birth of modern Italy.
Through chance encounters in gilded Milanese salons and the hushed politics of the Italian opera, we experience the struggles of a man conflicted by his role as an artist and by his commitment to a country yearning for independence.
Rosanne Welch, PhD, Author of Why The Monkees Matter, presents “How The Monkees Changed Television” at a Cal State Fullerton Lunch Lecture on May 8, 2018.
In this talk, she shows how The Monkees, and specifically their presence on television, set the stage for large changes to come in the late 1960s.
Transcript
This is my final happy episode. It’s called “Some Like It Lukewarm.” If you’re an old movie fan, of course, that’s “Some Like It Hot.” So the writers are making fun of some of their favorite movies. There’s a band contest and everyone shows up and discovers you have to be in a mixed gender band. So they force Davy to dress as a girl and they meet a girl’s group where they force — that’s Deanna Martin — Dean Martin’s daughter — she and Davy were hooked together in the tabloids as being a relationship. but they really weren’t, but it’s kind of fun to put them together. So this group, so she’s doing that. The answer — for the most pretty feminist in that there’s this girl rock band before The Bangles and The Gogos there’s a girl rock band. The flaw in this one — I feel bad — is when you first meet the women, see how they can all play their own instruments. They’re all playing guitars and drums. When the answer of course is we are individually lying about having a mixed gender group so let’s mix our groups together and we will be telling the truth, but when we do it look what the girls become. They’re the gogo dancers behind the boys playing their instruments. They totally lose their own ability to be rock stars.
A hit television show about a fictitious rock band, The Monkees (1966-1968) earned two Emmys–Outstanding Comedy Series and Outstanding Directorial Acheivement in Comedy.
Capitalizing on the show’s success, the actual band formed by the actors, at their peak, sold more albums than The Beatles and The Rolling Stones combined, and set the stage for other musical TV characters from The Partridge Family to Hannah Montana. In the late 1980s, the Monkees began a series of reunion tours that continued into their 50th anniversary.
This book tells the story of The Monkees and how the show changed television, introducing a new generation to the fourth-wall-breaking slapstick created by Laurel and Hardy and the Marx Brothers.
Its creators contributed to the innovative film and television of 1970s with projects like Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Laugh-In and Welcome Back, Kotter. Immense profits from the show, its music and its merchandising funded the producers’ move into films such as Head, Easy Riderand Five Easy Pieces.
As in past years, my Stephens College MFA in TV and Screenwriting students will presenting on important women screenwriters during the festival, too. — Rosanne
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
Frances Goodrich (December 21, 1890 – January 29, 1984) was an American dramatist and screenwriter, best known for her collaborations with her partner and husband Albert Hackett.
Not long after marrying Hackett, the couple went to Hollywood in the late 1920s to write the screenplay for their stage success Up Pops the Devil for Paramount Pictures. In 1933 they signed a contract with MGM and remained with them until 1939. Among their earliest assignments was writing the screenplay for The Thin Man (1934). They were encouraged by the director W. S. Van Dyke to use the writing of Dashiell Hammett as a basis only, and to concentrate on providing witty exchanges for the principal characters, Nick and Nora Charles (played by William Powell and Myrna Loy). The resulting film was one of the major hits of the year, and the script, considered to show a modern relationship in a realistic manner for the first time, is considered groundbreaking. — Wikipedia
* 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
As they each played devil’s advocate in a debate over taking such a strong step toward the independence of the colonies, Filippo warned Jefferson, “If we do this, there will be no turning back.”
“I don’t believe I want to turn back anymore,” Jefferson responded.
With that the two men began spending intense hours bent over their quill pens writing their original essays and then editing each other’s work. Filippo wrote in Italian and Jefferson translated his words into English.
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.
* 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! † Books available at the LA Public Library
and Follow
![19 Some Like It Lukewarm from How The Monkees Changed Television [Video] (1:10)](https://rosannewelch.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/monkees-tv-19-lukewarm.jpeg)
†
