Writing, Film, Television and More!
Class of 2020 – Stephens College MFA in Screenwriting in Television
Our latest class is in Los Angeles for their first workshop session so we took the opportunity to grab our first group photo.
They’ll be back in August for another 10-day session and two more workshops in their second year.
Always great to welcome a new set of MFA students each year!
eBook Editions Now Available – When Women Wrote Hollywood
Get a copy for your favorite eReader Today!
This collection of 23 new essays focuses on the lives of female screenwriters of Golden Age Hollywood, whose work helped create those unforgettable stories and characters beloved by audiences–but whose names have been left out of most film histories. The contributors trace the careers of such writers as Anita Loos, Adela Rogers St. Johns, Lillian Hellman, Gene Gauntier, Eve Unsell and Ida May Park, and explore themes of their writing in classics like Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Ben Hur, and It’s a Wonderful Life.
When Women Wrote Hollywood – 20 in a series – Lois Weber
Lois Weber (June 13, 1879 – November 13, 1939) was an American silent film actress, screenwriter, producer, and director, who is considered “the most important female director the American film industry has known”,[1] and “one of the most important and prolific film directors in the era of silent films”.[2][3] Film historian Anthony Slide asserts that: “Along with D.W. Griffith, Weber was the American cinema’s first genuine auteur, a filmmaker involved in all aspects of production and one who utilized the motion picture to put across her own ideas and philosophies.”[4]
Weber produced an oeuvre which Jennifer Parchesky argues is comparable to Griffith’s in both quantity and quality,[5] and brought to the screen her concerns for humanity and social justice in an estimated 200 to 400 films,[2][6] of which as few as twenty have been preserved,[7][8] and has been credited by IMDb with directing 135 films, writing 114, and acting in 100.[9] Weber was “one of the first directors to come to the attention of the censors in Hollywood’s early years”.[10] — Wikipedia
Watch a movie by Lois Weber
A clip from The Blot
More about Lois Weber
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** Many of these books may be available from your local library. Check it out!
† Available from the LA Public Library
The friendship that was to last a lifetime began as the Adams’ carriages rode up the grand driveway of Monticello and Filippo saw at a glance how much Jefferson esteemed all things Italian. The neoclassical design of the main home came from principles described by Italian Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio.
From America’s Forgotten Founding Father — Get Your Copy Today!
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Also from the Mentoris Project
Want to use these books in your classroom? Contact the Mentoris Project!`
Books for Sale! – When Women Wrote Hollywood Book Launch Event
Many thanks to the essay contributors who joined us and spoke so eloquently about the women writers they had researched: Toni Anita Hull, Laura Kirk, Amelia Phillips, Sarah Phillips, Julie Berkobien, Khanisha Foster, Lauren Smith, and to Cari Beauchamp, who wrote the Forward to the collection.
Follow Rosanne Welch on Instagram
Buy a signed copy of when Women Write Hollywood
* 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
This series will focus on material I found while researching my book, America’s Forgotten Founding Father: A Novel Based on the Life of Filippo Mazzei.
These next few items come from the Bibliography I submitted when proposing the original book. — Rosanne.
Abstract
A multi-faceted personality of the European Enlightenment and American Independence, Filippo Mazzei (1730-1816) retraces his wanderings between the Old and the New Worlds in his Memorie, written from 1810 to 1813. This paper argues that the apparent lack of theoretical depth and rhetorical strength of Mazzei’s Memorie represents rather the narrator’s ironic, pragmatic strategy of resistance to various forms of censorship, which he experienced in particular through his interactions with the Tribunal of the Inquisition. We will examine two specific episodes of the Memorie through the lens of Wilhelm Dilthey’s philosophical notion of Erlebnis or ‘lived experience.’ From the perspective of Erlebnis and the inherent interrelation between lived experience, understanding and expression articulated in Dilthey’s The Formation of the Historical World in the Human Sciences of 1910, Mazzei’s autobiographical narrative emerges as a hermeneutic strategy of resistance that weaves together History and histories, universality and individuality.
Between enlightened pragmatism and censorship resistance: Memorie della vita e delle peregrinazioni del fiorentino Filippo Mazzei. Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/272413716_Between_enlightened_pragmatism_and_censorship_resistance_Memorie_della_vita_e_delle_peregrinazioni_del_fiorentino_Filippo_Mazzei [accessed Aug 13 2018].
Order an autographed copy of America’s Forgotten Founding Father
Print Edition | Kindle Edition | Apple iBooks Edition | Nook Edition
Also from the Mentoris Project
Want to use these books in your classroom? Contact the Mentoris Project!`
![When Women Wrote Hollywood Book Launch Event - August 11, 2018 [Photos]](https://rosannewelch.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/stephens-w3h-presentation.jpg)
See the entire collection of photos
In honor of the launch of our book of essays – When Women Wrote Hollywood – Jake Flynn, Communications Director for Councilmember Bob Blumenfield presented us this Certificate of Recognition from the Los Angeles City Council for “bringing students from throughout the country to Los Angeles and pairing them with mentors in the heart of the entertainment business…
The flexibility of the program allows for a diverse student body which in turn promotes the telling of stories that have not been heard before.” One certificate will return home to Stephens College with Dean Gail Humphries Mardirosian, who flew out to attend the launch, and the other two will stay with Ken and I here in Los Angeles.
Many thanks to the essay contributors who joined us and spoke so eloquently about the women writers they had researched: Toni Anita Hull, Laura Kirk, Amelia Phillips, Sarah Phillips, Julie Berkobien, Khanisha Foster, Lauren Smith, and to Cari Beauchamp, who wrote the Forward to the collection.
Buy a signed copy of when Women Write Hollywood
* 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
Watch this entire presentation: Gender Diversity in the Who-niverse: Paving the Way for a Lady Doctor with Dr. Rosanne Welch [Video] (36:58)
![24 Nyssa from Gender Diversity in the Who-nivers [Video] (0:42)](https://rosannewelch.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/gender-dw-24-nyssa.jpeg)
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:
Then we had Nyssa who I really enjoyed. Nyssa came in with the Peter Davison era with Teegan — who’s alright. Teegan has her moments. But Nyssa is an alien, super intelligent from her alien race and at the end of her time with The Doctor — thy end up on a planet where there’s a leper colony and nobody is taking care of these people and rather than — again — continuing to travel with The Doctor she chooses to stay and be a caregiver to these people. She’s a doctor so she can take care of them and imagines that she will find a cure for this if she stays behind and he’s like “well maybe this will never be cured” and she’s like “it won’t ever be cured if no one tries.” So she’s willing to give it that time which I think is a beautiful strength being evidenced by a female character. Not that hard.
Follow Dr. Welch on Twitter and Instagram
https://twitter.com/rosannewelch – http://instagram.com/drrosannewelch
Rosanne Welch, PhD
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.
Watch Dr. Welch’s talk “The Importance of Having a Female Voice in the Room” at the 2016 TEDxCPP.
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More on the Monkees: Dolenz, Jones, Boyce & Hart ~ 1976 TV Special (Part 1)
![More on the Monkees: Dolenz, Jones, Boyce & Hart ~ 1976 TV Special (Part 1) [Video]](https://rosannewelch.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/dolenz-jones.jpg)
Wikipedia: “Dolenz, Jones, Boyce & Hart starred in their own 1976 TV special called The Great Golden Hits of the Monkees Show, which appeared in syndication. It featured a medley of other Boyce and Hart songs, as well as the songs they had produced for the Monkees. Strangely, it did not include any songs from their new album.”
Why The Monkees Matter: Teenagers, Television and American Pop Culture
McFarland (Direct from Publisher) | Amazon | Kindle Edition | Nook Edition
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Order Examination Copies, Library and Campus Bookstore orders directly from McFarland
Pictured: Gail Parent, Njeri Brown, Rosanne Welch, Natasha Leggero, Riki Lindhome, Christine Zander and Ken Lazebnik pose before the Women Comedy Writers Panel
I had a great time moderating another panel for the WGA Foundation and enjoyed meeting all these female comedy writers. We talked about the power of comedy to force us to face the issues of our day and the pure fun of finding your place in a writers room.
I took the opportunity to ask Gail Parent (of The Carol Burnett Show, and The Golden Girls) to sign my used copy of her novel Sheila Levine is Dead and Living in New York so now I have another book to add to my autographed shelf!
It was wonderful to feel the reverence in the room whenever she spoke – coming from the audience as well as the panel. That kind of reverence for those who came before us is usually reserved for men, which made experiencing it so much more powerful.
