Tag: stephenscollege

Applications Now Open – Stephens College MFA in TV and Screenwriting for Fall 2024

We’re excited to have opened the window for applications to our Stephens College MFA in TV and Screenwriting’s Fall 2024 cohort.

While we have rolling admissions until all seats in the new cohort are filled. If potential MFA candidates submit materials by March 30th and suit the criteria they will be in contention for our Jan Marino Scholarship (for a woman writer 45 or older). 

Check out our new video with interviews with our most recent grads:

Inquire for more information on the program
or
Apply Now

Being a low residency program means you travel to Hollywood for 10 days at the beginning of each semester (once in August/once in January) for a workshop experience worth 3 units. We hold workshops at the historic Jim Henson Studios (originally the Charlie Chaplin Studios) in Hollywood, California.

Panel w group

Each semester students will take 3 courses after the workshop. They have one mentor for a television script and one mentor for a screenplay. The television mentors change each semester because in Fall semester you write a spec script/in Spring a pilot; the screenplay mentor is onboard for the whole year, as the Fall semester is all about developing an outline and writing Act One of the screenplay, and in the spring semester you complete and revise the script. Our instructors are all chosen because they are working writers and members of the Writers Guild of America (WGA).

In year two, there’s a second screenplay written (with a different mentor) and a thesis project, which can be anything from a web series to a limited series pilot and bible to a group of short films to an actual written thesis.

Our History of Screenwriting Courses are taught with a female gaze. Taught by our Executive Director so she can stay in touch with MFA candidates across their 2 years in the program. In the course, students read texts and view films each week that feature female-focused stories, and then post responses to the material. At the end of each semester, students turn in a profile of a screenwriter.

In 2017, 22 of these profiles written by MFA students were compiled into the book WHEN WOMEN WROTE HOLLYWOOD, published by McFarland Press.

If you are a writer looking to move your material to the next level so it will secure you a spot in the industry – or a college educator who wants a graduate degree to move up in the academic world – then our program is perfect for you. 

Join us in Fall 2024 in Hollywood!

Together in Chapel

 

Related posts:

  1. Rosanne Hosts Panel — Privileged Characters: How to recognize and avoid implicit bias in your screenwriting — at DTLA Film Festival, Sunday, October 27, 2019
  2. From The “When Women Wrote Hollywood” Archives 26: Adela St. Johns, . The Honeycomb. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1969.
  3. From The Journal Of Screenwriting V10 Issue 3: Network television writers and the ‘race problems’ of 1968 by Caryn Murphy
  4. Stephens College MFA Alumni Jackie Perez named Director of Development for the Hawaii Filmmakers Collective
  5. 33 Princess Leia from The Sisterhood of Science Fiction – Dr. Rosanne Welch [Video] (56 seconds)

PRESS: Screenwriters and academics converge on Stephens College for international conference, Columbia Tribune, Columbia, Missouri

While it was a pleasure to host the Screenwriting Research Network’s 2023 conference last week. I love reconnecting with all the folks we see annually in such wonderful places in the world (from Leeds to London to Dunedin to Milan). But the other great thing about this event was the chance to share the Stephens College campus in Columbia, Missouri with everyone. This article in the Columbia Tribune covered the conference’s opening night reception and interviewed some of our international guests so it gives you a lovely feel of who was there and why we gather annually:

PRESS: Screenwriters and academics converge on Stephens College for international conference, Columbia Tribune, Columbia, Missouri

Srn 2023 poster female gazeScreenwriters and academics converge on Stephens College for international conference

Screenwriters and screenwriting academics are gathering at Stephens College through Saturday for the Screenwriting Research Network Conference with the theme Gender and the Female Gaze.

A reception for conference participants was Wednesday night in the penthouse of the college library.

Participants are from at least 15 countries, said Roseanne Welch, executive director the Stephens’ Master of Fine Arts in TV and Screenwriting. Stephens College is a private women’s college in Columbia.

The female gaze refers to seeing life through women’s eyes, Welch said.

“We’re seeing that happen in all kinds of recent films, not just ‘Barbie'” Welch said.

Women’s stories were more complicated in the films of the 1930s and 1940s, she said.

“There were these complete stories with women anti-heroes,” Welch said.

Read the entire article – Screenwriters and academics converge on Stephens College for international conference

Related posts:

  1. Dr. Rosanne Welch Interview – She Served Too, KOPN FM, Columbia, Missouri [Audio]
  2. 18 The Heroine’s Journey from What Is a Western? Interview Series: When Women Wrote Westerns from the Autry Museum of the American West [Video]
  3. 20 More On Russell T Davies from There And Back Again: Writing and Developing for American TV [Video]
  4. Married Immigrants Mock Shakespeare for Movie Fame – Dr. Rosanne Welch, Script Magazine, August 2023
  5. Panel Discussion: Location as Character: The Craft of Writing Place – WGA – October 1, 2019

PRESS: International Screenwriting Conference coming to COMO, COMO Magazine, Columbia, Missouri

Srn 2023 poster female gaze

International Screenwriting Conference coming to COMO

September 20-23 event will highlight female influence on film, television industries 

Some of the biggest behind-the-scenes stars of television and motion pictures — the screenwriters — will converge on the Stephens College campus in Columbia from September 20-23 for the 15th Annual Screenwriting Research Network Conference. 

Focused on the theme “Gender and the Female Gaze,” the three-day conference will bring an international collection of film professors and practitioners from Finland, France, New Zealand, Brazil, Italy, the United Kingdom, Germany, and other countries to Columbia. Attendees will get the chance to learn from experienced screenwriters, attend exhibitions, and network with other screenwriters. 

Keynote speakers include Columbia native Phil Lazebnik, who has written screenplays for films including Pocahontas and Mulan, and Meg LeFauve, who was nominated for a Best Screenplay Oscar for the Pixar blockbuster Inside Out. Along with the keynote speech, LaFauve will appear for a Q&A after a public screening of Inside Out at Ragtag Theatre on Saturday, September 23. 

Read the entire article – International Screenwriting Conference coming to COMO

Related posts:

  1. Dr. Rosanne Welch Interview – She Served Too, KOPN FM, Columbia, Missouri [Audio]
  2. 18 The Heroine’s Journey from What Is a Western? Interview Series: When Women Wrote Westerns from the Autry Museum of the American West [Video]
  3. 20 More On Russell T Davies from There And Back Again: Writing and Developing for American TV [Video]
  4. My Quora Answer: What is the best theory of story structure for screenwriting, and why?
  5. Married Immigrants Mock Shakespeare for Movie Fame – Dr. Rosanne Welch, Script Magazine, August 2023

Dr. Rosanne Welch Interview – She Served Too, KOPN FM, Columbia, Missouri [Audio]

Dr. Rosanne Welch Interview - She Served Too, KPON FM, Columbia, MIssouri [Audio]While I was on the Stephens College campus a couple of weeks ago for the Screenwriting Research Network conference I had the pleasure of appearing on the She Served, Too radio show hosted by Elizabeth Herrera.

A military veteran, Herrera also runs the Stephens College Mission Promise Kept program. Together we spoke about the many military women whose stories have yet to be told on the big (or small) screen including the Mercury 13. Herrera was kind enough to let me talk about the Screenwriting Research Network conference we were holding on the Stephens campus that week and, of course, about the many military women who have dome through our Stephens College MFA in TV and Screenwriting and how telling our stories helps us heal – whether we turn them into scripts or not it’s the act of talking and being heard that heals.

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She Served Too
Every 3rd Tue at 5:00 PM With Elizabeth Herrera

Host Elizabeth Herrera has served in the United States Air Force, non-profits, and managing crisis care centers for women. On her show She Served Too, she discusses current issues from her unique perspective.

Related posts:

  1. 18 The Heroine’s Journey from What Is a Western? Interview Series: When Women Wrote Westerns from the Autry Museum of the American West [Video]
  2. 20 More On Russell T Davies from There And Back Again: Writing and Developing for American TV [Video]
  3. 05 Even More On Suso Cecchi d’Amico From Jeanne to Suso to Julie to Spike: How Jeanne Macpherson’s Manual on Screenwriting Influenced Italian Realism which Influenced Black Independent Film in the U.S. [Video]

Commencement Speaker, Dr. Rosanne Welch Speaks On “Female Role Models from ’70’s TV” at the Stephens College Graduate Commencement 2023

Commencement Speaker, Dr. Rosanne Welch Speaks ON "Female Role Models from '70's TV" at the Stephens College Graduate Commencement 2023

On Friday, May 5th I had the honor of delivering the commencement speech at the 2023 Stephens College Commencement Ceremony for Graduate & Continuing Studies as part of having received the Distinguished Faculty Award for the year. The full commencement ceremonies for the 2023 Stephens College MFA in TV and Screenwriting include speeches by MFA student commencement speaker Natalie Cash Petersson and Stephens College President Dianne Lynch.

Together we covered the gamut from “How Watching 1970s TV Gave me the Female Role Models to Succeed in Life” through “How to Channel your Knowledge into Action” and “How to be a Lifelong Learner – After a Well-Deserved Break”.

You can listen to the short ceremony here (the audio is a series of slides but the audio is smooth).

Rosanne’s Speech

Complete Commencement Video

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Related posts:

  1. Where’s Her Movie? Gymnast, Dianne Durham – 22 In A Series
  2. 33 Terence Winter and Boardwalk Empire from There And Back Again: Writing and Developing for American TV [Video]
  3. Watch Dr. Rosanne Welch on What Is a Western? Interview Series: When Women Wrote Westerns from the Autry Museum of the American West [Video] (27 minutes)
  4. 39 Buffy The Vampire Slayer from The Sisterhood of Science Fiction – Dr. Rosanne Welch [Video] (48 seconds)
  5. 18 The Heroine’s Journey from What Is a Western? Interview Series: When Women Wrote Westerns from the Autry Museum of the American West [Video]

Join Dr. Rosanne Welch for a Free Web Conversation on Writing as Activism, Friday, April 7, 2023 [Online]

Join Dr. Rosanne Welch for a Free Web Conversation on Writing as Activism, Friday, April 7, 2023 [Online]

I’m pleased to have been invited as a guest panelist for a Kopenhaver Center Conversation as I share in their goal to “empower both women and non-binary professionals and academics in all the fields of communication, in order to develop visionaries and leaders who can make a difference in their communities.” 

Along with my friend and colleague Rashaan Dozier-Escalante we will be discussing “Writing as Activism: Creating for Inclusion on the Screen”.

 

Join us for this free online event

Friday, April 7, 2023
(1:00-2:00pm Central/11am-12noon Pacific/2-3pm Eastern). 

REGISTER NOW

 

We empower women in all fields of communication

As a satellite location of the Lillian Lodge Kopenhaver Center for the Advancement of Women in Communication, we share the organization’s primary mission: To empower both women professionals and academics in all the fields of communication, in order to develop visionaries and leaders who can make a difference in their communities and their profession.

Related posts:

  1. Quotes from When Women Wrote Hollywood – 34 in a series – Bess Meredyth and The Academy
  2. 05 Unreliable Narrators In Textbooks from When Men Forget Women: The Many Ways Male Screenwriters Fail to Mention their Female Colleagues [Video]
  3. 33 Terence Winter and Boardwalk Empire from There And Back Again: Writing and Developing for American TV [Video]
  4. 06 Stories Are Important! from Why Researching Screenwriters (has Always) Mattered [Video] (51 seconds)
  5. Event: Stephens College MFA in TV and Screenwriting Open House – Wednesday, February 10, 2021

Student Voices: TV + Screenwriting from the Stephens College MFA in TV and Screenwriting [Video]

Thanks to all the current MFA candidates and alums who sat for interviews so that we could create this video for the Stephens College MFA in TV and Screenwriting and thanks to the Stephens College videographer, Andrew Church, for all his work on the project. Who knew a 2-minute video could take so many hours of interviewing and editing – oh, yeah, anyone else who does this for a living.

Student Voices: TV + Screenwriting from the Stephens College MFA in TV and Screenwriting [Video]

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Google Podcasts | RSS

Related posts:

  1. Stephens College MFA Alumni Jackie Perez named Director of Development for the Hawaii Filmmakers Collective
  2. Valerie Woods, Stephens College MFA in TV and Screenwriting Mentor, Speaks at the Athena Film Festival
  3. Drs. Rosanne Welch and Sarah Clark discuss “Don’t Look a Gift Horse in the Mouth” on the Zilch Podcast’s Monkees 101 Series [Audio]
  4. 02 About Dr. Rosanne Welch from Why Researching Screenwriters (has Always) Mattered – Dr. Rosanne Welch [Video] (1 minute 12 seconds)
  5. Write Your Family’s Stories! – Stephens College MFA in TV and Screenwriting

A Woman Wrote That – 30 in a series – Sleepless in Seattle (1993)

This new “A Woman Wrote That” post is an echo of the Writers Guild campaign of a few years ago (“A Writer Wrote That”) where they noted famous movie quotes and credited the screenwriter rather than the director.  The difference here being that we will be posting lines from films written by female screenwriters.  Feel free to share! — Rosanne 

“Destiny is something that we’ve invented because we can’t stand the fact that everything that happens is accidental.”

ANNIE

“Destiny is something that we’ve invented because we can’t stand the fact that everything that happens is accidental.”

Related posts:

  1. A Woman Wrote That – 11 in a series – Sleepless in Seattle (1993)
  2. A Woman Wrote That – 10 in a series – When Harry Met Sally (1989) by Nora Ephron
  3. A Woman Wrote That – 18 in a series – The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993), Writer: Caroline Thompson
  4. A Woman Wrote That – 9 in a series – Klondike Annie by Mae West (1936)
  5. A Woman Wrote That – 19 in a series – You’ve Got Mail (1998), Writer: Nora Ephron

A Woman Wrote That – 29 in a series – You’ve Got Mail (1998), Writer: Nora Ephron

This new “A Woman Wrote That” post is an echo of the Writers Guild campaign of a few years ago (“A Writer Wrote That”) where they noted famous movie quotes and credited the screenwriter rather than the director.  The difference here being that we will be posting lines from films written by female screenwriters.  Feel free to share! — Rosanne

A Woman Wrote That - 29 in a series - You've Got Mail (1998), Writer: Nora Ephron

JOE

 

Don’t you love New York in the fall? It makes me wanna buy school supplies. I would send you a bouquet of newly sharpened pencils if I knew your name and address.

Related posts:

  1. A Woman Wrote That – 19 in a series – You’ve Got Mail (1998), Writer: Nora Ephron
  2. A Woman Wrote That – 21 in a series – Bewitched (2005), Writer, Nora Ephron
  3. A Woman Wrote That – 10 in a series – When Harry Met Sally (1989) by Nora Ephron
  4. A Woman Wrote That – 22 in a series – Bring It On! (2000), Writer, Jessica Bendinger
  5. A Woman Wrote That – 26 in a series – Fleabag (2016), Writer, Phoebe Waller-Bridge

A Woman Wrote That – 28 in a series – The Birdcage (1996), Witten by Elaine May

This new “A Woman Wrote That” post is an echo of the Writers Guild campaign of a few years ago (“A Writer Wrote That”) where they noted famous movie quotes and credited the screenwriter rather than the director.  The difference here being that we will be posting lines from films written by female screenwriters.  Feel free to share! — Rosanne

A Woman Wrote That - 28 in a series - The Birdcage (1996), Witten by Elaine May

ALBERT

There’s no need to get hysterical. All I have to remember is I can always get more toast.

Related posts:

  1. A Woman Wrote That – 14 in a series – The Birdcage (1996) Wr: Elaine May
  2. A Woman Wrote That – 25 in a series – Thelma and Louise (1991), Writer, Callie Khouri
  3. A Woman Wrote That – 11 in a series – Sleepless in Seattle (1993)
  4. A Woman Wrote That – 26 in a series – Fleabag (2016), Writer, Phoebe Waller-Bridge
  5. A Woman Wrote That – 10 in a series – When Harry Met Sally (1989) by Nora Ephron