When I think of who went to Carnegie Mellon School of Drama, where I teach, I think of Denée Benton, Leslie Odom Jr., Renée Elise Goldberry, Telly Leung, Josh Gad, Leigh Silverman, Katherine Brook.... My students in the MFA dramatic writing program work with actors and directors of this caliber every day. You can't help but step up to their level; you become a better writer for collaborating with them.
That list also reflects the diversity and fierceness of our community. Over the past year, the fact that this community is made up not only of bold artists but also bold citizens has become crystal clear.
The next class that enters the dramatic writing MFA program, in 2018, will join me for my tenth year at CMU. I've been teaching long enough now to see graduates recognized for the great plays I knew they would write. For example: Liza Birkenmeier (Public Theater Emerging Writers Group, Ars Nova Play Group, Playwrights Realm Fellow), Dan Giles (BREEDERS at New Light Theater Project), Joshua Harmon (BAD JEWS, SIGNIFICANT OTHERS, SKINTIGHT), Dan O'Neil (Incubator Arts Project, Theater Editor of Culturebot), Isabella D'Esposito (Playwrights Realm Fellow), Carolyn Kras (Playwrights Union, LA), Mora V. Harris (City Theater Momentum Series, Pittsburgh), and Daniel Hirsch (Tête à Tête opera festival, London). Other alumni are writing for television and film in LA, touring plays for Seder tables and punk rock clubs, and making bonkers puppet extravaganzas in Texas.
You or someone you know should come here for two years and advance your work. The deadline is January 1 at http://drama.cmu.edu/
Thanks---
Rob Handel
Associate Professor of Dramatic Writing
Carnegie Mellon University
Here's some more information:
Combining playwriting, screenwriting, and writing for television, the Dramatic Writing MFA at Carnegie Mellon University School is focused on collaboration, intellectual vision, and experimentation. Central to the curriculum is Theater Lab, in which writers, directors, and actors collaborate on new work. Full-length plays by graduate playwrights receive workshop productions in the New Works Series, performed by the School of Drama's acclaimed student actors. The Sloan/CMU Script Competition awards $35,000 in prizes to current CMU students each year for original screenplays and TV pilots. MFA candidates may also have the opportunity to teach undergraduate courses in playwriting or screenwriting. Both during and after their time at CMU, writers have access to an established framework of professional connections. Students are encouraged to pursue their professional careers while enrolled in the MFA program, supported by the Dramatists Guild's “First Year Out” program, which provides students with access to new play development and production opportunities.
Recognizing that we practice a marginalized art form, we interrogate the state of the contemporary play and by what brave and daring acts we might contribute to its ascension. We are committed to an inclusive theater that resists bigotry and oppression.
Guest faculty are a vital presence in the program. Recent guests have included Clare Barron, Sheila Callaghan, Kia Corthron, Erin Courtney, Kristoffer Diaz, Jessica Dickey, Madeleine George, Lucas Hnath, Aurorae Khoo, Peter Sinn Nachtrieb, Richard Nelson, J.T. Rogers, Cori Thomas, Andrea Thome, Francine Volpe, Anne Washburn, and Mac Wellman.
Applications are due January 1. Information at http://drama.cmu.edu/
