Acceptance into the Department enrolls all students in the Division of Playwriting and the Division of Film and TV Writing. Students study in both divisions, concentrating in at least one medium as their studies advance.
During the first year, the graduate seminars in theatre and film will require an original ten-minute play, a one-act play, a full-length play, and a full-length screenplay. In the spring, individual workshops give students the opportunity to try out ideas and assess their suitability for television, film, or the theatre. Just as an artist uses a sketchbook to work out an idea for a painting, graduate students in the Dramatic Writing Program use film, videotape, or staged readings as a means of seeing how well their work holds up in the medium for which it is intended. In special seminars on contemporary theatre, students meet with visiting playwrights, directors, and literary managers to discuss current topics in the theatre.
The faculty members with whom students meet in weekly workshops are all professional writers. At times, when they feel it would be of benefit to student work, they will call on outside writers to act as consultants and critics. In each student's last semester, when the graduate thesis project is completed, a group of professional advisers to the program-prominent producers, directors, and writers-will view the work and discuss their reactions with the writer. These "crit sessions'' mark the writer's readiness to have work shown to the public.
Exceptional college seniors, who began in the Dramatic Writing Program as freshmen, may apply for admission to the graduate program a year early and complete the entire B.F.A./M.F.A. sequence in five years. Outstanding undergraduates interested in applying for early admission to the graduate program should speak to the chair as early as possible in their senior year.
