playwriting
At Spalding, we offer individual tracks in Playwriting or Screenwriting, with an opportunity for optional interdisciplinary study for the student interested in acquiring a mastery of writing for both screen and stage. Guest lecturers, screenings, group discussions, workshops and one-on-one mentor correspondence focus on issues of craft and the wider professional arena. Basic fundamentals of dramatic writing are emphasized along with highly individualized courses of study.
Playwriting students are expected to write two full-length plays and several one-acts. They are encouraged to both read and attend performances of classical plays (Shakespeare / Sophocles / Shaw), modern plays (Tennessee Williams / August 
Wilson / Paula Vogel) and alternative works (Ping Chong / Charles Mee).
Playwriting students take a pro-active approach to getting work produced in their own communities by engaging in student-produced stage readings in consultation with their mentor. Because theater and film making are uniquely collaborative art forms and the act of hearing a script read aloud is crucial to its development, all students receive a professional reading of a play or screenplay with local actors in Louisville and gain valuable exposure to visiting theater and film professionals connected with the Actors Theater of Louisville, Stage One, The Kentucky Film Lab, and an ever-widening network of writers, artists, filmmakers, and producers from Los Angeles, New York, and other locations in the US and abroad.
Our award-winning faculty include
- Sheila Callaghan (playwriting) Dead City, That Pretty Pretty; Or, The Rape Play, Fever/Dream (see American Theatre interview). Sheila is on the writing staff of Showtime's The United States of Tara.
- Eric Schmiedl (playwriting) Plainsong, Ghosts of Treasure Island, Eventide, and many more.
- Charles Schulman (playwriting, screenwriting) The Fartiste, Angel of Death, The Birthday Present, The Ground Zero Club, The Apollo Comedy Hour
- Sam Zalutsky (screenwriting) (You Belong to Me, SuperStore, Stefan’s Silver Bell, Boy’s Briefs, Smear
For a complete bio of facultyclick here
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