By Stephen Stirling
Queens College launched a playwriting program this week which will allow its students to see their vision progress from ideas to complete theatre productions courtesy of a unique partnership forged by the school.
The Queens College playwriting master's in fine arts program has partnered with acclaimed off-Broadway theatre group The Actors Company Theatre, which will develop and perform scripts written by program members.
Playwright Richard Schotter, who will head the new program, said it presents a rare opportunity for students to develop their ideas through intensive workshop training and fully realize them through practical theatre experience.
“There's nothing more useful and exciting for a young playwright than to see and hear his or her work performed by professional actors in a real-world theatrical setting. That's what our partnership with TACT will provide,” Schotter said.
TACT, founded in 1992, is an ensemble of professional theatre artists with hundreds of collected Broadway and Off-Broadway theatre credits. Students in the MFA program will work with TACT Director Scott Alan Evans and actors Cynthia Harris and Simon Jones to bring their scripts to life.
The inaugural two-year MFA program will begin in September, but applications will be accepted for the 2009-10 school year until Feb. 15, 2009. For more information on the program or TACT, visit either www.qc.cuny.edu/creative_writing or www.tactnyc.org.
Reach reporter Stephen Stirling by e-mail at Sstirling@timesledger.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 138.
