{"id":7139,"date":"2017-02-09T10:31:31","date_gmt":"2017-02-09T15:31:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hollins.edu\/magazine\/?p=7139"},"modified":"2017-03-24T12:48:40","modified_gmt":"2017-03-24T16:48:40","slug":"summer-magic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hollins.edu\/magazine\/summer-magic\/","title":{"rendered":"Summer Magic"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Jeff Hodges M.A.L.S. \u201911<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Scene

Playwriting students in the scene studies class<\/p><\/div>\n

Each summer, writers, artists, and scholars converge on campus for six weeks of academic rigor and self-discovery, building community, generating ideas, and living in the moment with focus and intensity. They enjoy every minute.<\/h2>\n

Hollins\u2019 summer graduate programs in playwriting<\/a>, children\u2019s literatur<\/a>e, children\u2019s book writing and illustrating<\/a>, and screenwriting and film studies<\/a> have carved out their own unique identities. But the similarities they share also play a major role in persuading students from all over the country to give up a significant part of their summers to enroll.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe offer low-risk opportunities to learn to take big risks,\u201d explains Todd Ristau, director of the playwriting M.F.A. program. Kelly Fullerton, who teaches in the M.A.\/M.F.A. program in screenwriting and film studies<\/a>, adds, \u201cWe\u2019re in the business of teaching students how to overcome discouragement and defeat the demons that keep them from moving forward.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n

Each of the disciplines is inspired by prestigious programs across America, from UCLA and the University of Iowa to Hollins\u2019 own nationally recognized creative writing program. None of the programs begins and ends with the six-week summer session. Throughout the rest of the year each is connecting with students through online courses, an active social media presence, and other initiatives.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe develop a relationship with faculty because they care. We keep in touch with them,\u201d says Rebekah Lowell, a student in the children\u2019s book writing and illustrating program, while children\u2019s literature student Cassie Gustafson notes, \u201cWe\u2019re sharing resources, we meet up at conferences. We\u2019re called the \u2018Hollins Mafia\u2019 because we cluster and we pick up right where we leave off.\u201d Bob Moss, professional resident teaching artist in the summer M.F.A. playwriting program<\/a>, compares the six-week sessions to \u201cputting money in the bank. Once you get out of here, you start drawing it out.\u201d<\/p>\n

For playwriting student Nick McCord, summer at Hollins has represented an epiphany. \u201cThe beautiful thing about this is that we\u2019ve all been given an investment in each other\u2019s lives that has both immediacy and relativism. Everybody wants to make art. Everybody wants to work with people that they love. At Hollins, I understood the two aren\u2019t mutually exclusive.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0\"divider\"<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cPeople everyone will want to work with\u201d<\/h2>\n
\"Bob

Bob Moss\u2019s directing class<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cPlaywright\u2019s Lab\u201d may seem an oddly clinical name for a graduate program devoted to an art form. But to Bob Moss, the moniker fits.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re like scientists creating modules of human behavior. We\u2019re looking at them under a magnifying glass and saying, \u2018Hmmm, I don\u2019t know if I got that right. Let\u2019s put another example of human behavior under a magnifying glass and look at it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The Playwright\u2019s Lab encompasses three fields: playwriting, directing, and acting. Founder and director Todd Ristau used his experience as an undergraduate and graduate student at the University of Iowa to \u201cdesign the program I wish I\u2019d gone to, where we have highly motivated theatre practitioners who want to work in an interdisciplinary way and value others in the process. They know what it\u2019s like to audition, they know what directors do, they know how to work together because they\u2019ve got experience in each of the different disciplines of the medium for which they are writing.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt Hollins, our students model behavior that reinforces theatre as a shared art form that\u2019s there for everyone\u2019s mutual benefit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Faculty and students tout collaboration. Whether they are playwrights, directors, or actors, each student comes out of the program with a \u201ccollaborative vocabulary,\u201d according to faculty member Saffron Henke, an acting and directing professor at Miami University. \u201cWe\u2019re taking care of each other\u2019s experiences and learning how to be collaborative in an honest and compassionate way,\u201d says Emma Sperka \u201912, who majored in theatre as an undergraduate at Hollins and is now a first-year student in the performance certificate program. Ronald Blanks Jr., another student in performance, feels \u201cthe family atmosphere is the core of everything. It\u2019s okay not to get it right the first time. Somebody\u2019s going to help you mold it to get it where you want it to go.\u201d And playwright Meredith Cope-Levy \u201912 simply states, \u201cMy peers have become my teachers as much as the faculty are my teachers.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re training our students to be people that everyone will want to work with,\u201d states Ristau. \u201cI know lots of people in the profession who seek out Hollins grads. They know they can trust them to get the work done without being confrontational.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the same time, Cope-Levy dispels the notion that there is a \u201cHollins playwright.\u201d \u201cIt\u2019s not about fitting us into a mold,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s about giving us space to become the best artists possible.\u201d Henke notes, \u201cThis environment facilitates personal expression of whatever kind of work you want to make. Graduates are empowered, not overwhelmed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moss finds the honesty and compassion \u201castonishing. We\u2019re helping each other constructively, thoughtfully, and lovingly without being sentimental and without lying.\u201d Adds Ristau, \u201cI feel the greatest validation from the success of the individual students, but also when our guest professionals come here as faculty or speakers. They tell me the same thing: \u2018I wish I\u2019d gone to Hollins.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0\"divider\"<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cCreative energy I\u2019ve never experienced anywhere else\u201d<\/h2>\n
\"Children's

Program director Amanda Cockrell (middle) teaching a genre study class<\/p><\/div>\n

When Amanda Cockrell \u201969, M.A. \u201988 launched a graduate program at Hollins focusing on the study and writing of children\u2019s literature in 1992, she didn\u2019t have to look far to find the right model.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s this theory that if you can\u2019t take blistering criticism, you shouldn\u2019t be a writer. How many promising writers are now not writing because some teacher told them they had to be tough, and if they couldn\u2019t take it to get out of the field? Good teachers, editors, and peers don\u2019t do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cockrell earned her M.A. in Hollins\u2019 graduate program in creative writing, where the hallmark is \u201csafety. It\u2019s not cutthroat. People cheer each other\u2019s success.\u201d<\/p>\n

She embraces that approach. \u201cStructurally, the children\u2019s literature program has evolved a lot, but our philosophy has remained the same: Help writers and scholars find their voice and teach them to perfect their craft.\u201d<\/p>\n

Students say they\u2019ve gained unprecedented self-confidence as a result of that nurturing environment. Reflecting on three summers in the program, Cassie Gustafson says, \u201cFor the first time in my life I can say I am a writer. I found my calling and where I needed to be. I\u2019ve discovered the pieces that were missing from my toolbox. I can be creative and explore this side of me I never allowed myself to experience before.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere better could I find a place to study and write about the things I\u2019ve loved all my life?\u201d adds Michael Jones, a third-year M.F.A. student. \u201cBeing around all these wonderful people has expanded my mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those include faculty members such as Hillary Homzie, who holds an M.A. [\u201998] in children\u2019s literature and writing from Hollins. \u201cIt was life-changing. I felt like a piece of me had been missing until I came to this program. I see the look of joy on the faces of first-year graduate students now and I say, \u2018Yes! It only continues!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Gustafson says the six-week sessions unleash \u201cthis creative energy I\u2019ve never enjoyed anywhere else,\u201d and Jones\u2019s preconceived idea that grad school was \u201cterrifying, brutal\u201d was squelched his first day. \u201cI went home and asked my wife, \u2018It\u2019s okay for grad school to be fun?\u2019 I have never not had fun in three years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Faculty member Nancy Ruth Patterson believes a sensitivity to the role feelings play in the classroom is crucial to the program. \u201cI start every class by saying, \u2018You will leave this room with your dignity intact. You will leave this room feeling better about yourself as a potential writer than you did when you came in.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTo me, the Hollins campus is a protective bubble. I want to replicate that in the classroom,\u201d says Homzie. \u201cWe are careful about communicating in a supportive, empowering, and loving way. Everybody here works hard at mirroring that attitude. It\u2019s just the beginning of taking Hollins wherever you go.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0\"divider\"<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re at the cutting edge\u201d<\/h2>\n
\"illustrations\"

Illustrations from Ruth Sanderson\u2019s children\u2019s book media class<\/p><\/div>\n

Ruth Sanderson has earned acclaim as the author\/illustrator of many children\u2019s books. Her accomplishments as a writer and an artist were delayed, however, for one unfortunate reason.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I went to art school there was no writing,\u201d she recalls. \u201cIf I had had writing in school, I would have become an author\/illustrator faster. Fifteen years after I graduated I was finally brave enough to submit writing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today, the codirector of Hollins\u2019 graduate program in children\u2019s book writing and illustrating<\/a>, the first of its kind, is helping fledgling author\/illustrators avoid that pitfall.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have carved out this niche because at most universities the English department is very separate from the art department,\u201d Sanderson explains. \u201cFor this combination to happen, you have to have a strong children\u2019s book writing program and a strong illustration program in the same school. Here, the idea seemed like a no-brainer.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Elizabeth

Elizabeth Dulemba teaching a class in children\u2019s book design<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cAuthor\/illustrators are in demand with agents and editors because it\u2019s cheaper and easier to work with one person,\u201d says faculty member Elizabeth Dulemba, herself an award-winning author\/illustrator. \u201cAs far as the industry is concerned, we\u2019re at the cutting edge.\u201d<\/p>\n

Students in the program are generally illustrators who wish to enhance their writing skills rather than vice versa, which faculty member Ashley Wolff says \u201cis a harder thing to do. It\u2019s rare to find an author who becomes an illustrator.\u201d<\/p>\n

For students with a strong background in illustration such as Lucy Rowe, \u201cit\u2019s been a good challenge and a good decision.\u201d<\/p>\n

Likewise, fellow student Rebekah Lowell appreciates the \u201cgreat opportunity to stretch yourself and grow. I expected to come here and work hard and I\u2019m getting everything I hoped for.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dulemba believes the transition is easier for illustrators because \u201cthey are story makers already. They are always illustrating the stories that are in their head. And this program lets them hopefully become employed<\/em> story makers.\u201d<\/p>\n

To that end, Sanderson says the program emphasizes the business of a writing\/illustrating career along with developing the craft. \u201cOur goal is to have students find a way of working that pleases them and the marketplace.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lowell, who was a wildlife artist before coming to Hollins, is seeing that goal come to fruition with what she calls \u201ca style breakthrough. I\u2019m taking my art that won\u2019t translate into picture books and coming up with new ways of working. I don\u2019t think that would\u2019ve happened if I wasn\u2019t here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"divider\"<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cBringing a little bit of LA to Virginia\u201d<\/h2>\n

\u201cIf you want discouragement in Hollywood, you\u2019ll find it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Tim

Tim Albaugh, director of the program in screenwriting and film studies<\/p><\/div>\n

An award-winning television and film writer, Kelly Fullerton has experienced firsthand the ups and downs of a show business career. Helping new screenwriters navigate the intimidating world of story pitches, rewrites, and criticism and rejection became a calling. When longtime friend and mentor Tim Albaugh<\/a> approached her about joining the faculty of the master\u2019s program in screenwriting and film studies he directs, she says there were good reasons to accept.<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst, how far away Hollins is from Hollywood. The business is such a distraction and I\u2019m not sure LA is the best venue to focus on writing. Hollins is idyllic because it has all these different places to write.<\/p>\n

\u201cSecond is affordability. For many students, grad school at other institutions is too expensive.\u201d At Hollins, Fullerton says, students pay much less to get the benefits found in other major screenwriting programs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe third piece is access to professors and guest speakers. You build these amazing relationships by being together constantly. I tell my students, \u2018Once you\u2019re in a class with me, you\u2019re always in a class with me.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The attention he received from faculty surprised third-year student Alex del Campo. \u201cAt other schools, your time with the instructor is in class. Here, it\u2019s six weeks of ongoing interaction and bouncing ideas off one another. They\u2019re invested in us and our success after we leave.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fellow student Anna Fahr agrees. \u201cWe get one-on-one instruction both inside and outside the classroom that\u2019s valuable as we\u2019re learning to develop our craft.\u201d<\/p>\n

For 25 years, Albaugh has taught in UCLA\u2019s M.F.A. screenwriting program.
\nAny similarities between UCLA and Hollins are intentional. \u201cWhat I wanted to do was build on UCLA\u2019s core components. For example, last summer we added a web series production course that\u2019s not taught at any other school.\u201d<\/p>\n

Albaugh says the program\u2019s strength lies in its flexibility to offer something different each summer. \u201cWe can react to industry trends on the fly. That isn\u2019t possible at a larger institution because you have to jump through so many hoops to make something happen.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur focus in the program is not only to make people better writers but also to prepare them for the reality of the business. We take it upon ourselves to give people the tools they need to thrive. I bring a little bit of LA to Virginia every summer. The teachers and guests I invite are all working professionals there. They\u2019ve been in the trenches and they know what it takes to succeed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Albaugh emphasizes that a degree in film is not a prerequisite. \u201cI\u2019m more interested in people who have stories to tell, people with a liberal arts background.\u201d Fullerton notes that military veterans in the program particularly \u201chave interesting things to say. Their life experience adds to the variety of different backgrounds we seek. It\u2019s exciting to be in a classroom with this mix of people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fullerton believes the buzz about Hollins screenwriting is growing. \u201cStudents are hearing they can come here and get a world-class education.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jeff Hodges is director of public relations.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>Photos by Sharon Meador<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Jeff Hodges M.A.L.S. \u201911 Each summer, writers, artists, and scholars converge on campus for six weeks of academic rigor and self-discovery, building community, generating ideas, and living in the moment with focus and intensity. They enjoy every minute. Hollins\u2019 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7203,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[68],"class_list":["post-7139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","tag-winter-2017"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hollins.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hollins.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hollins.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hollins.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hollins.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7139"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.hollins.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7139\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7219,"href":"https:\/\/www.hollins.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7139\/revisions\/7219"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hollins.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hollins.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hollins.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hollins.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}