CCA News
Playwright/Poet Finds Write Way to A.C.T.
Posted on Thursday, August 27, 2009, by Jim Norrena
To complete his thesis project last spring, poet and playwright Evan Schnair (MFA Writing 2009) approached the directors of the American Conservatory Theater Master of Fine Arts Program to solicit a collaboration: his play, their actors, one performance.
Schnair’s Let It Come, Down, a play that fuses poetry, drama, and performance, debuted in April at the A.C.T. Studios in downtown San Francisco. The play, directed by MFA theater student David Jacobs, is described by the playwright as being “written for a variety of spatial experiences; what enacts form on the page comes to life on the stage. …”
And while the A.C.T. reading marked a first-of-its-kind collaboration between CCA’s MFA Program in Writing and A.C.T.'s Master of Fine Arts Program, it was not the first time CCA graduate writers enlisted support from the literary-arts community to reach their audiences.
In fact, Schnair’s propitious endeavor reflects what has become somewhat of a staple of this successful program. Established in 2000 (watch for a special 10-year anniversary celebration), the curriculum is infused with cross-genre writing opportunities (e.g., poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, playwriting, screenwriting) that inspire writers partake in community outreach that can and does create a ripple effect from the Bay Area outward.
MFA Program in Writing adjunct professor Ben Yalom, who also is the artistic director of celebrated Bay Area–based foolsFURY Theater group, commences teaching the program’s playwriting course this fall for his fifth consecutive year. As one of Schnair’s instructors, Yalom is optimistic about future collaborations.
"This type of collaboration makes great sense," he admits. "One of the reasons CCA is such a wonderful place to study is that we are in the midst of this rich cultural environment. Connecting with other cultural institutions in a significant way is an obvious way of taking advantage of these resources. . . . [Because] the college doesn't offer acting, finding that resource off campus is fantastic. Likewise, A.C.T.'s MFA program doesn't house a playwriting program—and it is an amazing learning experience for young actors to get to work on new scripts. So there is a huge synergy here that benefits both organizations."
Said MFA Program in Writing chair and associate professor Joseph Lease: “I am delighted the MFA Writing Program and A.C.T. have collaborated on Evan’s thesis project. I believe the success of this collaboration is in keeping with a number of successful collaborations between this program and other important Bay Area literary institutions, and underscores how dynamic and creative our program is.”
Lease is referring to the program’s numerable alumni who collaborate among, work for, and intern with many stalwart community-outreach literary organizations. Such collaborations simultaneously lend writers a heightened reputation within the literary arts scene, which also circuitously connect the dots between the program and the literary community at large. And by extension, the college.
Along with Schnair, other alumni have also built reputations for themselves as accomplished writers via their connections to the literary community.
Emmanuel Hapsis (2007) is associate producer of KQED’s weekly reading series, The Writers’ Block, a “weekly reading series featuring stories, essays and poetry by all kinds of writers—from accomplished beginners to established authors. The program includes all genres, from fiction and non-fiction to poetry and plays.” He also is the production assistant for Gallery Crawl, a monthly activity overview of the Bay Area’s bustling gallery scene.
Nana Twumasi (2007), a 2006 All-College Honors recipient (Graduate Writing Honors—Creative), interned with San Francisco-based Youth Speaks, the leading nonprofit presenter of spoken word performance, education, and youth development programs in the United States, with partner programs in 36 cities. The organization offers a slate of literary-arts education programs, numerous publications, and youth-development programs, including youth poetry slams, festivals, reading series, and more.
Poet and recording artist Myron Michael Hardy (2006) currently works as a teaching artist with WritersCorps, a project of the San Francisco Arts Commission that, as part of a national alliance with the “vision is to transform and strengthen individuals and communities using the written word,” reaches audiences across the country with its youth-based event planning and programming.
LaTasha Natasha Diggs (2008), is a writer, visual artist, vocal deconstructor, and scholar. She is a fellow of the Cave Canem Workshop for African American Poets (Cave Canem is committed to the discovery and cultivation of new voices in African American poetry). She’s currently working with Black Rock Coalition (the only national nonprofit organization dedicated to the complete creative freedom of black artists) to copresent, curate, and produce tribute programming in honor of women composers, particularly younger women vocalists, as well as emerging and established women poets.
Program faculty such as chair Joseph Lease and senior adjunct professor Donna de la Perrière demonstrate the powerful effects of building community. They curate the Bay Area Poetry Marathon (established in 2001), which attracts poets from across the United States and throughout the Bay Area to celebrate innovative poetry in a series of readings throughout the summer. The event is held at The LAB, a Mission District–based gallery and performance space, described as “an interdisciplinary arts organization which supports the development and presentation of new visual, performing, media, sonic and literary art.”
Clearly the bridges that connect the MFA Program in Writing to local and national literary arts–based community organizations are strong and sustaining. Yet these bridges didn’t build themselves; CCA students and faculty effected these opportunities one at a time, just as Evan Schnair’s strategic collaboration with A.C.T. illustrates. Whether a model for future academic alignments or merely inspiration to reach out and build community, these are performances you’re definitely going to read about!
About CCA’s MFA Program in Writing
The program offers a course of study in fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, cross-genre writing, playwriting, or screenwriting. Set in an art school, the MFA offers opportunities to collaborate with artists, designers, and writers. The program also affirms both innovative and traditional practice, offering a flexible and rigorous program supporting the path of each writer.
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