Who can forget, 鈥淟eave the gun. Take the cannoli.鈥 Or 鈥淵ou can鈥檛 expect to wield supreme executive power just 鈥檆ause some watery tart threw a sword at you!鈥 Or 鈥淚 am serious. And don鈥檛 call me Shirley.鈥 Whether you can name the person who actually penned those lines or not, they鈥檙e etched in your mind forever. A lot of the magic that goes into the theatre and the cinema is due to the tireless imaginations and undeniable talent of playwrights and screenwriters. A major in playwriting and screenwriting will have you honing your writing skills and crafting your art to create original plays and scripts that ideally will live in your public鈥檚 mind for years to come. Working on one-act farces, full-length musical productions, short films, long films鈥攜ou鈥檒l take your cue on how to pace and plot a story through each so that it attracts and holds an audience鈥檚 attention. Through words and ideas alone you鈥檒l sculpt believable characters and you鈥檒l learn how to make them move through the world and deal with affecting problems and challenges. You鈥檒l practice making the audience love them, hate them, fear for them, and cry with them. Once you鈥檝e studied the technicalities of writing for the stage and screen, you鈥檒l eventually be set to join the ranks of the professionals.
This is not a strictly tests-and-papers major. Much of your learning will come in the doing; you鈥檒l learn how to write plays and screenplays by actually writing them and then discussing them with professors and other students. But you鈥檒l also learn how to write well by studying the work of established writers as well as learning why the classics have endured. Here鈥檚 one major where you鈥檒l sit back and watch a movie or go to a play鈥攂ut only to study the work in action in order to see how the writing affects and is affected by the other elements of the production.
Keep in mind that not all colleges pair these two fields, and not all colleges offer them as majors. Often, they are offered as concentrations within broader disciplines, such as theatre, film, or creative writing.
Business of Theatre
Contemporary Cinema
Developing Dramatic Action
Full-Length Play Production
History of Theatre
Living with Television
One-Act Play Production
Perspectives in Literature
Plays and Productions
Principles of Play Directing
Script Analysis
Traditions in American Films
TV Dramas
Writing Poetry
Writing Short Fiction
The best preparation for a major in playwriting and screenwriting is a solid selection of courses in English, history, languages, and other humanities to polish up those writing skills. You should also take some courses in math and science. Then grab a notebook and get your great ideas on paper. It鈥檚 never too soon to start. Reading plays and scripts is also great preparation for your major in this field.
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