If you’re in high school and you want to learn screenwriting…

…I know of no better value in an undergraduate college program than the Writing for Screen and Stage minor at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. What?!?! Not NYU? USC?

That’s my take and I’m sticking to it as I begin my 7th year teaching at UNC.

The WSS program is unique, a minor that focuses on developing screenwriters and playwrights. Notable visiting faculty in the past include Joan Tewekesbury (Nashville), Leon Capetanos (Down and Out in Beverly Hills), Danny Rubin (Groundhog Day), Anne Beatts (“Saturday Night Live”), and Mark Rydell (On Golden Pond).

Since its inception, nearly 100 students have obtained the minor, many of whom are in Los Angeles and New York working in the entertainment industry. One of the advantages of the program is there is a strong and growing presence of UNC graduates working in the business including writers John Altschuler & Dave Krinsky (Blades of Glory, “King of the Hill”), director Peyton Reed (Bring It On, The Break-Up, Ant-Man) and comic, commentator and author Lewis Black.

The Director of the Writing for the Screen and Stage Program is Dana Coen, whose numerous credits include Co-Executive Producer titles on the prime-time drama series “Bones” and “JAG.” And I have been teaching in the program as a visiting lecturer since 2008. Thus the WSS program provides not only solid academic training for aspiring screenwriters and playwrights, but also given our many years of experience in Hollywood, students also receive much in the way of practical learning as well.

Since WSS is a minor, this allows students to get a major in a more ‘practical’ field while pursuing their creative interests. Yet it is a rigorous program: By the time seniors graduate, they will have written one short play, one short film script, one feature length film script and optionally one full-length stage play. Plus there are additional courses available to augment the minor such as Acting for Non Majors, Introduction to Film Adaptation, Film Story Analysis, Writing the One-Hour TV Drama, and creative writing classes with teachers like Daniel Wallace who wrote the novel “Big Fish” upon which the movie was based.

Currently I teach two courses: In the fall “Master Screenwriting,” a workshop where seniors write a first-draft of a full-length screenplay or stage play; and in the spring “The History of American Screenwriting,” a course crafted by Dana Coen that is, I believe, the only class of its type at the undergraduate level in the United States. The students are top-notch and motivated, a delight to teach.

All that at the price of a public university.

If you are a high school student, a parent of a child with writing talent, or perhaps a college freshman interested in transferring to a university which provides a minor to allow students to explore their creative interest in writing screenplays or stage plays, you may check out the WSS program here.

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And for all you high school, college and graduate students studying creative writing, screenwriting, playwriting and TV writing, good luck as you return to your labors this fall!

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