Three USC graduate students are about to see their words come to life.
Christina Carrafiell, Adi Eshman and Matilda Corley Schulman, third-year students in the USC dramatic writing graduate program, will debut their plays in the upcoming New Works Festival, which takes place from April 20 through April 27 at McClintock Theatre, where they will showcase their talent to a live audience.
Students and professors from all programs in the School of Dramatic Arts are taking part in the productions.
“Those young women and men get an opportunity to put [their work] in front of an audience, and they get the opportunity to feel like an ensemble through its entire process — casting, rehearsals, breaking the script down, originating a role,” said David Warshofsky, director of Schulman’s new play “bloody noses” and head of the MFA acting program. “All these things that they never would have had an opportunity to do before.”
This will be the first time the USC dramatic writing MFA program has put forth fully produced performances with costumes, sound, lighting, design and choreography. In the past, graduate students only had the opportunity to showcase their final products in stage readings at the Pasadena Playhouse or in their classrooms.
“[SDA] decided to give the playwrights fuller productions and a production design and a budget,” Warshofsky said. “That’s where myself and my MFA colleagues and some of my actors became involved … It became a full and true all-school production.”
Graduate students in the program said the opportunity to work with other SDA students and professors in a collaborative rehearsal process has been an invaluable experience.
Adi Eshman, the playwright of “Weekend Warriors,” said the productions have been an exciting experience in bringing students’ work to a different level of interpretation.
“[It] is ultimately what you want from a director, to be able to interpret your work and move it forward,” Eshman said. “It’s been really powerful to see how the words get translated through [Director Fran de Leon]’s own mind.”
Christina Carrafiell, the playwright of “Michaela’s Fluent Aphasia,” said she spent nine years writing her story and feels excited to finally be able to show it to the world.
“It’s been an amazing experience and I’ve loved every second of it,” Carrafiell said. “The rehearsals, the technical aspects, the production meetings and just the fact that all of these really talented artists want to work with me and work on my play is a real honor and a privilege.”
According to Warshofsky, the graduate playwriting and acting programs are “one of the handful of the best in the country.” He said he hopes the program continues to showcase the integrity and work of their students to give them commission opportunities in the future.
Carrafiell said she hopes students who attend the festival feel inspired by the work they have put into their plays.
“I hope that our work challenges the other people in the program in the way that the older students challenged me and inspired me,” she said.