PressWatertown Daily Times, November 17, 2009
Actress visits city school to spark interest in literature
Kathryn E. Erbe of 'Law and Order: Criminal Intent' and writer Thomas P. Kelly take questions from students Monday at the launch of the Actors and Writers Book Club at Watertown High School.
Actress Kathryn E. Erbe of "Law and Order: Criminal Intent" discussed literature with Watertown High School students Monday, kicking off the Actors and Writers Book Club.
The book club is a new organization that will send an actor and a writer to high schools to discuss works of literature with students, in an effort to get students excited about reading and writing. Ms. Erbe said she decided to get involved with the book club because she loves to read and she thought it would be a good opportunity to talk to youths.
"I've been a voracious reader since I was 13, so that's why I got involved with the book club," Ms. Erbe said. "And I know high school can be hard, so I wanted to talk to kids of that age, too."
Book club founder Thomas P. Kelly discussed literature with Watertown students. Mr. Kelly is a novelist who wrote the book "Payback," and is the literacy director for the Writers Guild of America, East.said.
Watertown High School was chosen for the launch of the program because of a collaboration between Mr. Kelly and Watertown English teacher Emily G. Sprague. Watertown is also the type of location the book club wants to target, because it's far from a major metropolitan area, Mr. Kelly said
"We're staying away from places like New York City, because there, you can throw a stone 10 feet and hit actors and writers," he said. "We want to go to places like Watertown, where it might be more exciting for someone to come to talk to students."
Ms. Erbe read an excerpt from the book "The Rules of the Game," written by Amy Tan. Then Mr. Kelly discussed the piece from a writer's perspective. The book centers on a young girl whose family moved from China to San Francisco's Chinatown.
Ms. Erbe used books as an escape when she was growing up, and as a way to better learn about herself and other people, she told students.
"I love this book because the way she talks about the emotions of these characters and their interactions with family members moved me," Ms. Erbe said.
English 12 students read part of the book during a short-story unit, Mrs. Sprague said. Mr. Kelly and Mrs. Sprague chose that book because the English students are familiar with it, and because Ms. Erbe loves the book.
Mr. Kelly and Ms. Erbe took some questions from students after their talk.
Students asked Mr. Kelly: "When did you decide you wanted to be a writer?" and "Can you explain your writing process?"
Mr. Kelly told students that he decided to become a writer when he was 16, and that he wakes up every morning to write when he's working on a novel because they take years to write.
Students asked Ms. Erbe about her acting career with questions such as: "What was it like to be in one of the 'Mighty Ducks' movies?"
Ms. Erbe told the students that making the movie was a lot of fun, and that she had to be careful in a lot of scenes so she didn't look taller than her co-star, Emilio Estevez.
After just a few questions, the bell rang and students filed out of the auditorium to their next class. Even though the speakers had less than an hour with the students, Mr. Kelly was happy with the first meeting of the book club.
"We want to spark the interest of students in reading, writing and storytelling," he said. "And to let them know that these things can be fun."
Fox 28 WNYF, November 16, 2009
'Payback" Author & "Law & Order" Actress Meet With WHS Students
Watertown High School seniors received a visit from a well-known actress a high-profile author, who were on hand to get students excited about reading, writing and story telling.
Katherine Erbe, who stars in the television drama "Law & Order: Criminal Intent", and Tom Kelly, who wrote "Payback", "The Rackets" and "Empire Rising", helped launch the Actors and Writers Book Club Monday.
"We felt it was a good team to send a writer and an actor out to talk about a work of literature, to talk about the process," said Kelly.
During two assemblies, Erbe read a story to students, Kelly discussed the writer's perspective and then held a question and answer session.
"I hope that they can go on to see the importance of story-telling and hearing stories in their families and telling their own stories," said Erbe, who is known for her role as Detective Alexandra Eames on "Law & Order: Criminal Intent."
The Actors and Writers Book Club is a program which targets under-served areas in the country.
Watertown was selected fro the inaugural book club school district.
Read More on the Literacy Committee
The New York Times, October 13, 2009
Turning Swords to Pens, and Warriors to Writers
SAN ANTONIO — In a bare-walled room at the main library here, Kris Rodriguez, a military veteran, was struggling to explain his confusion as a new writer.
A first step, Jenny Lumet suggested, might be to choose a format. Writing a novel might be different than, say, a cookbook, said Ms. Lumet, a screenwriter whose credits include “Rachel Getting Married” and who was there to offer help
“A book is pretty thick,” said Mr. Rodriguez, who, at 30, has served in both the Marine Corps and the Army. “I don’t know if I can come up with that much material.” He had started writing down thoughts as therapy, after a brain injury caused by a roadside bomb in Iraq left him temporarily paralyzed. “In the hospital I had lost my vision and my speech,” he said.
So began a free weekend workshop, the fourth in an open-ended series to which those schooled in war, some of them wounded, came to learn craft from writers for screen, stage and the publishing world. This session, on Friday evening, was organized by the Writers Guild of America, East Foundation, which sponsored an earlier workshop in San Antonio and two in Columbus, Ohio. Attended by about two dozen veterans, the session received support from the Wounded Warrior Project and the National Endowment for the Arts Operation Homecoming.
Along with Ms. Lumet, out-of-towners like the playwright Michael Weller (“Loose Ends”), the television writer Anne Flett-Giordano (“Desperate Housewives”) and the former Black Hawk helicopter pilot Ryan Kelly (whose letters from Iraq were published in The New Yorker) were joined as mentors by a handful of local writers.
The meetings grew from an effort by guild writers to get in touch with what Tom Fontana, president of the foundation, likes to call “America’s stories.” The plan is to train those who wish to write — with no vetting for talent or professional ambition — in settings far from the entertainment corridors of New York and Los Angeles.
Speaking briefly before the latest workshop began on Friday, Mr. Fontana, a writer-producer on “The Philanthropist,” “Oz” and other series, said that Mr. Weller had urged the foundation to begin with military veterans. The next step might be to counsel auto workers in Detroit.
Of course the world has had its share of military writers. “Since Homer,” Ms. Lumet joked at one point. Still, the choice laid bare an inherent conflict.
“In the military, as I’ve learned, you’re selfless when you’re part of a unit,” Mr. Fontana said. “But writing is a selfish act.”
In small groups, with mentors sometimes outnumbering the mentored, the writers and warriors spent Friday night feeling their way toward common ground.
Among the bolder aspirants was Emily Embree, a Vietnam veteran who arrived pushing a walker but was not one to be pushed around by her coaches.
“I’m not going to tell you that, because you all are going to read it,” Ms. Embree said, when prodded by Mr. Weller to put her thoughts about a character into words. They were speaking about a fictional high school counselor named Flo, whom Ms. Embree has been developing since an earlier workshop.
Her real aim, Ms. Embree told the group, is to sharpen her writing skills for what she considers to be her life’s work: the compilation of a history that will describe her family’s place in America since the 1600s, and even earlier, where her American Indian ancestors are concerned.
“I want my family to have a living family history of who we are, where we come from, and why America plays such a big role in our lives,” said Ms. Embree, who noted that her forebears had served in the country’s armed forces since the Revolutionary War.
In the various groups on Friday there was surprisingly little talk about war stories, at least of the kind that have informed the movie “The Hurt Locker” or the television series “Over There.”
One group kicked around the ins and outs of a blog by a military woman — not present at the session — who has been grabbing attention with her public reports about a never-ending series of bad dates, often with civilians.
Another heard Teresa Dear, a former Russian linguist in the Air Force and a mother of four, lay out plans for a piece of Christian devotional literature, aimed at helping women who are going through marital problems.
In a separate room Ms. Dear’s husband James, another former Air Force linguist who served with the National Security Agency, was scratching on a pad and trying to figure out what exactly it was that he wanted to say. (Ms. Dear’s father, Vince Giammalvo, a Vietnam veteran who served in the Army for 23 years, was in yet another of the writers’ rooms.)
“I’ve got 150 things, all over the place,” Mr. Dear said. His current job as a landscape designer keeps him busy, he added.
“But there’s something in my heart,” he said, speaking after a session with Mr. Kelly and the television writer Chris Brancato. “I feel like it’s a calling to write.”
Read More on the Writing Workshop
HOLLYWOOD REPORTER, September 24, 2008
WGAE picks fellowship schools Ten colleges and universities to participate in program
By Leslie Simmons
The WGA East Foundation has selected 10 colleges and universities to participate in its pilot Michael Collyer Memorial Fellowship in Screenwriting named after the late veteran New York entertainment attorney.
Nominees will be in the running for a $10,000 stipend to write an original screenplay under the guidance of a mentor selected by the foundation’s board. The award will be presented at the WGAE ceremony on Feb. 7 in New York City.
"Apprenticeship is a time-honored -- and still the best -- approach to learning and refining one's skills," said WGAE Foundation chair Marshall Brickman. "No amount of classroom or technical study can replace a stimulating one-on-one relationship between apprentice and mentor in which basics, such as structure, symmetry, architecture, character and dialogue can be discussed; of even greater value is the opportunity to watch an experienced practitioner identify problems and design solutions in vivo."
The participating schools include Boston University, Columbia College Chicago, Drexel University, Georgia State University, Howard University, New York University, Savannah College of Art & Design, Tulane University, Washington University in St. Louis and Wayne State University.
The fellowship is made possible by a grant from the Charles and Lucille King Family Foundation.
Variety, September 23, 2008
WGAE FOUNDATION sets screenwriter grant King Family Foundation donate $10,000
By N'NEKA HITE
The WGA East Foundation has established the Michael Collyer Memorial Fellowship in Screenwriting, to be awarded to a student from one of 10 collaborating institutions on Feb. 7 in New York.
The Charles and Lucille King Family Foundation donated the $10,000 grant for the 2008-09 pilot year.
Each institution will nominate one student who plans to pursue a career in screenwriting. The winner will use the grant to write an original script under the guidance of an established screenwriter mentor appointed by the foundation’s board.
Among the collaborating schools are Boston U., Columbia College Chicago, Howard U. and NYU.
TV WEEK, September 22, 2008
WGA East Foundation Creates Screenwriting Fellowship
By Vlada Gelman
Ten U.S. colleges and universities will compete in the Writers Guild of America East Foundation’s first Michael Collyer Memorial Fellowship in Screenwriting.
Each school will nominate one student who plans to pursue a career in screenwriting.
The winner of the fellowship will be announced at the WGAE awards ceremony scheduled for Feb. 7 in New York City.
The fellowship recipient will receive a $10,000 stipend to write an original screenplay with help from an established screenwriter selected by the Foundation’s board.
The participating schools are Boston University, Columbia College Chicago, Drexel University, Georgia State University, Howard University, New York University, Savannah College of Art & Design, Tulane University, Washington University in St. Louis and Wayne State University.
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