Voices

A talk with Elisabeth Giffin on Talking With…

Posted by MS

Elizabeth Giffin plays Moira in Jane Martin's Talking With... at the Carmel TheaterTomorrow night, 7:30PM at the Carmel Community Playhouse, first-year MFA student, actress and theatre buff Elisabeth Giffin will take to the stage as part of Jane Martin‘s American Theatre Critics Association Award-winning play Talking With…. The play opens Thursday, October 17 but will run Thursday through Sunday (2:30PM matinee) this week and next.

Composed of eleven monologues delivered by a sundry cast of women including a baton twirler, a fundamentalist snake handler, and an ex-rodeo rider, Talking With… promises to “amuse, move and frighten.” Giffin opens the show with “15 Minutes” as Moira, an actress about to take the stage.

Because playwrights are in such short supply in our program, instead of my usual teaser I thought I’d ask Miss Giffin to share some insight into the genre and the monologue form. It turns out she’s basically a friendly encyclopedia. Read further if secret pseudonyms and a brief history of the monologue makes you salivate. Continue reading →

A talk with Elisabeth Giffin on Talking With…

Posted by MS

Elizabeth Giffin plays Moira in Jane Martin's Talking With... at the Carmel TheaterTomorrow night, 7:30PM at the Carmel Community Playhouse, first-year MFA student, actress and theatre buff Elisabeth Giffin will take to the stage as part of Jane Martin‘s American Theatre Critics Association Award-winning play Talking With…. The play opens Thursday, October 17 but will run Thursday through Sunday (2:30PM matinee) this week and next.

Composed of eleven monologues delivered by a sundry cast of women including a baton twirler, a fundamentalist snake handler, and an ex-rodeo rider, Talking With… promises to “amuse, move and frighten.” Giffin opens the show with “15 Minutes” as Moira, an actress about to take the stage.

Because playwrights are in such short supply in our program, instead of my usual teaser I thought I’d ask Miss Giffin to share some insight into the genre and the monologue form. It turns out she’s basically a friendly encyclopedia. Read further if secret pseudonyms and a brief history of the monologue makes you salivate. Continue reading →

Chamonix Memorixs: Part II

Posted by MS

The Butler MFA program is growing faster than ever, and in the early summer that growth paid dividends to a handful of students who got to spend three weeks in writerly nirvana, attending intensive workshops in Chamonix, France. Part graduate workshop, part scenic vacation, part mad-science experiment, the first Chamonix Summer Writing Program was a resounding success– so much so that it is being offered again, now a permanent offering to Butler students.

But you absolutely shouldn’t take my word for it. You should, however, take part-time action hero and mountain-summiteer Farhad Anwarzai‘s word for it. On top of pounding out a respectable hillock of pages during his time in France, Farhad carped the diem like there was no tomorrow. After some gentle coaxing, prodding, and friendly threats, I got him to put one of his adventures to paper– so to speak. Continue reading →

Chamonix Memorixs: Part II

Posted by MS

The Butler MFA program is growing faster than ever, and in the early summer that growth paid dividends to a handful of students who got to spend three weeks in writerly nirvana, attending intensive workshops in Chamonix, France. Part graduate workshop, part scenic vacation, part mad-science experiment, the first Chamonix Summer Writing Program was a resounding success– so much so that it is being offered again, now a permanent offering to Butler students.

But you absolutely shouldn’t take my word for it. You should, however, take part-time action hero and mountain-summiteer Farhad Anwarzai‘s word for it. On top of pounding out a respectable hillock of pages during his time in France, Farhad carped the diem like there was no tomorrow. After some gentle coaxing, prodding, and friendly threats, I got him to put one of his adventures to paper– so to speak. Continue reading →

“I felt that feeling, and then moved on.”

Posted by MS

Grant Catton How I Write Butler MFAGrant Catton graduated many moons ago. He’s covered concerts, taught courses, and maybe secretly published zombie novels under a pseudonym. After graduating, he’s given back to the program in his own special way: he’s basically our very own Andrew W.K., generously hosting a small handful of MFA bashes at his home right off the edge of campus. Read on further and party hard. Continue reading →

“I felt that feeling, and then moved on.”

Posted by MS

Grant Catton How I Write Butler MFAGrant Catton graduated many moons ago. He’s covered concerts, taught courses, and maybe secretly published zombie novels under a pseudonym. After graduating, he’s given back to the program in his own special way: he’s basically our very own Andrew W.K., generously hosting a small handful of MFA bashes at his home right off the edge of campus. Read on further and party hard. Continue reading →