University degrees: Postgraduate
Course length: two years
Course city: New York
The Rita and Burton Goldberg Department of Dramatic Writing cross-trains students in all areas of dramatic writing with concentrations in Film, Playwriting, and Television.
All our Faculty are working professionals with extensive credits in theatre (from the smallest non-profit productions to major regional and Broadway houses), film (including independent and major studio productions), and television (including late-night, half-hour, and hour drama as practiced on broadcast, premium, and cable networks).
The curriculum is hands-on: students begin their writing classes during their first semester. While the Department is strongly workshop-oriented, textual analysis is an essential part of the program, so that all students graduate from the Department with a firm knowledge of dramatic craft and forms in all three areas. The Department sees its mission as providing an education that allows our students to be as flexible in their education as they will be in their careers.
The Goldberg Department of Dramatic Writing trains students in the three mediums of dramatic writing: theater, film and television. It is the mission of the department to teach students the basics of dramatic storytelling while preparing them for their futures as professional writers.
Graduate students take writing workshops, text analysis courses, production process courses, and pre-professional training courses throughout their two years. Our students are educated broadly in each of the three mediums while providing specialized study in each, with emphasis on original work. We believe that training writers in more than one medium makes them strong and flexible writers, who use the strengths of different mediums to enrich their work in all mediums.
In the first year, all graduate students take introductory workshop classes in the three mediums of playwriting, screenwriting and television writing. They are required to write an original full length play, full length screenplay, half hour TV spec script and one hour TV pilot.
Students will also take text analysis, production, lab classes and pre-professional training classes that complement the workshop classes. Just as an artist uses a sketchbook to work out ideas for a painting, our students use staged readings to develop their work as they write it.
In the second year, students will take advanced writing workshops which lead toward a master’s thesis (a full-length dramatic work) in one of the three mediums. In addition to the thesis work, students work on a second full-length project in a different medium. Second-year students also have access to special seminars, master classes, and colloquia where guest speakers from the industry discuss their own work and current topics in the entertainment business as they relate to writers.
| Graduate Seminar in Playwriting I | 4 Credits |
| Graduate Seminar in Screenwriting I | 4 Credits |
| Graduate Seminar in TV Writing I | 4 Credits |
| Dramatic Strategies | 3 Credits |
| Graduate Drama Lab | 2 Credits |
| 17 Credits Total |
| Second Level Writing Seminar | 4 Credits |
| Second Level Writing Seminar | 4 Credits |
| Seminar or Masterclass or Workshop | 3 Credits |
| Comedic Strategies | 3 Credits |
| Text Analysis | 3 Credits |
| 18 Credits Total |
| Advanced Seminar | 3 Credits |
| Seminar or Masterclass or Workshop | 3 Credits |
| Seminar or Masterclass or Workshop | 3 Credits |
| Production Course | 3 Credits |
| Elective | 3 Credits |
| 15 Credits Total |
| Seminar or Masterclass or Workshop | 3 Credits |
| MFA Thesis | 4 Credits |
| Business of the Business | 2 Credits |
| Elective | 3 Credits |
| Internship | 3 Credits |
| 15 Credits Total |