As of August 1, 2008, the Writers Guild Foundation has conducted 45 two-week workshops in Los Angeles area high schools, engaging over 1,100 students in the writing process. Student screenplays have been performed before approximately 6,000 students, with over 200 professional actors donating their time to perform the scripts. The workshops are designed to cover at least 25 English Language Arts standards for students in grades 9–12, and each workshop is led by a Writers Guild member with classroom experience.
In 2005 we restructured the workshops to allow for us to expand their outreach. We now face the challenge of being able to meet the demand for this program. Our goal is to conduct 10 workshops in the 2007/8 financial year.
The workshops are usually conducted in place of a regularly scheduled class (English, Drama, Creative Writing, Art, etc). Most involve over 25 students. Each workshop begins with an examination of popular movies and TV shows that are familiar to the students, guiding them to discover for themselves how the elements of dramatic storytelling are communicated first in a written screenplay. Then, engaging students in the writing process by the translation of images into words, the workshop requires each student to create and write a story of multiple scenes in screenplay format, based on experiences from their own lives.
On the final day of the workshop Screen Actors Guild volunteer actors perform several students’ stories before the larger student body, and all students who have completed the writing requirements of the workshop receive a certificate of completion. This day brings alive in an organic and exciting way what the students have learned in the workshop process.
There is no charge to the participating school for this program.
At the end of our first workshop of 2006, conducted in a creative writing class at Los Angeles High School, the teacher, Kathleen Tyler, commented that the students had written more for the workshops than they had written all term. This is not uncommon for the workshops, as the enthusiasm they generate continually leads to truly remarkable achievements by students otherwise unmotivated in the public school system.
This program needs funds. A grant in the amount of $2,500 will fund one two-week workshop in a public high school in the Los Angeles area whose students perform in the lower 50in English Language Arts standard testing. These students are considered “at risk” not only because of their poor literacy rates but also because of their socio-economic backgrounds.
If you are interested in supporting the Writers Guild Foundation’s High School Literacy Screenwriting Workshops, please contact: Adam Huss, Director of Outreach Programs 323-782-4679
