Screenwriting seminar with yale professor marc lapadula comments from students
Marc Lapadula is an American playwright and screenwriter and senior lecturer in Film Studies at Yale University, where he leads the screenwriting program.
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Education
Lapadula holds a BA from University of Pennsylvania, where he studied English and Irish drama, as well as MA from Malcolm Bradbury’s Creative Writing Workshop at the University of East Anglia. He also has a MFA from the Writers’ Workshop at the University of Iowa.
Work
Lapadula is an award-winning playwright whose works have been produced in New York, England, Pennsylvania, Iowa, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C. His stage plays include Not by Name, Two Shakes, Old Young Men, Men Like Us, The Rains Change, Serial Killer and In Uniform Thanksgiving, an absurdist comedy in the Joe Orton tradition. He has also has had several original screenplays commissioned or optioned, including Distant Influence, Night Bloom, and At Risk as well as screen adaptations of Mikhail Bulgakov’s Heart of a Dog and Miguel de Unamuno’s Saint Emmanuel the Good, Martyr. Lapadula's latest feature-length screenplay, Person of Interest, is currently a work-in-progress as of 2016.
Lapadula’s producing credits include Angel Passing, which starred Hume Cronyn and Teresa Wright and premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, and the film Mentor, which starred Rutger Hauer and premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival.
Additionally, Lapadula has acted as a consultant for film producers and studios, including New Line Films.
Teaching
Lapadula has taught introductory, intermediate and advanced seminars on screenwriting at Yale since 1992. Before Yale, he taught screenwriting, playwriting and film analysis courses at Johns Hopkins, University of Pennsylvania, and the Graduate Film School at Columbia University. He has also taught public speaking to New York City Police Officers, Fire Personnel and Correctional Officials at The Johns Jay College of Criminal Justice.
Personal Style
Lapadula’s favorite films include I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang, The Graduate, Easy Rider, China Syndrome, and Spielberg’s Jaws. These films, in his estimation, have had a strong impact on American cinema and culture, while cutting at the heart of meaningful social issues and iniquities in American society.
Lapadula's teaching style has been described as hands on, with his lectures evolving in a free form and intuitive manner. Though the work load and expectations in his courses, according to former students, can be demanding, he is known for his genuine care for his students and desire to inspire them to continue their development as writers.