MFA in Creative Writing Program
To be a playwright is to remain a passionate student of playwriting. Edward Albee has said, “Write each of your plays as if it were your first.” I advise my playwriting students to read plays, see plays in performance, write honestly and rewrite bravely. I find writing exercises are wonderful keys for unlocking creativity and for setting certain limitations that can prove quite liberating to the playwriting process which is always a process of discovery. It’s also important for playwrights to hear their work read aloud and to hear responses to their work, all in a safe and respectful workshop environment. Writing in isolation, that is, writing without reading, is like only talking and never listening; it stunts our growth both as playwrights and thinkers. I appreciate students who write disciplined, focused and critical annotations on a wide variety of play styles. The critical-writing skills developed in writing the annotations will serve as stepping stones toward understanding your own process and deepening your craft. I also encourage my students to read fiction and poetry.
My full-length play Wind in the Field was a featured play at the 2007 Great Plains Theatre Conference, where it received a staged reading hosted by Edward Albee. Wind in the Field was also a semi-finalist for the Princess Grace Playwriting Award. In 2005, the Kitchen Theatre Company produced my 10-minute play Fall/Out. My play The Heart of Fear was published in the award-winning literary journal Stone Canoe. My short play Northeast is forthcoming in the 30th anniversary edition of Callaloo. A number of my plays have received staged-readings presented by Armory Square Playhouse, most recently Tender, directed by Dan Labeille. I am the recipient of the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) fiction writing fellowship. I teach playwriting at Syracuse University. I hold an MFA in Creative Writing from Goddard College.
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Kyle Bass, MFA