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MILLIGAN COLLEGE, TN (June 19, 2002) – Magnolia Boddy of Johnson City has been accepted to the Inaugural Kennedy Center ACTF Playwriting Intensive workshop this summer. Boddy was one of 10 students from across the country chosen to participate in this workshop.
The Inaugural Kennedy Center ACTF Playwriting Intensive workshop will have some of the countries leading dramatists in a weeklong playwriting intensive at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.
“Magnolia is largely self-taught when it comes to writing, but she has remarkable skill at writing snappy, witty and clever dialogue. Her off-beat sense of humor is one of her trademarks, as well as her thoroughly engaging sense of knowing how to tell a story,” said Richard Major, professor of theatre at Milligan. “I believe very much in her talent and think this is exactly the next step she needs to bring out the best in her natural abilities.”
Boddy, a rising sophomore, is a theatre major at Milligan and has been mentored and taught by Major.
“I had no idea what kind of a writer I was until I met Mr. Major this past year,” said Boddy. “He has encouraged me greatly and with his support my faith in my writing ability has been strengthened.”
Some of the nation’s leading dramatists will provide one-on-one professional training at the workshop. Those involved in the Intensive include: David Ives, best known author of several one-act comedies; Ken Ludwig, author of several Broadway, off-Broadway and West End plays and musicals; Gary Garrison, faculty member and artistic director of the Department of Dramatic Writing at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts; and Naomi Iizuka, whose plays include Polaroid Stories, The Language of Angels, War of the Worlds, Say the Pretty Girls, and Tattoo Girl.
“Not only will I learn about the craft of writing for the stage at the workshop, but I will meet distinguished playwrights and have my own work critiqued by them,” said Boddy. “This is an opportunity for my writing voice to be heard.”
In addition to the current honor of participating in the Intensive, this past spring Boddy had her original screenplay debut, entitled “That’s Me in the Corner,” at the college’s 16th Annual Festival of One Acts.
“A passion for the craft is in a writer – it cannot be taught,” commented Boddy. “A writer’s work changes and becomes consistently better as the writer grows and matures.”