Certificate in New Play Directing

One of the greatest strengths of our New Play Directing Certificate program is our visiting faculty and guest artists. Our unique schedule allows some of the best known names in new play development to participate in ways that wouldn’t be possible in a traditional program. Busy working professionals can fit in six weeks of teaching much easier than five months. For the certificate program it is VERY important to us that our faculty not be academics but actual working professionals who can model best practices. Whenever possible, we look for faculty who are also playwrights, or who have extensive experience in working on new plays with playwrights.

We bring in experts representing every aspect of professional theatre—playwrights, agents, directors, artistic directors, dramaturgs, producers, composers, agents, publishers, designers, actors, and lots of other disciplines.

We invite individuals who’ve made an impact on modern theatre with their own work who also have a proven record of successful and inspirational teaching or a history of helping emerging talents find their voice and be heard by a wider audience.

A successful community shares a common philosophy and enthusiasm for the mission it embodies, so we want visiting faculty and guest artists who will be good ambassadors for the program. What our guests and faculty say about Hollins has a huge impact on who is willing to come in the future.

We look at more than resume and reputation, we look for those who are eager to join our community, and excited about helping it grow.

Often, we’ll invite someone as a guest responder for the festival of student readings. If that goes well, we might invite them back as a guest speaker, and then (if it fits our curriculum) we may invite them back for a summer of teaching.

We don’t want people who are trying to find work, we want people who will help us create new work together.

In a lot of ways, your letter of interest in the New Play Directing Certificate program is the most important thing in your application. Lots of pressure, but the only good introduction is an honest one. In short, be yourself. Trying to be anyone or anything else is more work than it is worth.

Before you pick a school, you should have been selective in that choice—you should know why you want to go there, have specific goals and a plan for how the program you are applying to can help you meet those goals. All that should be in your letter of interest.

How else are we going to know anything about your passion for theatre, how much you looked into our program, and whether your expectations of the program are realistic? Your letter of interest is the best tool we have (outside of an actual interview) to help decide whether or not the school and the student will be a good team for the next two years.

Choosing a cohort of students is like casting a play. Talent is important, but so is knowing the ensemble will work well together, be mutually supportive and be good ambassadors for the institution. And if you don’t get in, that means nothing more than the path to your success might lie in another direction.

Ask hard questions of yourself and the institution. We’ll do the same—and that is going to be a very good and useful conversation to have regardless of the outcome.

Not necessarily, but we do use past performance as an indicator in determining if you are up to meeting the demands of graduate level study.

A lot of people who do extremely well in graduate school have undergraduate grades they might be less than proud of. Don’t try to hide them. Don’t decide not to submit a transcript just because it reflects progress in an unrelated field or a degree you didn’t complete. Address those issues in your letter of interest and speak to both your desire to make a stronger showing in this program and discuss some of your strategies for doing so.

Don’t obsess about past grades. The quality of your writing sample, strength of your letter of interest, and the enthusiasm of your references will likely outweigh that D– you got in calculus.

Often I hear people stressing over their resume or CV… even about what the difference between a CV and a resume is, and which one is appropriate, how long should it be, and how much not having a bunch of professional credits on it matters.

To all that, I can only say, “Relax.”

A resume is geared more toward employment and a CV (Curriculum Vitae) is geared more toward academic achievements, so for this program resume is probably more appropriate, but that doesn’t mean the academic achievements are irrelevant.

As for credits, we don’t want you to prove you don’t need the instruction in order to get into the program. What we want is an accurate idea of your background, where you’ve worked and what you’ve done and who you’ve done it with.

Be truthful. Be complete. Be concise.

Yes.

The need for official transcripts is obvious. We need demonstrable proof that you have obtained your undergraduate degree. If your undergraduate degree is not from an accredited college or university, a special request for a waiver of that requirement must be made to the full Grad Council and approved by the vice president for academic affairs.

And, we need all transcripts from every academic institution you have attended, even if you didn’t graduate from them, your grades there weren’t good, or you don’t think the field of academic study represented by them is relevant to your Certificate Training.

Letters of reference are a very important part of your application process, not just a hoop to jump through. Give serious thought to ensuring they are significant, supportive, and above all, relevant.

An artistic director, literary manager, or famous director of a major theatre looks great as a reference, but most people entering grad school are going to find those kinds of references difficult to obtain.

A lot of programs ask for three letters and not coincidentally, are looking for people who can speak directly to three specific things. Your talent as a director, your ability to handle the academic rigor of a graduate level study, and your potential for success in the field. Our suggestion is to try to get references that can each speak in general about all three of those things but then be very specific about one of them.

Find someone who can speak about why they think you are a talented director. If possible, ask another director, an actor, or a playwright you have worked with.

Find another someone who can speak to your academic ability, especially if that ability is not reflected in the grades on your transcript. A supportive teacher is better than the head of a department who hardly knows you.

Find someone who can speak to your passion and commitment to pursuing your dream, and if possible, mention how you have helped others to do so.

Where possible, make sure those someones are accomplished themselves so that their evaluation of you carries weight. You want references who know you well, will describe you favorably but not with faint praise, know something about the program you are applying to and your goals, and willing to take questions about you over the phone.

Lastly, remember that your reference is putting their reputation at risk by writing your recommendation. Don’t ask if you aren’t reasonably sure they’ll say yes. If they do say yes, don’t make them regret it.