Meet the New NYWIFT Member: Sophia Baldassari
Let’s welcome screenwriter, script supervisor, and playwright Sophia Baldassari to NYWIFT! She was most recently an Associate Producer on the Radio Silence thriller LOSER, directed by Colleen McGuinness. Her plays and pilots have been developed/produced at Luna Stage, George Street Playhouse, the McCarter Theatre Center, Haddonfield Plays and Players, and Manhattan Repertory Theatre, and have received accolades from the O’Neill Center Young Playwrights, Theatremania Young Playwrights, Beardance International Playwriting Festival, the Neil LaBute New Theatre Festival, the Austin Film Festival, among others. She’s studied Writing at Sarah Lawrence and Egyptology at the University of Oxford, an experience she used to write a buddy comedy about the mummy of a Pharaoh’s 29th Favorite wife. She is a member of the Writers Guild of America East, The New York Script Supervisors Network, and IATSE Local 111. In our interview, we discussed uniting accessible and female driven stories with comedy and surrealism, the structural switches between playwriting and screenwriting, and the unexpected comedy of life in ancient Egypt. Let’s dive in!
READ MOREMeet the New NYWIFT Member: Maura Campbell
Welcome to NYWIFT, Maura Campbell! She is an award-winning playwright turned filmmaker, creating the acclaimed film The Non-Essentials, which won Best Feature at the International Cellphone Cinematography Competition in Cannes. This groundbreaking project was shot across the country under pandemic conditions, featuring a multiracial and multigenerational cast directed remotely through Zoom. At the Actor’s Studio, Maura hones her craft through weekly play readings, while at The Lambs, she lead a playwrights’ group and co-created the musical Anna and Fyodor, exploring the lives of Dostoyevsky and his first wife. Currently, she is in rehearsals for this production alongside filming Quirks, a feature evolving from episodic beginnings. Maura is dedicated to shedding light on human experiences through storytelling, supporting young writers, and pushing creative boundaries across theater and film.
READ MOREMeet the New NYWIFT Member: Sheila Robinson
Let’s put our pens to paper and craft the perfect welcome for our new NYWIFT member, Sheila Robinson! Sheila is a playwright, screenwriter and social worker who has been pursuing writing for the last 16 years. Her career as a social worker has inspired her work. Her writing has brought her to many different film festivals and she continues to hone her craft. Read our full interview with Sheila to learn more about how she balances her writing with her career as a social worker and her advice for screenwriters.
READ MOREMeet the New NYWIFT Member: Stephanie Okun
Please join us in welcoming new NYWIFT member Stephanie Okun! Stephanie is a screenwriter/director and recent grad from Wesleyan University. She is currently working on a feature film that she started at Wesleyan called At Sea, as well as throwing herself into Production Assistant and other entry-level jobs. She is excited to be a part of NYWIFT and get more entrenched in the world of film and television. Previously, Stephanie was a NYWIFT intern – and even wrote a few of the pieces in this series! Now, we’ve turned the microphone on her to learn about her writing, her theatrical roots, and her dreams for the future.
READ MOREMeet the New NYWIFT Member: Achiro P. Olwoch
Please join us in welcoming Achiro P. Olwoch to the NYWIFT community! Olwoch is a queer artist in exile from Gulu in Northern Uganda, currently living in New York. She is an award-winning writer, director, and producer with several series and shorts to her name, and is currently writing a novel and two memoirs. Her play The Survival recently had its debut performance at Lincoln Center, produced by the National Queer Theatre. She spoke to us about living in exile, her artistic journey, and her resilience.
READ MOREWEEKLY ROUNDUP: OSCAR RECAP, PHYLICIA RASHAD RETURNS TO TELEVISION & NEW RESUME RULES
[getty src=”464287122″ width=”594″ height=”404″] Another award season has ended. Here’s Oscar winners, snubs and what’s next for for everyone. Jamie Lee Curtis interviews Sigourney Weaver on friendship, family and fame. Sony’s hired the most but, where are the female directors at major studios?! Phylicia Rashad will star in For Justice, her first time in the main...
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