At the low-residency University of Nebraska Master of Fine Arts in Writing, we want our graduating students’ voices to be heard. During each ten-day residency, graduating students, regardless of genre, read a selection of their work for twenty minutes to an audience of students, mentors, visitors, and alums.

For the July 2024 residency, we wanted to take a different approach for our two Stage & Screen graduating students, Lena Cigleris and Deidre Mattox. Excerpts from Cigleris’s The Stag (a horror parody of the popular show The Bachelor) and Mattox’s Veiled (a snapshot of the lives of a mother and daughter dealing with the paranormal, regret, and addiction) were directed by Mitchell Bean and performed by professional actors cast by Rachel Curtiss. The effort, spearheaded by Charlene Donaghy, a Stage & Screen mentor, has proved to be a transformative experience for all involved, shedding new light on the intricacies of collaborative creativity.

Mattox expressed how working with a director and professional actors breathed new life into Veiled: “Even when you think a piece is done, when a director and actors get it, they always find things that you didn’t know you wrote, and that’s wonderful.”

This process of discovery is intrinsic to the collaborative nature of theater, where multiple voices and interpretations contribute to a richer, more nuanced final product.

Cigleris noted that The Stag benefited greatly from this collaborative process, making the editing and refinement of the piece a more dynamic and interactive experience. “When people are excited to be playing with your work and reading your lines,” Cigleris said, “I don’t think there’s any greater reward than that.”

Donaghy highlighted the importance of this experience for the students: “I really wanted them to have the experience of working with a professional director . . . to see how a room works, how you as a playwright or screenwriter interact in the room with a director, with the actors, and what you pull from it.”

Her vision for the students was that they would uncover new aspects of their work and their artistry through this collaborative endeavor. The success of this project was also rooted in the trust and creative synergy between the participants.

One of Bean’s most memorable moments in the process was when, while rehearsing Cigleris’s piece, the whole team wanted to push the production further. “We started doing more blocking than we would normally do for a staged reading,” Bean said. “We created that Washington crossing the Delaware River picture, and it was just so funny . . . We all had so much fun coming up with silly bits for the reading.”

This mutual respect and willingness to explore new interpretations came through in the final performance as audience members chuckled during the whole scene, even as murder and kidnapping were central themes to the story.

Curtiss’s approach to casting was another crucial element in fostering a positive and productive environment. “I had a pretty good idea what they would bring not just as actors but as people,” Curtiss said. “Who can handle what, and who is going to be just a pleasure in the room. I was lucky enough that I had read multiple parts of Deidre’s work, and I was very familiar with the way Lena writes. Between those things, it was also a matter of, ‘Who’s going to really enjoy doing this?’”

Her careful selection of actors not only based on their talent but also on their compatibility and enthusiasm ensured a harmonious and effective collaboration.

Donaghy reflected on the broader significance of this project, expressing gratitude for the support and collaboration from the entire College of Communication, Fine Arts and Media, including the dean, Michael Hilt; the director of the School of the Arts, Amy Morris; and the program coordinator of the MFA program, Kevin Clouther: “This was an idea that has been in my head . . . for thirteen to fourteen years, and then finding the collaborators on the logistical and production side of this, that was the thing of beauty . . . I knew Rachel would knock it out of the park. Everyone in each of the readings was like, ‘Oh wow, I guess we should have been doing this for years.’”

We will miss our graduating students but are happy we could send them off with such a captivating performance of their work. As the program continues to evolve, this venture stands as a testament to the power of collaboration and the importance of real-world experience in shaping the next generation of playwrights and screenwriters.

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The University of Nebraska MFA in Writing combines four sixteen-week at-home semesters with five ten-day conference-style residencies. Over the course of the program, students earn sixty credit hours toward a degree in fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, playwriting, screenwriting, or young adult. At residency, students attend lectures, workshops, and readings and are paired with a faculty mentor with whom they design a study plan for the home-based semester.

Diane Holliday is the assistant program coordinator for the MFA in Writing at the University of Nebraska, where she earned her MFA. A former advertising professional, Holliday writes speculative fiction and is currently working on a YA dystopian novel. She lived in Hungary, Belgium, Switzerland, and Monaco before moving to the US and now resides in Colorado with her husband and dog, Babybel.