AFF IS HEADED TO NEW YORK ON MONDAY APRIL 18TH!

To kick off this year’s inaugural Playwriting Track, join Austin Film Festival, The Writers Guild of America East, and The Dramatists Guild for a conversation that ventures off the screen, onto the stage, and then back again. Featuring a panel of writers who have worked in both theatre and television, this discussion will pull back the curtain on ways their experiences as playwrights have positively affected their craft as screenwriters.

Take part in this inspirational dramatic study with Warren Leight (Law & Order: Special Victims Unit), Adam Rapp (Vinyl), Beau Willimon (House of Cards), and Tracey Scott Wilson (The Americans) in the city where theatre lights shine brightest. With a reception to follow, you may enter this evening stage left, but you’ll be leaving stage write.

This event is first come first serve therefore, this RSVP does not guarantee entry.  Only the first 140 people on AFF’s RSVP list will be admitted.  We recommend arriving at least one hour in advance in order to get into the event.

The RSVP for this event is now closed. If you have any questions, please email rsvp@austinfilmfestival.com

PANELIST BIOS:

WARREN LEIGHT

Warren Leight’s play side man won the 1999 Tony Award for Best Play, and was a 1999 Pulitzer Prize Finalist. Other plays include no foreigners beyond this point (Drama Desk nomination) published by Samuel French, home front, fame takes a holiday, glimmer, glimmer and shine (ATCA nomination), the loop, and the book to the musical mayor (Drama Desk nomination). Two collections of one-acts, dark, no sugar, and stray cats, have been published by DPS. Leight is an enthusiastic supporter of the 24-hour Play Festival, where he has contributed a number of one acts. His one act mars has never been this close was recently published in their anthology, Twenty-Four by Twenty-Four.

Warren is the showrunner and Executive Producer of the NBC drama, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. Formerly, he has been the showrunner and an Executive Producer of HBO’s Emmy-nominated In Treatment, for which he won the Peabody Award, as well as the FX drama Lights Out, and the Edgar-winning Law and Order: Criminal Intent. He wrote and directed the night we never met, co-wrote the documentary before the nickelodeon (New York Film Festival) and has authored many screenplays.

Warren was the former President of The Writer’s Guild of America, East, and is a current member of the Dramatists’ Guild councils. He was raised in New York City and is a graduate of Stanford University. He lives with his wife and daughters in New York.

TRACEY SCOTT WILSON

Co-producer on the americans on FX. Theater productions include, buzzer at the Goodman Theater in Chicago and the Public Theater in NYC. Recent productions include buzzer at the Guthrie Theater and Pillsbury House Theater. the good negro and the story at The Public Theater/NYSF as well as the Goodman Theater. Additional productions: order my steps for Cornerstone Theater’s Black Faith/AIDS project in Los Angeles; and exhibit #9, which was produced in New York City by New Perspectives Theatre and Theatre Outrageous; leader of the people produced at New Georges Theatre.

She earned two Van Lier Fellowships from the New York Theatre Workshop, a residency at Sundance Ucross and Sundance Theatre Laboratory is the winner of the 2001 Helen Merrill Emerging Playwright Award, the 2003 AT&T Onstage Award, the 2004 Whiting Award, the 2004 Kesserling Prize, the 2007 Weissberger Playwriting Award as well as the 2007 Time Warner Storytelling Fellowship. In 2009, she was the writer-in-residence at the O’Neil National Playwriting Conference. She has taught and guest lectured at several schools including, Brown University, Yale University, Rutgers University and NYU. Buzzer, The Story and The Good Negro have been published by Dramatist Play Services. Ms. Wilson holds a Master’s degree in English Literature from Temple University.

BEAU WILLIMON

Playwright and screenwriter Beau Willimon earned an Academy Award nomination for his work on the ides of march, adapted from his play Farragut North, and made his first foray into television as the creator and showrunner of the Emmy and Golden Globe winning house of cards. Through his company Westward Productions, he is currently producing several films.