Happy Students Make for Happy Lucy

Just finished a 40 min. video/chat with Lucy via ZOOM link. I gotta tell you she is one fine instructor. She's flexible, responsive and really in touch with the day-to-day problems of the student/writer.

 

I started out wanting to learn to do an adaptation and chose my own screenplay.  It became obvious, pretty quickly, that  I wasn't going to be able to divorce myself from the storyline or characters enough to think of the story on stage. Sooooo, we did a quick switch and I picked a movie I liked to adapt, to whit, "Casablanca". 

 

Again, pulling away from the original story and power of the actors proved to be really difficult, but Lucy was really good at pushing me and supporting me. The result is a one act play "Laszlo" (the title is explained in the Programme Note). 

 

Working with Lucy was a real eye-opener in terms of learning to see how my dialog and actions would play on stage.

 

Why I Mentor

Choosing Lucy Wang to mentor me turned out to be an excellent decision. I started working with her in December 2014 and since then, kept going back to her again and again. The reason why I keep going back to her is that I trust her deeply and fully: I trust her talent and capacity as a mentor and teacher. I trust her warmth and care as a human being. I trust her respect for the art of playwriting; that she understands what it is that drives us as writers; makes us want to write.

With Lucy, you don’t just get a mentor who guides you with structuring your play and helping you improve dialogue and create a compelling plot. She’s not just a mentor who helps you identify your strengths and work on your weaknesses. She adjusts herself to her students’ temperament. If you have a crisis of confidence as an artist, if you suffer from doubts; she’ll be there for you. Standing by you and encouraging you but without a hint of pushiness. You just feel her presence and feel reassured.

When you submit your writing, Lucy’s feedback is prompt even when she’s in the midst of working on her own show. Even when she’s in the middle of travelling; even when there is a family crisis in her own private life. She gets back to you and her feedback is consistently specific and detailed. She reads your work thoroughly and gives you constructive criticism. I trust her so much that I look forward to her criticism. The more critical she is, the more confident I feel that my writing is going to improve. And every time, my writing does improve. I learn something new, I discover that I have skills I have not been aware of before. Lucy is just wonderful.

I count myself lucky to have Lucy as my mentor. With her I’m in safe hands. With her I can walk on unchartered ground, knowing that if I stumble and fall, Lucy will be there to help me stand up again and walk. She’s the best you can get. Go for her.

Nushin. A.

Letter of Recommendation

As most of you know, I juggle several part-time jobs to make ends meet.  So believe me, sometimes I am quite tempted to tell my students, please buy ALL my work!

I think of all those years where my professors assigned their books to me, how big and expensive they were.  Cha-ching, cha-ching.  They were MANDATORY reading!

If I use my own work as an example, it is because I happen to know what I was thinking, what I was trying to do.  But when I am demonstrating craft at its finest, I often recommend and use Henrik Ibsen's A DOLL HOUSE. 

I love teaching, love helping students create and find their voice/vision.  Today, one of those talented students wrote me a letter of appreciation which I want to share with you.  It brought a few tears to my eyes.

Dear Lucy,

I am very appreciative of all the time and thought you gave to me and the play. I would like you to be able to use the following with prospective students and mentees should you need it.

I worked with Lucy Wang entirely over email when writing my first full-length play. She was remarkably prompt, responding to all my emails and drafts. She provided helpful exercises as I wrangled with character and scene development. She was always encouraging and supportive in all her communications and provided indispensable constructive feedback as well as structural guidance concerning how the play was progressing as I wrote it. When I sent her my "final" draft, Lucy was unbelievably generous, which is not to say that she simply praised my work. In fact, she combed through the entire text incredibly thoroughly and clarified many potential weaknesses that were already in my thoughts. She never attempted to make the work her own; her comments and feedback were written to spark and inspire my own process and voice. Although she occasionally used examples from her own work to explain her points or "homework", she never asked me to read her work as part of the process. I found Lucy to be extremely helpful and specific without pushing too much into my creative process. I would recommend working with her without reservations for anyone who is looking for insightful and inspiring guidance with writing a play.

Thank you very much,

with much warmth,

yours,

 KS

** I removed name and changed initials to preserve student's privacy.**