Alumna Named Finalist for Goldwyn Screenwriting Award
Selection panel includes actress Hilary Swank

Christine Clark | October 19, 2009

UCSD theatre MFA graduate Jennifer Barclay, ’09, acted in Chicago and Europe before she started developing her own plays.

UCSD theatre MFA graduate Jennifer Barclay, ’09, was acting in Chicago and Europe after she received her bachelor’s degree from Northwestern University, but when she couldn’t find enough dynamic female characters to play, she decided to create them herself.

Barclay developed a one-woman play then started creating ensembles plays. “Most of the roles I was coming across were ‘ingénue’ types and the women I know are infinitely more interesting,” she said. “So, in all my plays, I make it a priority to create stereotype-busting roles for women.”

Barclay was recently selected as one of five finalists for the prestigious Goldwyn Screenwriting Award for her screenplay “Prank.” With this nomination, Barclay joins the ranks of previous winners such as Francis Ford Coppola and Eric Roth. Her submission was selected out of more than 150 scripts. All finalists will receive cash prizes, with $15,000 for the first-place winner. Awards will be presented Nov. 2 at UCLA and selected by actress Hilary Swank, producer Colin Callender and Creative Artists Agency story editor Catherine Tarr.

“It’s a thrill to know that high-caliber artists who have challenged Hollywood stereotypes, such as Hilary Swank, will be reading my work,” she said.

Barclay began UC San Diego’s playwriting MFA program in 2007. In this picture she shows her triton pride at the Yosemite National Park.

“Prank” tells the story of a pair of merciless twins and their band of misfit sisters who rule their college prep boarding school with renegade justice. When one of the twins launches an attack on her teacher, however, their innocent debauchery spirals into an all-out war of flesh and blood. Barclay developed “Prank” over two quarters in a screenwriting class at UCSD with MFA alum Karl Gajdusek. She said she’s particularly drawn to dark humor and describes her work as diverse, but she always strives to create characters that are complex and well developed.

 “Screenwriting allows me to reach a wider audience,” she said. “But my main goal is to develop works that are full of raw, muscular humanity and littered with juicy, scenery-chewing characters that actors will love to play.”

Barclay began UC San Diego’s playwriting MFA program in 2007 and now experiments with writing for radio, film, television and theater.

“Barclay writes with a fierce, street-smart verve and strong spoken word savvy,” said Allan Havis, professor of theatre and dance, author of 13 published plays and one of Barclay’s mentors. “She depicts broken love and moral bankruptcy in wild comic tones, all the while drawing raw emotional portraits.”

Barclay said she was attracted to UC San Diego’s playwriting program because of its unique mentorship opportunities for playwrights. “I was looking for and found a community where I could focus on my craft and collaborate with great artists,” she said. “Teaching undergraduates also enriched my writing.”

She is especially grateful for learning from playwriting professors, such as Havis, Naomi Iizuka and Adele Shank, and for being able to develop three original plays for the Baldwin New Play Festival. The festival provides a dynamic opportunity for playwrights in the MFA program because they have they opportunity to have their plays performed and viewed by professional guests from theaters across the country, Havis said.

“I made a lot of great connections through UC San Diego,” she said. “My professors knew I had an interest in screenwriting, so they supported me not only with their own feedback, but also with the guests they brought in for workshops and seminars.”

Barclay is currently a playwright in residence at the South Coast Repertory, which she secured through the generosity of the Ted and Adele Shank UCSD Fellowship. She has been honored with the second prize for the Kennedy Center’s 2008 National Science Playwriting Award (for “The Attic Dwellers”); was named a semi-finalist for Final Draft’s Big Break Screenwriting competition (for “The Fontaines”); and a finalist for the Princess Grace Award (for “The Human Capacity”), yet she said that she was surprised at the amount or recognition she’s received since the news broke about the Samuel Goldwyn Awards.

“The phone started ringing immediately,” she said. “I’ve been to a lot of meetings and have been contacted by a wonderful slew of agents, producers and managers.”

Barclay lives in San Diego with her husband, Andrew Newsham, who works in the International Relations and Pacific Studies Library at UC San Diego. Newsham is a short story writer from England; the two met in a castle in Scotland at the Hawthornden International Writers Retreat.

Although Barclay travels to Los Angeles often, she’s happy to live in San Diego. “It's important to me to remain a part of the phenomenal UCSD community,” she said. “I hope to return to teach some time soon.”