Interim President of Dickinson College Neil Weissman presented the Harold and Ethel L. Stellfox Visiting Scholars and Writers Program to screenwriter, John Patrick Shanley, after a discussion and question and answer session on Monday, November 7.

The Harold and Ethel L. Stellfox Visiting Scholars and Writers Program is, in the words of Weissman “like a residency.” The funds for the award were bequeathed to Dickinson College by alumnus Jean Louise Stellfox in order to “bring renowned contemporary writers and poets to campus,” according to the event’s program.  It was named after Stellfox’s parents, Harold and Ethel.

This year’s recipient, John Patrick Shanley, is best known for his play Doubt, which has won four Tony awards, a Drama Desk award as best play and the Pulitzer Prize.  He also adapted it to the screen and directed the film, which featured Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman.  He has written the screenplay for the film Moonstruck, released in 1987, which has received three Academy Awards.

The event was held in the Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium (ATS) at 8:00 p.m. on Monday night.  Introduced by Sarah Zimmer ’17, a self-proclaimed fan of Shanley’s work, the evening began with a facilitated discussion.  Professors Karen Kirkham and Todd Wronski asked Shanley about his writing, directing, and screenplays.  In response to a question asked by Wronski, Shanley spoke of what he saw as his big breakthrough.

“I wrote play after play all through my twenties and into my early thirties. ….the obstacle was there and…when I was 31, 32, I wrote a one act play called “Welcome to the Moon” and what happened was I had just had years of poverty and rejection and I finally got to a place where…the plays really were, and I didn’t know this, showing how smart I was.  And nobody cares…Finally, this little fifteen-minute play, I gave up and I was just gonna say what I feel, what I think, and leave it at that,” he said.  When he went to see the play performed at a local theater, Shanley described how he “…experienced the play through their reaction, and I realized this was different…Breakthroughs also feel different [than I expected].  I was disappointed.  I thought, ‘Oh.  That’s what they want:  the truth.’”

After the facilitated discussion, Shanley fielded questions from the audience.  Peter Winnard ’18 asked Shanley for advice as a fellow artist, actor, and aspiring playwright.  “As an artist, I figure hearing him telling me about his experience, it just takes patience but it can happen and he said that it’s not always about making it but about making these connections with other people too,” reflected Winnard.  “I found John Patrick Shanley’s insights very compelling and in a way kind of inspiring.  His talk of his studies at NYU and how he just kept at it and was finally discovered by his class just really spoke to me as an artist and I was very impressed by that.”

Abigail Duell ’20 was not only impressed by Shanley’s talent in writing, but also “his insights on what it means to be human.  It makes me question what I know about being human and my place on the earth.  It makes me question a lot of notions that I thought were solid.”

Weissman concluded the evening’s event with the presentation of the Harold and Ethel L. Stellfox Visiting Scholars and Writers Program and the announcement that there would be a book signing immediately afterwards.