Welcome to the blog for the Villanova English department! Visit often for updates on department events, guest speakers, faculty and student accomplishments, and reviews and musings from professors and undergraduates alike.

Thursday, August 4, 2016

Patrick Walsh Wins Sue Winge Playwriting Competition

Recent Villanova graduate and English major Patrick Walsh has been named the winner of this year's Sue Winge Playwriting Competition.  The Villanova Theatre Department sponsors the yearly competition, offered exclusively to Villanova students, alumni, faculty and staff. Pat is the first undergraduate winner of the competition (he was a Villanova senior when he submitted the play).

The goal of the competition is to foster creative endeavors within the Villanova arts community. The funding and support for this project are provided by the Sue Winge Playwriting Grant. The Sue Winge Playwriting Grant and Competition was established in memory of beloved Villanova University employee, Sue Winge, who served the university for many years in the Theatre Department and the President’s Office.

Pat's play, The Fluttering Pulses, will receive a live reading on October 3rd at 8:00 pm in Vasey Studio.  Philadelphia director Seth Rozin will oversee the production of the play, which the VU Theatre Facebook calls an "important, impressive new work."

Here's Pat's synopsis of the play:
The plays follows ambitious college student Ben Kenny as he seeks to unban a controversial fiction novel about a school shooting that inspired the real-life school shooting that tragically killed his aunt. Ben believes the book gives a voice to the victims and that the killer's interpretation should not alter how the world sees the book. His family proves to be less than supportive of the campaign, disagreeing with his interpretation, and begging him to stop. With few on his side, he attempts to track down the location of the author, whose whereabouts are unknown, to prove his point and unban the book. The play "invites a deep conversation" about gun violence, gun control, and mass media reactions to such tragedies, and asks us all to re-think our role in these situations.

Pat Walsh on stage.