The Daily Campus

Issue date: 4/15/09 Section: Focus

Media Credit: Nick Hart Melissa Salmons speaks about the business of script writing.

As we watch our favorite television shows and movies from the comfort of television screens or even the warm glow of a computer monitor, we often get lost in the humorous, dramatic and overall entertaining stories that lay before us. What we do not so often realize is the time, effort and creative genius that frequently go into writing that story before it's lights, camera, action.

Co-sponsored by UConn Dramatic PAWS and the Writers Guild of America East, last night's event marks the second year in a row that Dramatic PAWS has featured a member of the Writers Guild of America as a guest speaker.

"I'd like the Writers Guild Presentation to become an annual Dramatic PAWS event," said Ryan O'Connell, a 4th-semester elementary education and English double major and president of Dramatic PAWS. "The club strives to represent all aspects of the performing arts, not just what one witnesses onstage or onscreen."

O'Connell explained how he got in contact with Melissa Salmons, the guest speaker of the night.

"I contacted Melissa Salmons through screenwriter David Duval, with help from our former president Scott Bonito. She graciously volunteered when I asked for another writer to speak at UConn."

Salmons, is a two-time Emmy Award winning television writer for such television shows as "Guiding Light," "As the World Turns," "The Young and the Restless," and "One Life to Live," where she is currently a staff writer.

Among her television writing, Salmons is also a lifetime member of the Writers Guild of America and has received eight Writers Guild Award nominations, winning two. She has played an active role as a member of the Negotiating Committee for the 2007 Writers Guild Contract and serves on the Writers Guild East Council, which she talked about in her engaging lecture that covered topics as diverse as the history of strikes in the Writers Guild of America, the changing dynamics of new media and cable networks, as well as her own writing process.

Salmons focused a great majority of her lecture on describing the current climate of writers and the Writers Union before and after the 2007 strike.

Continued...

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