February 8, 2011, Tuesday - McKnighty-Nights I at The Loft

Time: 7pm

Location: Target Performance Hall, Open Book, 1011 Washington Avenue South

Admission:  Free

McKnighty-Nights I: The Screenwriters

Fellowship winners Shelli Ainsworth and David Erickson show and talk about their work. Cosponsored with IFP.

Each year, the McKnight Foundation and IFP Media Arts award four $25,000 Fellowships to Minnesota’s mid-career filmmakers and screenwriters. This year, screenwriter Jeffrey Hatcher (Casanova, The Duchess) and film producer Christine K. Walker (Howl, Life During Wartime) will present the 2010 Fellowship recipients and their work on two nights in February at The Loft Literary Center. We’re calling them the “McKnighty-Nights.” Bedtime snacks will be served. Admission is free.

 A couple of well-meaning adults, doing the best they can in a world of harsh obstacles. Yes, that may describe the 2010 McKnight Screenwriting Fellows, but it definitely describes the protagonists in their McKnight-winning screenplays. In Shelli Ainsworth’s Stay Then Go, Marion, the mother of an autistic son, struggles to control a world that remains mysteriously elusive. In Bill-Land, David Erickson’s eponymous hero faces down the U.S. government in defense of his own one-man country. Ainsworth and Erickson will present scenes from their scripts, followed by a discussion and audience Q & A. Bring a hanky: you will both laugh and cry. Jeffrey Hatcher, internationally acclaimed writer for stage and screen, will moderate the discussion with the Fellows.

Shelli Ainsworth is the past recipient of grants and fellowships from ITVS, The Bush Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Jerome Foundation, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and the Minnesota State Arts Board. Her films, including A Psychic Mom, This is Destiny, Spa, and Le Sacre Coeur, have been seen at festivals and in museums in the United States and Europe. She has three children.

Her McKnight-anointed screenplay, Stay Then Go, tells the story of one mother's sacrifice and what lies beyond. Marion and her husband have a child, Eddie, who has autism. Just at the point where Marion can envisage a positive life for Eddie, an unlikely event occurs, dramatically altering the relationship between them.

David CC Erickson is a Minnesota-American from Minneapolis. He enjoys his family, writing, filming, and long walks to the copy machine. He would like to add more action verbs to his screenplays and hopes to someday take the hero's journey himself - without all the hassles.

His winning screenplay is Bill-land: When a 4th grade history teacher in Davenport, Iowa - facing foreclosure - discovers his home and property is its own sovereign nation, he decides to recreate the American dream of freedom on his eighth of an acre, incurring the wrath of the United States when he declares his independence.

Moderator Jeffrey Hatcher is a playwright and screenwriter. He wrote the stage play Compleat Female Stage Beauty, which he later adapted into a screenplay, shortened to just Stage Beauty (2004). He also co-wrote the stage adaptation of Tuesdays with Morrie with author Mitch Albom, and Three Viewings, a comedy consisting of three monologues - each of which takes place in a funeral home. He wrote the screenplay Casanova for director Lasse Hallstrom, as well as the screenplay for The Duchess (2008). He has also written for the Peter Falk TV series Columbo and E! Entertainment Television. His many award-winning original plays have been performed on Broadway, Off-Broadway, and regionally across the US and abroad.