by Krista Pino
Daily Lobo
UNM graduate student Dustin McGowan's play based on fantasy has helped him achieve an exciting reality.
McGowen is leaving for Washington, D.C., on Monday to receive an award honoring the best student-written play on a theme appealing to young people from the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival. According to a news release, he is the first person to receive this award since 1999.
"It was a surprise to receive this award," McGowan said. "A professor sent my script into the contest, and then I heard about it in February, and I was shocked."
The award is for the play "Harry the Magnificent," which was produced and staged at Rodey Theatre during the UNM Words of Fire Dramatic Arts Festival in the last fall.
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McGowan's play tells a story of Harry, a young boy coping with his parent's divorce.
Harry conjures up a story in his mind that his father is a famous magician and has left the family to perform.
One reason McGowan will receive this award is that the central character achieves growth through the course of the play, he said.
"I got really lucky during the production of 'Harry the Magnificent,'" McGowan said. "I had a good director and a good cast of actors."
McGowan said he was just trying to finish an assignment last spring, and so he finished writing "Harry the Magnificent." He wanted to write something about a kid trying to come to terms with his problems using his imagination in a creative way .
The playwright received his bachelor's degree at UNM in University Studies and is now working on his MFA in dramatic writing. McGowan said he had a couple of other plays produced in Words of Fire Festival 2000 and 2001.
During his trip to Washington, D.C., McGowan said he will get to attend all the different productions written by college students that are being awarded for scripts. He said he is hoping to get a chance to talk to people who do this professionally and see what advice they have.
McGowan will receive $1,000 and a publication contract from the Anchorage Press Theatre for the Youth Playwriting award. He will receive the playwriting award at a ceremony to be held at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on April 16.
As for the future, McGowan said it is up in the air.
"If I have a goal, it's to write professionally," McGowan said.
He is presently trying to write a screenplay based on the Hunchback of Notre Dame. McGowan said it is an updated version set in a San Diego hospital. He plans to get a draft done by the end of the semester.
The advice McGowan gave to future writers is to keep writing.
"Keep working on your scripts," McGowan said. "Take whatever writing classes you can take just to get some exposure to it."
