On Screenwriting and Media with Dr. Rosanne Welch

During all of our Stephens College Residency Workshops, my favorite job as Executive Director is when I moderate a panel at the Writers Guild.

Last August, we hosted “Beyond the Book” which covered writing adaptations and spin-offs. The panelists shared ideas about how to manage IP; we discussed how creative decisions are made when one deviates from the source material and how thematic material, characters, and plot points are emphasized or expanded upon in TV series and features.

I always like to cover shows that focus on female-driven stories (no matter the writer) so while Oliv...

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On Saturday, August 8 I had the pleasure of being the guest academic and providing the introduction to a screening of “Clueless” (written by Amy Heckerling) in the newly renovated theatre. of the Autry Museum of the American West.

In my short talk, I covered the comparison between Cher, the lead character of Clueless, and Jane Austen’s Emma, showing how Heckerling’s film is a solid example of the female gaze.

I also touched on how Heckerling embedded her own progress...

Rosanne’s Presentation on Television Writer-Genius Susan Harris

At the 2026 international Screenwriting Research Network conference held at Oxford Brookes University in Oxford, UK, I had the privilege of giving a presentation based on my Introduction to my upcoming book The Works of Susan Harris (To be published around March 2028).

I walked the audience through her career from freelancing for All in the Family to Maude, where she wrote the still timeless 2 parter where the 43-year-old Maude decided to have an abortion. Then I covered her groundbreaking storytelling on SOAP and, of co...

Though Tess Slesinger wrote only 12 films her contribution to classic Hollywood screenwriting and adaptation deserves focus.  Born on July 16, 1905 to Jewish parents of Hungarian-Russian heritage, Slesinger grew up with three older brothers on New York’s Upper West Side.  Her father worked in the garment world and her mother, Augusta Slesinger went from being a welfare worker to becoming a psychoanalyst and helping found the New School for Social Research. Slesinger learned talents from both of her parents’ professions to fuel her career writing

Though writer Catherine Turney was born (in 1906) and raised in Chicago, she and her parents moved to Pasadena in her later teens and that made all the difference. At the age of 20, Turney began working for the School of Theatre at the Pasadena Playhouse where she eventually attended. Turney graduated in 1931 and immediately began working on a play. Bitter Harvest, the story of the controversial relationship between Lord Byron and his sister Augusta Leigh. It marked Turney as a writer of substance with an ability to adapt classics.

Various sources claim th...

Many of today’s screenwriters have come from the world of education so it could be said they are following the path laid out by Ethel Doherty in the 1920s and 30s. Born in Los Angeles in 1899 Doherty and the film industry grew up together. Her parents moved back and forth between Los Angeles and Arizona, so Doherty majored in history and graduated from Arizona State Normal School with plans to be a high school teacher.

Back in Los Angeles she spent two summers at the University of Southern California (USC) and...