Sessions
NPP One Act Play Readings #1 - PREP SCHOOL by Tucker Rafferty & GEORGE, JESSE, AND MARY by Josiah Turner, followed by response
10:00 AM - 12:30 PM Thu
NPP One Act Play Readings #2 - THE LADIES' ROOM by Kaela Mei-Shing Garvin and EXHIBITS IN THE ZOO by Matt Harmon, followed by response
10:00 AM - 12:30 PM Fri
NPP Ten Minute Play Festival
1:30 PM - 4:30 PM Sat
Robin Russin is a professor of screenwriting and playwriting in the Department of Theatre, Film & Digital Production at the University of California, Riverside, where he has served as both graduate advisor and director of the MFA in Creative Writing and Writing for the Performing Arts. Robin has degrees from Harvard, Oxford, the Rhode Island School of Design, and UCLA, where he received his MFA in screenwriting. He previously taught screenwriting at UCLA in their undergraduate and graduate film departments, as well as their Professional Program. He is a Rhodes Scholar and member of Phi Beta Kappa and the Writers Guild of America.
Robin has written, produced and directed for film, TV and the theater, including Warner Bros.’ On Deadly Ground; America’s Most Wanted on Fox; and Vital Signs on ABC; and his original one-hour pilot script about King David, Beloved, was adapted by ABC as Of Kings and Prophets. He recently directed the independent feature film, When I Sing, co-starring Chris Mulkey, which won the People’s Choice Award at the Hollywood Reel Independent Film Festival in Los Angeles; the Special Jury Award for best low budget feature film at Worldfest Houston; and Best U.S. Feature and Grand Jury Award at Borderlands Film Festival, among others. Another feature he wrote, 2 Hearts, starring Jacob Elordi and Radha Mitchell, is currently in post-production. Among other work for theatre, his play, Painted Eggs, was reviewed by The Los Angeles Times as "ambitious, heart-felt and hypnotic," and his play, The Face in the Reeds, premiered in an extended four-month run at the Ruskin Group Theatre, where he initiated and leads a workshop for local playwrights. Robin serves as chair of the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival’s National Playwriting Program for Region 8 (California, Hawaii, Arizona, Utah, and Nevada) and is co-author with William Missouri Downs of the books Naked Playwriting and Screenplay: Writing the Picture, now in its second edition (reviewed by Lew Hunter, co-chair of UCLA's screenwriting department, as the "best book about screenwriting and being a screenwriter ever written"). His stories, articles and reviews have been appeared in Script Magazine, Verdad Magazine, Connotation Press, Harvard Magazine, The Los Angeles Times, The American Oxonian, Shofar, and elsewhere. Robin has won or been a finalist for numerous awards, including two Jack Nicholson Awards for excellence in screenwriting, and competitions such as ScriptPIMP, The Movie Deal, Award Winning Screenwriters, Northwest Film Forum, ScreenCraft, TV Writer People’s Pilot Award, the Austin Film Festival, among others.
Born and raised in Wyoming and Italy, Robin currently lives in Los Angeles. He also works as a sculptor, and has taught art, literature and art history.