God in the Front Row
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Jennifer Cullins says there was something divine about the way she hooked up with the Christian screenwriting boot camp Act One: Writing for Hollywood. “I was minding my own business at a Kinko’s I never go to, up on the north side, and a priest walked in. And my spirit was like, ‘Talk to this priest, talk to this priest right now.’” When she approached him she saw that he was copying an article titled “Writing Faith Into Film.” “For me,” Cullins says, “that was a powerful sign. We struck up a conversation.” He turned out to be Don Woznicki, a priest in training at Mundelein Seminary. The article he was copying was written by Barbara Nicolosi, a former nun who runs Act One. Woznicki began to tell Cullins about the program, and they quickly discovered they had a lot in common: both had gone to Los Angeles to give the movie business a whirl, and both wanted to see more Christian influence on the screen. Before long Cullins, a former director of development for the ETA Creative Arts Foundation, had offered to help Woznicki bring Act One’s training program to Chicago this summer.
The Chicago session is scheduled for June 1-30 at Mundelein Seminary and Loyola University. Woznicki helped Act One get use of the facilities; Cullins–who’ll be taking the course–has been working as volunteer PR person. Tuition is $895, with scholarships available. Last week, with just 17 applications in for 30 spots, the deadline was extended from April 1 to April 15. The application form can be found at www.actoneprogram.com.
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