Emerson Professor to Coach TV Writers in Europe

Professor Martie Cook is heading to France this spring to mentor 20 promising television writers from across Europe as part of the Series Mania Writers Campus, a partnership between Emerson College and the Paris College of Art.

The Writers Campus, being held April 27 to May 4 in the Hauts-de-France city of Lille, is a program of Series Mania, a major European TV festival. Cook, a 25-year veteran TV writer/producer with credits including Full House, Charles in Charge, and The Today Show, will lead the intensive week-long workshop with Sarah Treem, showrunner and producer of Showtime’s The Affair.

“We hope this is the start of a fruitful relationship between our institutions,” Visual and Media Arts Chair Brooke Knight said, referring to Paris College of Art, “and the workshop is a great opportunity for participants to work with one of our stellar faculty members.”

Applicants must have at least one professional experience on a broadcast TV series; some participants will be chosen from among the alumni of partner institutions, including Emerson. Selected writers will have all expenses apart from meals paid by Series Mania; deadline to apply is February 5.

The Series Mania festival tends to skew toward dramatic series, because more drama than comedy is written in Europe, Cook said, but participants in the workshop can work on either.

Cook, director of Emerson's Comedic Arts program, said she was looking forward to working with Paris College of Art, as well as European television writers.

“I’m excited because TV, as with many other artforms, is becoming more and more global,” she said. “I think through the European television writers, I’m going to learn about how they do things in Europe and I can bring that back to my students [at Emerson].”

In addition to the Writers Campus, Cook will stop in Paris to visit Emerson’s partner institution.

“This partnership with Paris College of Art is just going to open up whole new ways of thinking,” Cook said.