Writing Samples
Over the course of my time in Rosebud, I've done a lot of writing. I've taken a class on playwriting and one on screenwriting, I've found myself writing short plays or poetry for classes, and occasionally I dabble in writing for myself. Below, you'll find a few selections of my work.
Philosophy in the Gutter
In my screenwriting class, I was given the task of picking characters who would be unlikely to meet. I took the philosopher garbage man from the comic Dilbert, added a dash of pacifism and humour, then mixed him with a hardened military veteran from the Call of Duty games. The resulting script was Philosophy in the Gutter, the first episode of a hypothetical six part series.
Dirk's Choice
(or No Exceptions)
Based on the real world story of Dirk Willems, a Dutch Anabaptist who made a noble sacrifice that got him martyred, I wrote this for my 2024-25 playwriting class. It was presented in Rosebud at the Budding Playwrights Festival. It's a surreal piece, summarizing Dirk's life and upbringing in a mere ten minutes, highlighting why he made the choice he did.
An Early Winter
(the beats scene)
I wrote this as a short exercise about story beats in the 2024-25 class, and grew strangely attached to the characters. It's inspired by true events (namely a very early snowfall in the Rosebud valley), and is still only in it's first draft. I want to keep experimenting with relationships between anthropomorphized seasons in later writing.
Downtown Roulette
This was created for a free writing assignment. It's inspired by a play I in high school, and haven't been able to track down.
I've often heard that bullies act the way they do because of something in their life. Something led them to where they are. And I wanted to explore that.
Practice
Late one night, with several assignments due, and violin lessons in the morning that I hadn't practiced for, I wrote Practice. It's very autobiographical, but my class found it entertaining, and all too relatable.
An insight into my writing style; When Talia or Justine appear in my writing, it's really meant to be me. My mother has often told me that if I were born female, my name would have been Talia Justine Leenheer, hence these characters as an alternate version of myself.
Getting it Right
Talia returns, revealing my struggles with writing Dirk's Choice. I've written a lot of drafts for that play, and it took a long time before I finally settled on a version that felt right. And, one night when another draft was due, I submitted this instead, with an explanation of what I was struggling with.
The Two Poems
For a Theatre History project on Expressionism, I was asked to create a reflection on Expressionist art pieces in the style of the genre I studied. These two poems were born from that assignment, as responses to Van Gogh's "Starry Night" and Auguste Rodin's "The Gates of Hell."
No Bullets Fly
In my first year in Rosebud, I wrote a one act play for one of my classes. At the time, I wanted to write and perform theatre based on historical events, and had recently discovered the band Sabaton, who made music on that subject. So, I took their song No Bullets Fly, did some research on it, and then turned it into a play.