LA screenwriter teaches for the day

Coming from sunny Los Angeles, Aaron Peters departed from his busy schedule of writing for TV, and came to Castleton to talk to a handful of students who are studying what he does for a living, scriptwriting. He walks into the Script Writing Advanced class with professor Roy Vestrich, ready to take over his job – at least for the day. Peters brings a bright smile and is full of excited energy, and by the middle of the class the students are just as excited hearing what Peters has to say.

Peters is a scriptwriter who has worked on various shows including “The Tom Green Show”, “The Simple life”, and “My Big Fat Greek Life”. He described his career as “a great occupation.”

The reason why he wanted to be a scriptwriter was because while he interned on the “Conan O’Brien Show”, he noticed how much fun the scriptwriters had, just sitting around eating and trying to make each other laugh.

He pursued his interest and got a job on “Mad TV” as a writer’s assistant. From there he was able to get a taste of all the departments of a TV show and met his future writing partner.

When he got a writing partner his career started to go in new directions. He said, “Writing stories together is more appealing.” He discussed with the class how much better it is to write with a partner because you are able to bounce ideas off of each other and really get the creative juices flowing.

As he talked about his experiences of writing for what he calls the “big business”, the students were engaged with questions that they tested Peters with. The questions ranged from how he gets his ideas for shows and how he pitches his ideas, to questions about the studios. While Peters kept the class engaged with his work, the students kept him entertained with their ideas.

The students also got to share with Peters their own ideas of scripts they had thought of. They first broke off into groups to come up with an idea for a new TV show featuring Jay-Z and they had to pitch it to “the studio”, which Peters played the role of.

The room was full of laughter and high spirits during and after their brainstorming. The fun had just started when the young scriptwriters pitched their ideas to Peters. Right off from the first group the room was full of exuberant energy with everyone sharing laughs with Peters.

After he had the students involved in his TV show activity, one of the students shared her script with the class and Peters. Once a couple of students were assigned parts to read, Peters’ entertainment began.

The cleverly written script and the enthusiastic acting overwhelmed Peters with laughter. He said the script had a very clear storyline and was entertaining to listen to.

After the class was over, it was obviously that everyone had a fun time. The students left the room, jolly with delight and Peters, still with a bright smile and still full of great enthusiasm, talked to the students as they left.

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