Drexel’s Antoinette Westphal College of Media Arts & Design is launching a student-produced television drama series. The show is being created by Westphal students from a wide range of majors including costumes designed by fashion design students, sets crafted by Interior Design students, musical scoring by Music Industry students and all aspects of physical and creative production manned by Film & Video students. The scripts for the first season were written by students from the Screenwriting & Playwriting program. While the show is student produced, the cast is comprised of professional actors. When complete, the program will be broadcast on DUTV, Drexel’s regional cable channel, which is available in more than 360,000 homes in metropolitan Philadelphia via Comcast. It will also be available on-line via the college website, www.drexel.edu/westpha and via the DUTV website www.dutv.org. University 101 takes place on the campus of fictitious Dexter University. The initial five episodes follow the lives of six students, their parents and, of course, faculty and administrators. It’s a story of life on a college campus, of young people finding themselves, trying to do the right thing when others will stop at nothing to get what they want. It’s the drama of a bad grade and the reality of mundane campus jobs; of impossible love stories to fun and outrageous behavior from well-intentioned parents who just can't let go. University 101 is a savvy and pointed telling of college life in the 21st century as seen through the eyes of our students. The project has been underway for several months as students in the screenwriting and playwriting program worked under the guidance of experienced screenwriter Lorraine Broderick during the winter term. Broderick has been head writer for All My Children, One Life to Live, As the World Turns, Guiding Light, and Days of Our Lives. Her work has earned her six Emmy awards and a Writers’ Guild Award. Now that University 101 has moved into production, television producer Felicia M. Behr is overseeing all aspects of the drama’s production. Most recently, Behr was Senior Vice President of daytime programming for ABC-TV. She oversaw all facets of programming relating to The View, Port Charles, All My Children, One Life to Live and General Hospital. Her work has garnered Emmy Awards for Best Show and People’s Choice Awards. Behr consults for USA network and Fox Television, and during her thirty years as a day time television producer, Ms. Behr executive produced All My Children and As the World Turns Westphal College faculty responsible for University 101 are Karin Kelly, Film & Video Program Director, and Ian Abrams, Screenwriting & Playwriting Program Director. Professor Kelly, an independent filmmaker, received the prestigious Princess Grace Foundation Grant and was awarded fellowships from both Warner Brothers and Paramount Pictures. Professor Abrams spent nearly twenty years as a screenwriter. He wrote the 1993 film Undercover Blues and created the television series Early Edition which ran four years on CBS.The Kal and Lucille Rudman Institute for Entertainment Industry Studies supports University 101through the leadership of Executive Director Paul Gluck and DUTV General Manager Dave Culver. The Rudman Institute oversees the DUTV cable service, which will broadcast the ground breaking drama series. # # # News media contacts: Zeek Weil, director of communication, Westphal College of Media Arts & Design 215-895-2629 or zw36@drexel.eduNiki Gianakaris, assistant director, Drexel News Bureau 215-895-6741, 215-778-7752 (cell) or ngianakaris@drexel.edu
