The Writer's Lab: Kelly Yoon Stathmore
When you hear the names Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman, and Oprah Winfrey most people will think of Oscar award winning performances, not screenwriting. But these three women support of The Writers Lab, a four day script development retreat for women writers over the age of 40, along with co-founders Elizabeth Kaiden and Nitza Wilon and New York Women in Film & Television. Kelly Yoon Strathmore is one of the 2020 participants.
Kelly’s winning screenplay, Wing and a Prayer, “follows an impoverished nineteen-year-old as she resolves to make a better life for her disabled brother, but when she meets a young hitchhiker, she’s tasked with saving more than just the rent money.”
As is true for many up-and-coming writers, Kelly had to be judicious about how many labs and contests she entered each year, choosing only three that required application fees. And the prize had to be worth more than just accolades. “The Writers Lab offers feedback on your winning script from working writers and producers, plus access to a network of strong, successful women in the industry.” She found this prospect well worth the $60 fee.
The Writers Lab encourages “community-building and [offers] various methods of support and/or guidance for the winners -- not just at the lab, but in the months that have followed, they have been as active in mentorship and support for the winners.”
Though usually held in upstate New York, the 2020 Writers Lab was held over a series of online meetings. Kelly didn’t know any of the other fellows, “but in the month prior to the lab, the 12 winners met for weekly Zoom sessions. It was a wonderful community-building experience. We have continued to meet monthly to share scripts and check-in with each other even after the lab.”
Having completed the lab, Kelly now hopes to staff in a writers room or attach to an open writing assignment for a feature. As an expert puzzle solver, she likes to “funnel that strategic mind into a penchant for writing heists and murder mysteries, often featuring scrappy schemers putting their broken families back together.”
Congratulations to Kelly and this year’s other winners of the Writers Lab. You can find Kelly at @KellyStrathmore on Twitter and she is repped by Ford Lytle Gilmore, Illuminati Entertainment (Manager) and Alex Contratto, Nelson Davis LLP (Legal).
Originally from Oklahoma Pepper Reed moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career as a TV Writer. She uses fantasy and supernatural projects to tell personal narratives. An NYU Alum, she was a Finalist for NBC’s Writers on the Verge fellowship for 2019.
You can find her on Instagram @pepperreed and on Twitter @starchaser14.
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