By Kayla Walker

Playwright and screenwriter Kenneth Lonergan, visited the University on March 10 as a part of the “Great Writers, Great Readings” lecture series.

Lonergan received two Academy Award nominations: one for his contribution to the screenplay for Gangs of New York and the other for his original screenplay You Can Count on Me. His play Promenade was a Pulitzer Prize runner-up. Lonergan read selections from his play This is Our Youth, his movie You Can Count on Me and his new play The Starry Messenger.

This is Our Youth is a play about teenagers from the Upper West Side in 1982. “His characters really came through his readings, I was so engrossed in the first piece,” junior English major Jamie Herzing, said. “I know people exactly like those characters.”

The monologue taken from This is Our Youth was a diatribe of a young drug addict named Dennis who just learned that his friend passed away from an overdose and was “high on fear.”

The next selection was also taken from This is Our Youth and was a conversation between two characters Warren and Jessica about the murder of Warren’s sister. Freshman Jackie Sherbow expressed her appreciation for the piece.

“It was so effective because I really got a sense of the characters in such a short time,” Sherbow said.

A scene that was written while Lonergan was working on his award winning film You Can Count on Me but was left out of the screenplay was also read. The scene was a discussion about abortion after one of the characters, Shelia, gets pregnant.

“I liked his strong character choices, they were very descriptive and enjoyable to listen to,” said freshman English major Sarah Catherine Ginolfi. “I’m sure we’ll be seeing more of his work in the near future.”

Lonergan then read a selection from his new play The Starry Messenger about an astronomy teacher at the Hayden Planetarium on West 81st in Manhattan. The planetarium was torn down in 1996 and replaced by The Rose Center for Earth and Space.

When asked if his movie You Can Count on Me turned out to be how he imagined it, he said it did not, but everything fell into place.

“There were parts in the film that just ended up happening that I liked, for example in one scene Laura Linney and Rory Culkin are talking and Rory is sitting there looking incredibly uncomfortable,” Lonergan said. “Well Rory had a whole bunch of lines there that he forget during shooting so Laura just kept talking, I ended up keeping it because it seemed so natural.”

“When I get writer’s block I know it means I just don’t have anything to say at the moment, my tank is empty,” Lonergan shared. “I’m much happier when I’m writing, but sometimes you’re forced to wait until you’re tank is refreshed.

Lonergan said he liked writing screenplays he has control over better than writing for Hollywood studios

Lonergan began writing in the fifth grade with his first story, a science fiction piece titled, “The Wonderful World of Titans.”

“I was so amazed that I could write four full pages, so I just kept going,” he said. “I decided I liked writing theatrical works because it was easier to edit, I was basically too lazy to edit novels.”