A STOWE STORY
by Matt Foss
I couldn’t have anticipated the impact participating at the 2023 Stowe Narrative Lab last year would have on me. In looking back, it is clear the skills I learned there as a writer, and more importantly, the skills I gained in communicating about both my personal stories and the stories I write, have proved invaluable. Similarly, the community I found both at the Lab and the extended one I’ve encountered since through the alumni network are powerfully valuable.
Stowe Narrative Lab 2023
As an Autistic writer who grew up with a stutter — one that likes to rear its head when I’m in a new place or working on a new skill — Stowe was an incredible practice ground to get those skills and gain the capacity and confidence I needed to take some important next steps professionally.
Wearing my STOWE lanyard at Austin Film Festival was an automatic way to start conversations and forge connections with people who might feel as awkward and anxious as I do at those kinds of events, and the Stowe meet up so generously sponsored by David and the team at Austin was not only a highlight but a safe respite from the crazy hustling at the festival.
I am in a writing group now with people I met in Vermont and am working on projects and have regular collaborations with folks from the lab. The ongoing support and advice from the incredible mentors makes navigating each of these complicated next steps professionally something I feel not only prepared to do but prepped to do so in an authentic and self-advocating way.
Since Stowe, I’ve been pitching non-stop, through Roadmap Writers and things like the Screencraft Virtual Pitch Program and cold queries. The script request rate and feedback has been incredibly positive, even more so that there’s been a few pitches where the project wasn’t a good fit for them, but they felt like I could be and we’re developing new scripts born out of those conversations.
I’ve joined the WGA and my first feature is positioned for a festival premiere this year and closing a deal on my first sale.
This past month, my first film, a short called SONS OF TOLEDO was featured on Stowe’s alumni short film collection. You can find it here. It was a project that David Rocchio found in researching for some of his own work, which led to the opportunity to come to Vermont last year.
It is this kind of both initial and ongoing community fostering and capacity building that I think is not only fundamental to what Stowe does that makes it unique and special. The investment of time and energy to go to Stowe seems to be revisited back to you tenfold in so many unexpected ways that makes me so grateful to be an alumni and member of the Lab community.
Matt Foss
Matt Foss
Matt Foss is an Autistic writer who writes original comedies and adapts a wide range of IP for stage and screen.
He grew up on a cotton farm in West Texas, worked as a wildlife biologist in Montana before transitioning to working as a professional actor and playwright in Chicago and trained and performed at Russia’s famous Moscow Art Theatre. He has an MFA and PhD in theatre.
In 2023, the Austin Film Festival and Movie Maker Magazine named him on of the Top 25 Screenwriters to Watch and on Final Draft/Coverfly’s Best Unrepresented Writers List. He’s a two-time AFF Semi-Finalist, a Nicholls Quarterfinalist and a finalist in both the Final Draft/Big Break and Page Awards Screenplay Contests and an alumni of Stowe Story Labs.
He is a recipient of the Kennedy Center’s David Mark Cohen National Playwriting Award and his adaptations and productions have won multiple Joseph Jefferson Awards-Chicago’s top theatre prize.
His comedy feature, LONE WOLVES, directed by Ryan Cunningham (INSIDE AMY SCHUMER, BROAD CITY, SEARCH PARTY) will premiere in 2024.
He is a member of the WGA-East and a proud graduate of SPACE CAMP at the U.S. Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama. He was twelve and it was amazing.