Interview (Part 1): Wendy Britton Young

My interview with the 2024 Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting winner.

Wendy Britton Young wrote the original screenplay “The Superb Lyrebird & Other Creatures” which won a 2024 Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting. Recently, I had the opportunity to chat with Wendy about her creative background, her award-winning script, the craft of screenwriting, and what winning the Nicholl has meant to her.

Today in Part 1 of a 6-part series to run each day through Saturday, Wendy talks about her background with acting and songwriting, and how that led to her interest in screenwriting.

Scott Myers: OK, Wendy. Congratulations on winning the 2024 Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting.

Wendy Britton Young: Thank you so much. It’s exciting.

Scott: I found this description online of your storytelling interest. You said you’ve always been a storyteller and also that you were a folk singer.

I know you’ve done a little bit of acting, and also it says your storytelling draws on animals and the natural world to reveal our humanness, and that your stories aim for the heart.

So let’s start with that, your origin story. Where’d you grow up and how did you find your way into writing as an interest and say, even particularly, how did you find that being drawn to the natural world?

Wendy: I’ve always loved animals. As a kid, it was horses and dogs. I felt a deep kinship with them, like we understood each other. I was also a big tree climber, so all of this seems to have stayed with me. Also, my parents were environmentalists early on.

I grew up outside of Philadelphia, the second of four kids in a very musical family. My dad was a folk singer by profession, like a Pete Seeger type. In fact, he knew Pete.

I was always into the arts. I was a fine arts major in high school. My mom was an agent. My sister and I played music together, and my mom would get us gigs, and we did a lot of touring colleges and coffeehouses. Performing folk music, you tell a lot of stories — “Where does this song come from?” That kind of thing.

I also did character work. I started when I was a kid. We would be Dickens carolers in malls and stuff like that. Later, I joined a theater group for a little bit and played Ophelia in “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.”

My husband and I have four kids. He’s also a musician, and all of our kids were into the arts.. Actually, all four of them did acting — but my youngest is an actress by profession, as well as a singer/songwriter. I read her audition scripts because she started when she was very young. Finally I decided maybe eight years ago that I was just going to try screenwriting. I came to the party pretty late, but I was like, “I think I can do this.”

Scott: I’ve interviewed hundreds of writers. I don’t think I’ve ever heard someone say, “Well, you know, I kind of got into the whole screenplay thing and became familiar with it through the scripts that I was reading for my daughter’s auditions.” That’s pretty interesting way to connect with screenwriting.

Wendy: Totally. I also composed the music for a couple of short films. I guess somewhere along the way, I got bitten by the bug, and I just thought, “Why am I having all these stories constantly swirling around in my head if I’m not supposed to write them down?”

Scott: I have to say when I discovered screenwriting, it was like, “Oh, wait a minute. This encompasses everything.” Was that the same kind of reaction you had?

Wendy: Yes, although I was a little bit intimidated by it. My daughter’s acting teacher, Tony Savant, from Playhouse West, also has an online screenwriting course, and he was like, “Why don’t you do this? You can learn the basics,” and so I started doing it.

Actually, I started writing this story, the Superb Lyrebird, and I just wanted to do the story and didn’t turn in the lessons. Then I hit a wall, and I thought, “Well, I just can’t do this. This is a magical thing, and I don’t know the right magic words for it.” Then I went to a film festival that was associated with Tony’s class, and I thought, “Well, all these other people are doing this.” I gave myself a spanking and just went for it.

Scott: Somewhere along the line, you certainly learned the ins and outs of screenwriting. I mean, your script “The Superb Lyrebird & Other Creatures” is, indeed, superb, a great read, the way that it’s written. How did you go about learning the craft. There was that online course …

Wendy: Tony’s course is very foundational. And he gave me a lot of notes. There was a lot of trial and error. My first version of it was really pitiful, my first draft.

I never went through the thing where I resented getting notes. Anytime anybody would help me, I lapped it up, and I just kept making it better. I’ve written other scripts, but this particular script seemed to sort of capture people’s imagination.

Scott: I believe you said you’re a member of a writer’s group. One of the writers in your group I know from a previous Black List lab. How did that happen?

Wendy: We all were finalists in the women-over-40 Writers Lab. One of the ladies got in touch with us, and she said, “Why don’t we have a group where we pitch to each other?” It’s down to the four of us now. We practice pitching, but we also read each other’s scripts, and it’s a fun group. They gave me great notes on the Lyrebird script. It wouldn’t be what it is now without all the help I’ve gotten, from other friends as well.

I love the collaborative process. To me, that exchange of energy is so enlivening. I guess being a musician too, when you’re playing with other musicians, you have that wonderful connection on stage. So this feels familiar in that sense.

Tomorrow in Part 2, Wendy reflects on the inspiration for her Nicholl-winning script and its eight-year journey from concept to final draft.

For my interviews with every Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting winner since 2012, go here.