Muschell passes love for writing to students

Georgia College & State University is fortunate to have an accomplished playwright and passionate teacher of the craft of writing as David Muschell.

Muschell, associate professor of english, speech and journalism, brought his excitement for writing to GC&SU in the fall of 1990. Although he has been successful writing in several genres, he was drawn to writing plays by the instant gratification of a live audience.

“When you’re sitting in a theatre and you’re watching the audience reacting to the actors doing your play, you really get a sense that you might have really moved somebody or made them laugh or had them think about something that you wanted to try to provoke their minds to think about,” said Muschell. “You get to actually see them react in the moment so it’s really different. It’s a good feeling when it all works and what you try to say seems to come through in the audience’s expressions or applause – their silence when you hope they are going to be really intense or their laughter when you want them to laugh. You hope they laugh at the right place! It’s a good feeling to move people with your thoughts. Playwriting is so different then any other kind of writing.”

His passion for creative writing has made a great impression on his students.

“I really enjoyed David Muschell’s (Intro to Creative Writing) class for several reasons,” said junior Emily Cole. “David teaches the class with an enthusiasm that is tangible with an open forum class. Sometimes we would get a little off task, yet he realizes that writing is all about being off task. I am planning on taking another one of his classes which deals in writing drama.”

“His class had energy,” said sophomore Jonathan Lay. “Everybody had something to say and the workshop atmosphere was wonderful.”

Muschell sees teaching as an opportunity to make a difference in the
lives of young writers.

“It’s not that I’m going to touch every student, but when you do touch one you feel like something’s really happening, that they’ve been moved by something or they’ve really had an experience,” said Muschell.
“Education is not necessarily all just books. It’s really sometimes having an experience. Our creative writing class was really fun because of the interaction of all the people and their thoughts and the freedom. There was really good academic freedom in there with people being able to disagree with each other and not necessarily get angry with each other, but seriously disagree about important issues. That’s really enjoyable, when you see people’s minds working like that.”

Muschell’s colleagues at GC&SU are equally impressed with his dedication to writing and teaching.

“He’s a devoted writer and teacher,” said Dr. Martin Lammon, the Fuller E. Callaway/Flannery O’Connor chair in creative writing, english , speech and journalism. “He’s up early, usually before sunrise, working on plays and other writing. Yet he is one of the most conscientious teachers I know. We’re lucky to have him on the creative writing program faculty.”

“He inspires students in the college as well as in local high schools to write creatively,” said Dr. Ruth Knafo Setton, associate professor of english, speech and journalism. “He puts on theatrical productions, he writes sketches and monologues that help bring Milledgeville history to life and he even teaches yoga.”

Muschell’s most recent plays are “The Jesus Trip,” a full-length adult play and “The Golden Nest,” a children’s play, both published in the September 2001. In addition to his plays, he has published two books on word origins. He has also had a few short stories, poems and two songs published. He is currently working on a new play and a novel.

Muschell has had 10 plays published since 1983 that have been produced in 23 states, Canada and Japan. His plays have received a dozen regional and national awards, including the Southeast Playwrights’ Competition, the MultiStages New Works Competition in New York and the Stage3 MFA Program Theatre in Sonoma, Cal

“The last thing that happened was that I was a semifinalist in this Nantucket theatre company’s short play contest,” said Muschell. “I was a semifinalist – in the top 10, so it’s not like I won, but when you have 200 plays submitted and you’re one of the top 10 it feels good.”

His work is admired by his peers at GC&SU.

“David likes to take risks, as he does in ‘House of No Doors’, a play set in the future where people who are ‘ill’ are isolated in cages, sequestered from society,” said Dr. Lammon. “Another is ‘Surf,’ a play that explores the phenomenon of internet chat rooms. What I admire most about David’s plays is how he always finds those moments of poetry, when
characters suddenly, yet utterly believably, speak in a language that transcends mundane speech.”

“I love his work,” said Dr. Susan Atefat-Peckham, assistant professor of english, speech and journalism. “The reading of his I attended last year was stunning.”

Early on Muschell had no idea that plays would become the main focus of his writing.

“I taught in the public schools back in the 70′s,” he said. “I really felt like I had to write so I quit teaching to write full time and I was writing everything. I was sending out stories, plays, poems, songs, just kind of everything in the world. It was a play that hit big first, then I realized that I really liked drama. All through college I had been in plays and acted and I directed some in community theatre and in college. In high school I was a drama coach for one-act plays and a full-length spring play. I really did like drama a lot. I just never thought I would end being a playwright. If I’d had one of my short stories published first I might be a short story writer now.”

“Although after I’ve been one for a while now I realized, ‘hey, all along you were really playwright’,” he continued. “I was moving toward it, I was being trained as an actor, as a director, and I wrote a few things in college, a couple of short plays. And when I started writing full time plays felt good. I just felt I could hear these voices and it felt good to write them, but I also like fiction and poetry, too. It was probably just fortune. Maybe this is where I’m supposed to be. Many writers are looking for their genre or voice and this is what I fell into.”

If he had listened to his parents, Muschell would have taken a very different path.

“My parents wanted me to be a lawyer,” he said. “I said I’ll try it one quarter as a political science major and talk to some people about what that would entail, but I don’t really want to be a lawyer. They said do it for one quarter and I did it. I was lucky that the head of the political science department had been a lawyer and he said ‘If you don’t want to go into law, all you can do otherwise is teach. If you want to teach, teach something you really care about’. He definitely cleared the air for me and I went off as an English and philosophy major and my parents were like ‘he’ll never make any money!’.

As impressed as everyone is with his abilities as a writer and teacher, what really strikes people is the kind of person he is.

“I love his positive attitude and friendly demeanor,” said Dr. Atefat-Peckham. “He’s intense and he’s kind. He’s generous with students, the local community and with his friends. Here’s how sweet David Muschell is. The first few weeks we were in town he borrowed a boat and took me and my family out on the lake for the afternoon. My two-year-old even threw up over the side of the boat and screamed for the second half of the trip, but it didn’t faze him one bit. He was patient and kind the whole time.”

“David Muschell is warm, talented and down-to-earth,” said Dr. Setton. “He’s a very giving individual and he shares his experience and knowledge with the entire community. I value him as a wonderfully generous colleague and a friend and I’m glad to have the opportunity to work with him in the MFA program.”

“David is the kind of person who will stand by you,” said Dr. Lammon. “Whether you are his colleague, his friend or his student, if you earn his respect, he will always go the extra mile for you.”

“I feel I have a great inspiration in David,” said Cole. “He will not judge my writing in comparison to himself, but only to how good he knows I can be.”

Looking back on the long road that brought him to his proper place in the life, Muschell is glad to be doing what he enjoys for a living.

“Life really takes you on strange journeys so if you go into it trying to follow the path of the money, I guess there’s nothing wrong with that, but I think in the end you really want to do something that makes you feel like it’s not a job,” he said. “I enjoy teaching also so it’s a good blend. I’ve been able to keep my writing going and do some things that I like doing.”

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Feb 7 2003. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry