Hollywood screenwriter returns home

A screenwriter from Los Angeles, with roots in Superior returned to town, this fall, to share the craft of scriptwriting with Superior Elementary School students. It has been a process to create the penname of Marion Dayre, but we know her as Heather Williams. When registering her name as a writer, she was faced with 17 other Heather Williamses in the Los Angeles area. Consequently, she created the heart-felt pseudonym using her father, grandfather and uncle's names. On film credits you will see Heather Marion and Marion Dayre. Heather is the daughter of Dave and Kim Williams. Her siblings are Lauren Isaacson, Amy Meyers and Rhys Williams, all who grew up in Superior.

During the workshop, Heather asked fourth and fifth grade students "Why do we watch movies?" Some students' responses were that movies are exciting because of the actions and scenes. Heather shared her viewpoint, "We watch movies or shows because of the characters. It keeps us wanting to watch more." We can acquire knowledge from anecdotes, "Everything we learn from history, math or other subjects is through story telling."

Heather devoted several days with the two grades teaching character and scene development and how to write the script for each character. The Beauty and the Beast motion picture was analyzed with how the task is done. The characteristics of the Beast, for example, the children described as "dark, mad, hurt, sad, gentle and kind." They were then asked to consider the physical appearance and name of their character creation after they have listed the imaginary creature's traits. Some of the categories for attributes were: personality, relationships with other characters, the character's background and motivators, or the wants and needs of the character.

Every character has an opponent, "Just like in sports your opponent doesn't want you to win, likewise there is a character created to oppose another," Heather enlightened them. For the film chosen for discussion, Gaston is the antagonist to Belle and to the Beast. His character showed determination to marry Belle, who found him to be rude and arrogant, and he would not let Beast get in his way to do so. Additionally, characters in a story undergo personality changes. It takes much time and thought to develop characters."In the writing room, scriptwriters gather for a month just to develop the characters," Heather said.

The next part of the writing process is creating a scene. The format used for writing a script was shown on the board. It was explained how it is different than writing assignments students are familiar with. In writing about the scene there was one thing needing consideration and that was "What's the character's ticking clock?" Heather asked. The Beast had a mystical rose with which the petals were slowly dying. Once the petals were gone, the Beast's time will have run out for him to show love. If he did not, the former prince would be a beast forever.

One student asked if the rules can be broken in the story. Heather acknowledged the question and quickly answered with an example, "You can break the rules as we know. For example, a penguin can't fly, but in your movie it can." There was a lot of laughter and the children blurted out other ideas foregoing the formalities of raising their hand before speaking.

The students did a group activity where they invented a scene using prompts written on a 3x5 cards from Heather. Tucker Trainer, also from Los Angeles, co-ran the workshop assisting the students in conceptualizing scenes. Later, in groups of three, the students collaborated on what transpires in their scenes and wrote dialogues for their fictional characters. When a hint of negativity popped up, Heather assertively corrected students to not say, "No. I don't like that, but be positive and offer ideas."

On the last day, all the students had their scripts written out and a picture of their character with its name and behaviors. One group at a time sat in the front of the classroom reading another group's script as if they were the actors of a short film. Heather wanted the students to get the feel for what it is like to "cast their roles to actors," by hearing their work being read by another. The stories evoked giggling reassurances from the attentive children and adults in the classroom.

Careers in the movie industry are numerous. "There are 250 jobs related to just one movie: fashion designers, electricians, stunt coordinators, setting a background scene, construction workers, animal trainers, cast directors...," encouraged Heather. She pointed out to the students there are many open doors to the industry other than writing and acting. This led a discussion with the children inquiring more about careers in the field.

Heather got her start in writing at a young age. She was fascinated with her parents' favorite movies and she was a bookworm who was "always reading something," said Heather. She had positive influencers in her life. Heather shared that teachers would give her the messages of "I see you and I believe in you." Her parents supported her in educational opportunities and career choices.

When she was in high school, screenwriter, Lew Hunter, visited the school to teach on the subject of creative writing. Heather made a mental note of him and what she had learned.

A fun Superior history fact is in May 1996, Heather was part of the two-block line up of adults and students to move all the books from the old library location on Commercial Avenue to the new library on Kansas Street. One by one all the books were passed along the line.

As a young adult, Heather's first writing assignment was for the News Link newsletter for the local railroad: BNSF, CNX and UASF. After a couple of years, Heather said the job was "not satisfying her creative itch, so in the middle of winter I sat in my car and called Lew Hunter."

Heather attended workshops for screenwriting given by Lew Hunter at his Superior home. He encouraged her with, "Writing is just putting on a cape and running around with your friends in the backyard." She continued on with writing and attending college. She made a move to Los Angeles and eventually, received her master of fine arts degree in screenwriting. This was a completely different direction from her pre-med college path to become a pediatric doctor or to be a mortician like her dad. However, her creative writing took off and she thrived in screenwriting.

There are different levels of screenwriting. Heather was a writer's assistant for more than six years for producers and actors. She progressed through the writer's ranks to become a showrunner, or executive producer, owning creative authority and vision for a show or movie. She has successfully written for: Better Call Saul, The Act and Echo, the Marvel Series. She is currently writing a script for an animated TV horror show series titled Wytches adapted from the comic book and has written two movie scripts that have been accepted, but not yet produced.

Heather has received several WGA nominations and prestigious Peabody and Saturn awards. Among her accomplishments she also is a lecturer at San Francisco State University and for the University of Georgia at Athens.

What brought Heather, or Marion Dayre, to be here with the students? Fifth grade teacher Judi Roach was teaching an English lesson to her class when a student, Avaleigh Isaacson, mentioned that her Aunt Heather was a screenwriter. Roach jumped on the opportunity to connect with Heather. Tricia Kuhlmann, fourth grade teacher, joined in with her class. The experience for the students turned out to be an English writing lesson, growing their imaginations, learning about careers and having fun scriptwriting and acting. Heather, or Marion Dayre's time here was full circle from her fascination with movies and books, learning from Hunter and coming back to pour into the children what was instilled in her in a small town in Nebraska.