Monicas’ Fiction Writing Updates. For her content creation for organizations please visit here.

RESIDENCIES, WRITER LABS, AND RETREATS

  • Chateau Orquevaux Artist-Writer Residency, France 2023

  • Athena Film Festival Writers Lab, NY 2022

    • Monica’s pilot script about philosopher Mary Wollstonecraft was one of only eight scripts selected for the program

  • National Winter Playwrights Retreat in Colorado, 2019

  • Reading at the New Plays Lab at the Inge Festival in Kansas. 2018

HONORS & AWARDS

  • M.A. Creative Writing & Literature, Harvard (with honors), 2023

  • Hollywood Radio & Television Society Mentorship Program, 2022

  • Semifinalist for The Writer’s Lab for Monica’s pilot script about philosopher Mary Wollstonecraft, 2022

  • Various Festival Awards for her short film, Survival Job, including:

    • Best Comedic Short, New York CineFest, NY

    • Best In Show, Austin Revolution Festival, TX

    • Best Dark Comedy, Portland Comedy Film Festival, OR

    • Audience Choice Award, New York Indie Theater Film Festival, NY

    • Runner-Up Best Comedy, Brighton Film Festival, UK

  • Member of NYWIFT, WIF, SAG-AFTRA, AEA, and New Dramatists Guild

IN DEVELOPMENT

  • Pilot script for Survival Job

  • Pilot script co-written with Elizabeth Raia of Pipe Dream Productions

  • Feature script co-written with Sarah Randall Hunt

  • Full-length play based on the lives of Mary Shelley and her mother feminist philosopher, Mary Wollstonecraft

  • Pilot based on the life of Mary Wollstonecraft

  • Fantasy-adventure YA novel

Written & Directed by Monica McCarthy

SURVIVAL JOB- DARK COMEDIC THRILLER NARRATIVE SHORT

Survival Job is a dark comedic short film/proof of concept that Monica directed, as well as wrote, executive produced, and starred in.

LOGLINE: When a struggling Method acting student is interrogated by an International Baddie who thinks she is a CIA agent, she must give the performance of her life.

Monica has a pilot script in development for Survival Job in addition to short film.

LINK AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST

Written & Co-Created by Monica McCarthy

ALEX & SAM’S MIXTAPE- Female Friendship Short Film

Two women reunite after 25 years at a special summer lake house to keep a pact made when they were 10.  

Paying homage to the classic female friendship films of the 80s and 90s, this film explores the beauty of childhood dreams and the impact of societal expectations placed on women.

Alex and Sam’s Mixtape was created by two real-life best friends in rural Michigan at the height of the pandemic with a diverse female-identifying crew of three. The film budget was under 4K and was shot on iphone 12s in order to explore the intimacy of shooting with smaller cameras and the play with the theme of connection and disconnection through social media.

LINK AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST 

Monica McCarthy with the actresses from the first public reading of To Grandmother’s House at the Inge Festival

Monica McCarthy with the actresses from the first public reading of To Grandmother’s House at the Inge Festival

Lily White’s Party - Full Length Play
(Formerly titled To Grandmother’s House)

With nods to familiar fairy tales (“Little Red Riding Hood,” “Cinderella,” and “Alice In Wonderland”), Lily White’s Party explores what can happen when the pursuit of “happily ever after” leads to an existential crisis of identity in the real world. The entire action of the play takes place in the living room without scene changes or jumps in time. Four actors. (4F)