New Website!

We’re pleased to finally announce our new website courtesy of Darby M. Dixon III of Folded Note Design. You can also follow us on Facebook.

The first episode will be released soon! In the meantime, please join us on Saturday at AWP

Podcasting: New Opportunities for Dramatic Writing at AWP 2015

Join us at AWP 2015!

Justin and I are excited to announce that we will be talking about how we developed our forthcoming podcast series, Munchen, Minnesota, at AWP this year (which is, of course, in Minnesota). Our session is 12:00 – 1:15 pm on Saturday, April 11, so skip lunch and don’t sneak out of the conference a day early, ok?

Here’s the description:

Podcasting: New Opportunities in Dramatic Writing. Intrigued by TV writing, but don’t want to move to LA? Why not develop your own podcast series? Podcasts are more popular than ever, require minimal financial investment, and are easy to distribute. Using our supernatural comedy-drama series, Munchen, Minnesota, as an example, we’ll discuss coming up with an idea, how to apply the basics of TV writing to your podcast script, beat sheets, character arcs, and season arcs, and how to cast, record and market your series.

Our first episode is in post-production right now, so if it’s not released by April 11, come hear us talk about what giant failures we are.

(Just kidding, it’s in the program, so we have to finish it.)

Thanks again to our director Mindy Herman, sound designer Angie Hayes (and sound designer emeritus Sam Fisher), Raymond Bobgan and Cleveland Public Theatre for their generous and ongoing support, and of course, our illustrious and unparalleled cast.

See you in Minneapolis!

Live Recording of Munchen: Tuesday, January 13

Well, the day has come.

Pretty much two years to the day since we first envisioned Jonathan arriving in Munchen, Steve peering at us through the blinds, and Meredith out back skinning a dead possum, we’ll be recording the first of eleven episodes in front of a live studio audience.  You’re invited! If being part of the next big thing in storytelling isn’t enough for you, there will be FREE BEER.

Details below….

WHAT: Join us for a live recording of the pilot episode of the podcast “Munchen, Minnesota.” Like a lot of older industrial cities in the Midwest, Munchen has fallen on hard times. As people and businesses have moved away, many of the town’s neighborhoods have emptied, leaving old houses vacant and crumbling. Crime is rampant. The public schools are in disarray. But Munchen’s got an even more serious problem: it’s on the verge of a supernatural infestation. The threat seems to loom ever larger as the town declines. And the only people with the power to save it are a geeky teenage girl, her gay librarian father, and an ambitious city planner who didn’t have a clue what he was in for when he transferred from the East Coast.

WHEN: Tuesday, January 13, 2015, 7:30 pm

WHERE: The Parish Hall at CPT
(Just east of the Gordon Square Theatre Box Office, next to the Church)
Cleveland Public Theatre
6407 Detroit Ave, Cleveland, OH 44102

WHO: Featuring Leilani Barrett, John Busser, Arthur Chu, Carlos Cruz, Jenna Fink, Bob Kilpatrick, Derek Koger, Doug Kusak, Greg Mandryk, Nina McCollum, Lynna Metrisin, Steven Schuerger and Lisa Van Gaasbeek. Written by Christine Borne and Justin Glanville. Directed by Mindy Childress Herman. Sound Design by Samuel Watkins Fisher.

HOW MUCH? Suggested donation of $5 is welcomed at the door, but not required

WHY SHOULD I? For purposes of fun, supporting the arts, and also FREE Magic Hat beer

This recording is presented as part of the monthly Dark Room series at Cleveland Public Theatre. The Dark Room is a place where writers take center stage and their work has a chance to grow. The Dark Room is an ongoing event held on the second Tuesday of each month. The Dark Room affords emerging and veteran playwrights the space and resources to develop new works. It offers a venue to workshop plays, novels, poems, or any other written work in a supportive, yet critical environment. After the recording, at 8:30 pm, there will be an open mic session for writers and actors.

Questions or media requests: munchen.minnesota [at] gmail [dot] com

Giveaway Time!

Munchen is now on Twitter — you can follow us at @MunchenMN. (We’re used to being followed by the pitter-pat of tiny feet, so it won’t creep us out too much.)

So to celebrate (and because we’ve had the Dark Crystal on the brain lately), we’ve got an early Christmas present for all of you Dark Crystal fans out there:

If we can get to 100 followers by Friday, December 20, we’ll give away a free critique of your Dark Crystal Author Quest contest entry (10,000 words max).

Our critique will include:

• A one-page editorial letter
• Suggestions on plot, character, setting, and pacing;
• Light copy editing

And, since the deadline is coming up fast, we’ll get it back to you by Monday, December 23.

Just follow us on Twitter and retweet this tweet:

(It’s easy to find – it’s been too cold to tweet much.)

If we get to 100 followers by 9 pm EST on Friday, we’ll pick a winner. If you want to be considered for the drawing, just tweet “please consider me for the drawing” at us — and then get off the Internet and get to work on your story.

Welcome to Munchen, Minnesota!

Hello, and Welcome to Munchen, Minnesota!

Like a lot of older industrial cities in the Midwest, Munchen (pronounced “Munchin'”) has fallen on hard economic times. As people and businesses have moved away, many of the town’s neighborhoods have emptied, leaving old houses vacant and crumbling. Crime is rampant. The public schools are in disarray.

But Munchen’s got an even more serious problem: It’s on the verge of a supernatural invasion. The threat seems to loom ever larger as the town declines. And the only people with the power to save it are a geeky teenage girl, her gay librarian father, and an ambitious city planner who didn’t have a clue what he was in for when he transferred from the East Coast.

This blog is a platform that Christine and Justin developed for launching our series about Munchen and its unlikely heroes. It is our Sunnydale, if Sunnydale were in flyover country and overcast 267 days of the year. We’re both attracted to the mystique that place holds for certain people – whether for good or ill. Munchen is as much a character in our story as any of our humans (or non-humans).

We developed Munchen after deciding to try our hand at writing a TV pilot. After a couple months crafting characters over feta omelets at My Friends Restaurant in Cleveland, we enrolled in Wendy Riss‘s class, Writing the TV Pilot, to learn how shows are plotted and structured.

We’re planning to launch Munchen as a serial, though right now we’re still experimenting with format. Will it be a web comic? A series of e-books? A full-cast audio production? Surely the answer will come to us in a dream, or leap out from behind a door when we least expect it.

Meanwhile, we’re going to chatter at you about writing, weird fiction, creatures with sharp teeth, and the forgotten places at the far corners of the psyche. Oh and also TV.

–Justin and Christine