Mark Axelrod-Sokolov

Mark Axelrod-Sokolov

Chapman University, Orange, CA
English/Creative Writing & Screenwriting
Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences, Department of Communication, Media and Culture
May 2024

Dr. Mark Axelrod, a Fulbright Specialist to Greece, collaborated with Panteion University on a project titled “Creative writing: screen, stage & media art” which provided an emphasis on the writing process for students in the field.

Mark's expertise as an accomplished screen and prose writer, and as an experienced university teacher, was particularly beneficial for giving more attention to how scripts meant to be acted out are differentiated from prose narratives.

During his first week in Athens Mark provided a major lecture titled, FROM ARISTOTLE TO ROCKY in which he discussed aspects of the POETICS and how they applied to Stallone's ROCKY.  He then discussed the failings of Stallone's original script and had a question and answer session about the script and the adaptation of such.  

During his second and final week, Mark provided a major lecture titled, LOOK WHO'S TALKING AND WHY, which is exclusively devoted to film dialogue and the techniques used to write effective film dialogue using clips from THE GRADUATE and ZORBA.  He was also asked to read from some of his fiction including excerpts from two of his books, BORGES TRAVEL, HEMINGWAY'S GARAGE and BALZAC'S COFFEE, DAVINCI'S RISTORANTE as well as a chapter from a recently finished novel, MALARKEY, LOST AMONG THE GREEKS, which is a sequel to his novel, THE MAD DIARY OF MALCOLM MALARKEY the adaptation of which is currently being considered for film production starring Malcolm McDowell.  

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