The School of Creative Writing is pleased to congratulate Emma Leck, MFA. Emma’s graduate thesis is a television series entitled Background Music.
Emma entered the Creative Writing program with a background in acting and playwriting, and her courses reignited her love for film and television screenplays. Her work explores feminist themes with whimsy or magical realism, and often offers a slight twist while exploring serious themes. Her pilot for her thesis, Background Music, was a finalist in the Vancouver International Women in Film Festival (now GEMS) Screenplay Competition in 2023. Past plays include Drops in a Broken Fountain (Winner of 2018 Best New Play Contest at Winnipeg Fringe), How to Want (Vino Buono), and The Rage Trials (Theatre SKAM).
Emma’s television series, Background Music, portrays a musical utopia where spontaneous singing and dancing is common, and everyone knows their part. Alice and her mother Gloria are the only ones who are left out of this joyous society. They do not know the words or the steps, people don’t notice them unless they physically touch, and no one can remember them. They hide from the Managers, a foreboding group who Gloria believes will kill them if they are ever found. When Gloria’s health deteriorates, Alice gets the attention of the Managers, and discovers that things are even more complicated than they seem.
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