ISA Top 25 Screenwriters to Watch Interview With Andrea Berting

Great. Well, thank you for taking the time to speak with me today. And congratulations on being the ISAs one of the top 25 screenwriters to watch

Thank you. Thank you. So first, I'd love to just kind of hear about your story and get to know you a little bit. Can you tell us in your background and how you started first writing, getting into screenplays

Sure, yeah. So my background is actually in live theater. That's what brought me to Chicago, where I live. I've been here 10 years

years. I work in wardrobe backstage. So I'm like a dresser for the actors. We do the quick

changes, do the laundry at the end of the night, super glamorous. But yeah, I've been doing that

for work for I guess almost 10 years. And when the pandemic hit, I was out of work for a year

and a half. Theater industry was hit really hard. All of entertainment was

But live theater, you know, relies on large gatherings of people in a enclosed place

So everything was just shut down for a year and a half. So I found myself stuck at home

We were all stuck at home, but with nothing to do. Uncertain about the future of my industry

And so, you know, I had had these stories in my head for a while just like, oh, like, that'll be a cool TV show, that'd be a cool movie

whatever, whatever. But like, I always dismissed it as like, I don't know how to do that, you know

But now I had all this time to learn to learn how to do it

So I just sat down, you know, I read like, Save the Cat, I think was like my first thing that I jumped into

to. And yeah, I just decided to give it a shot. My first script was really bad, as they all are

I imagine, when you're first starting out. But yeah, it just turned into a whole thing. I really

enjoyed it. I was a writer. Like, I always liked writing from when I was a little kid. I would just

like write little like short stories, things like that. But although it's like prose, you know, I had never tried scripts before, even plays

It took a long time for me to try writing a stage play, which is funny considering my background

But yeah, I just really fell in love with the format of it, the style of it, the type of storytelling that it is

So, yeah, it's turned into a whole thing for me, honestly. It's pretty great

Yeah, I mean, it was, you know, the pandemic was definitely a great time to try new things

Absolutely. Yeah, take that plunge. So you mentioned, you know, you wrote prose and it took you a while to write plays

So was that something that you had worked on, like writing plays before your script

I started, my first script that I wrote was a screenplay intended for like a TV pilot

I actually didn't try writing a stage play until... probably a year ago

Yeah, again, which is just so funny because, like, having worked in live theater

since I was 10 years old, why did I start with that

But I didn't. I started for screen and then kind of moved to writing for stage as well

So now I call myself a screenwriter playwright. You know, I wear many hats

Would you say your time spent you know on stage and working in plays is inspired your writing I would agree I think so I think it informed my sense of storytelling you know

because even though going into writing my first TV pilot, even though I didn't know format, I didn't know structure

I didn't know, I knew what made an interesting character. I knew what conflict needed to be, you know

Like I knew just from having been immersed in storytelling from a very young age, I think it influenced a lot

Yeah. And it's definitely, I mean, the formats are different. I wrote a lot of prose

And then to go to screenplays, suddenly it was like a very different thing

Like, oh, wait, I need to show this happening because I can't write like an inner monologue

You know, I mean, I need to, you know, I ran into a lot of things like that

So how long did it take you to write that first script? And, you know, I know you mentioned you read the Save the Cat

How was your research like? Did you do a lot of practice and a lot of like any classes or anything like that

Resources? I did eventually take a class through DePaul not to start

That was kind of like once I realized like, yes, this is something that I like

This is something I want to learn more about. I invested in a course that I was able to do remotely because this was still during like my furlough period

I was able to do it remotely from home. Like just a screenwriting 101 class

It was mostly focused on features. But it taught me a lot about, again, like the structure of it, you know, like how the arcs needed to go

Yeah, so that that's really the only like class I've taken. You know, I've mostly learned through doing it

I've mostly learned from reading scripts, both produced and not yet produced scripts

I joined a writing group pretty early on in the process, which was immensely, like hugely helpful

And we're still meeting. We still meet every other week, like four years later. So that's awesome to see everybody like growing and everything

Yeah. So it's mostly been learning through doing, I would say. Yeah

That's kind of always been my tactic as well. I think and I think with writing in general

the more you do, the more you learn. Because like you said, your first was probably no good

I think we all have those. And then it's like as you continue, you start to notice, you know

little things. that you need to work on and having a community, I think, is immensely important, you know

whether it be like the ISA, which offers all kinds of resources and stuff like that or writing

group, I think is immensely important. Would you say that that was pretty pivotal to your

kind of success as well as having those outlets? Absolutely. The feedback I get, they're really

like my writing group is really like my I call it like my first line of defense like my

movie like because they've read my stuff that's like been tweaked and you know the

finalish draft you know like they've seen my like end drafts but they've also seen my like

early like this is exploratory I don't really know what I'm doing with it yet they've seen like

the whole spectrum of my writing and they're just like my best hype team like yes they give me

solid criticisms but I always come away feeling like I can do this you know like they they just like they hype me up And I hope that I hype them up too I try

No, that's awesome. Having cheerleaders and having enforcement is so important because also self-doubt is a

writer's, you know, consistent villain, I guess. So tell us a little bit about the projects that you've worked on and what you've written

for scripts. Yeah, so I always say that my brand, I guess, is like, you know, I write stories about women

going through something like, going through like the worst time of their lives, basically

Like, and that has been a variety of different things. But that's kind of an, and what I bring to that, though, is finding like

what's what's light in that you know like where is the levity where is the joy inside of the tragedy

where is what's weird you know um so yeah so that's that's kind of like the overarching if i had

to like look at a theme of everything i've written um my script that's gotten me the most

attention the most accolades is called breast and show um it's It is loosely inspired by my own experience as a young breast cancer survivor

I was diagnosed with breast cancer when I was 30. Went through the whole everything

Did chemo radiation, mastectomy, immunotherapy, like the whole thing. It's six years later now

I still go to the doctor every six months, but they pretty much get the all clear every time

They're like, yeah, you're good. So that's good. but it inspired me to write this piece, which is about a young breast cancer patient who teaches

her senior support group members. So these women are like much, much older than her

She teaches them to learn to love their bodies again through the art of burlesque

So that's it that also comes from my history as a burlesque performer

I don't perform anymore, but I did a few years ago. Yeah

So that's, if I had to. call anything my like calling card piece that's what i would breast in show is is it oh i love the title

yeah thank you breasted show that's that's fantastic um and it works for so many reasons yeah no that

sounds wonderful um so it's you definitely like to live in the space of kind of like dramatic but also

comedic um because you did mention you know um levity and stuff which if you don't laugh you'll cry right

I mean, you have to have humor. Are you working on anything now

I am. I've got a couple irons in the fire. I'm working on a rom-com

I mean, I'm working on rewrites for Breaston Show. That's like I'm working on that

I'm always working on that. But I'm working on like a rom-com right now that's, again

kind of got like a dark. premise to it. It's, I don't really have like a log line that I have memorized yet

But it's basically about this young woman who turns 26, gets kicked off of her parents' health insurance, and immediately gets diagnosed with cancer

Again, that's another theme in my scripts, I guess, as a cancer survivor. and so she realizes that the like best way to get insurance is to like find someone to marry like right away So it this like kind of dark premise but like the rom like I had this vision of like going on like a

million dates in a row and just being like, so what's your deductible

So that's kind of what that was born from. And then I'm also working on a script that's a little more of a drama

Like, again, there's, I have to bring in some comedic elements, but a little more dramatic than anything I've done so far that I actually got this opportunity through the ISA

They connected me with a local director. He's local to Chicago. And he came to me with this premise and he was like, look, I'm not a writer, but this is my premise

Let's work on this together and have you write this for me. And that I don't know how much I'm allowed to talk about

But it's very cool. It's been very cool. So is that a feature or is it a show

It's a feature. It's a feature. Well, that's exciting. Yeah, it's very cool

Actually, that's who I was meeting with this morning when I told you I'd have to push this back. Rightfully

So, no, that's very exciting. I'm really excited for you. And so, rest and show, is that something that you're looking to get made into

Is that a feature as well? That is a feature. That is a feature. I do have a production company attached

and they found a really wonderful director to come on board. So we're just..

You're moving along with that. I'm doing this rewrite from notes that we got and from there we're going to try

going back to trying to attach some actors. That was the focus for a little while

and then we got some feedbacks and things I'm trying to tweak. Yeah, so I hope it goes somewhere

Yeah, I think it will. It's like I said, it sounds. I would love to watch it

So it sounds amazing and I wish you luck with that. So finally, I just ask, you know, a lot of, there's a lot of screenwriters out there

There's a lot of people, you know, itching to be on the top 25 or to have their scripts out there

Is there any advice that you would give for people, especially because I just know as a writer and have a lot of friends that are writers, there's often a period of like, am I good enough

Is this worth it? Do you have any advice for people? I mean, I know I already mentioned my writer's group, but that's what I always say is like my top advice is to find your people, you know, find the people who you trust with your work, who will give you that like honest but kind feedback

And who will gas you up and keep you going and like and just make you feel like your pit crew

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, it's finding those people, which I know can be a challenge

I found my folks through Twitter, which is- Ashley was going to ask, like, were the people you knew or like, how did you find them

So, okay, Twitter. Yeah, socials. Yeah, I found through Twitter through socials, yeah

There's a writer, Jennifer Dunn, who put together this, like, massive spreadsheet and just, like, made it public and was like

hey, if you're interested in starting a writing group, make a new page on the spreadsheet. And if you want to sign up, put your name

And it was awesome. Yes, that's how I found them. And like I said, we're still meeting four years later

That's fantastic. And thank you for that. I think people will find that really interesting

Well, congratulations again. It was wonderful to meet you and to hear your story

And I can't wait to see Breston show on the big screen

too. Thank you. And I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day. Yeah, thank you, you too. Thanks