Story posted Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Ian Brennan began writing while at Prospect High School. He now lives in California and writes for Fox's hit show "Glee."
Prospect Grad Hits It Big Writing For 'Glee'
By DENISE FLEISCHER Lifestyle Editor
Ian Brennan has something to sing and dance about. The 31-year-old Mt. Prospect native and Prospect High School graduate is living his dream.
Brennan, who now lives in California, is co-writing the new Fox TV show "Glee."
According to Fox, "the series follows an optimistic teacher, Will Schuester (Matthew Morrison), who -- against all odds and a malicious cheerleading coach -- attempts to save McKinley High's Glee Club from obscurity, while helping a group of aspiring underdogs realize their true star potential."
Brennan had a little vacation time coming so he headed to Barcelona, Spain, and then home to see his family. The Journal caught up with Brennan after he watched an episode of "Glee" with his parents and former teacher at Prospect, John Marquette.
"I began writing 10 minute monologues when I was on the speech team in high school," Brennan recalled. "I learned more about the craft of writing and acting, more than anything else."
It was that pace of writing and performing during speech class and individual drama presentations that set him on the right path.
One Prospect teacher also played an important role in Brennan's future.
"John Marquette had a very important impact on the community," claimed Brennan. "His choice to do the Laramie Project was met with controversy and he didn't back down. I'm proud of him because of that."
Brennan stated that Marquette was known to cultivate his students' talent.
"I can name 10 people that have been profoundly shaped by John's work. For me, personally, I can now understand the relationship between a director and actor," he said.
He added that Marquette was a very good mentor. He was professional, but not strict, had a good sense of what would fly and he instilled work ethics in his students that followed throughout their lives.
After high school, Brennan pursued a double major in theater and Spanish and remained in Chicago for three or four years. He performed at the Goodman Theater and Steppenwolf, Northlight Theatre, Writers' Theater and the Marriott.
"I was in a mix of musicals and comedies," he said. "In 2003, I moved to New York and was there for five years. It was about a year ago that 'Glee' happened."
Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk of the FX original series "Nip/Tuck" and Brennan wrote the pilot after the screenplay was presented.
"And now we have a show to write! It takes countless hours writing a new show from scratch. Ryan's office is at Paramount in Hollywood and the three of us write there together full time," explained Brennan. He added that writing is all encompassing and they don't have a writing staff.
"Ryan was pleased with the chemistry we had and so we continued writing," Brennan said. "You know the underdog is in all of us. It's what I respond to when I watch the show."
According to Brennan, all the characters on Glee are fictional. They are bits and pieces of three people's experiences in high school rolled together.
It's difficult for Brennan to be "self congratulatory" because minute by minute he's dealing with the anxiety of what it takes to produce the script. He does sit back, from time to time, and think about the direction his life has taken.
"I'm blessed to be working with the group of people I am. I couldn't have picked better collaborators. We work well together and that's the real gift," he said.
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