The Bridge - Flip the script

Want to read about how media consumption has corrupted Hollywood? How about failed end-of-time prophecies, black holes or climate change? Then you might enjoy “The Year of the Monster,” a collection of 16 short stories and essays by Tara Stillions Whitehead, Messiah University assistant professor of film, video and digital media. 

Planned for release in September, the book explores the uglier side of the media and culture surrounding Hollywood and the human condition. For example, one story--”Man with a Knife”--discusses how the film “Chinatown” is taught as a classic and a perfect screenplay while its director, Roman Polanski, who cast himself as the man with a knife who assaults Jack Nicholson’s character, has been a fugitive from the U.S. criminal justice system since the 1970s.

“The book calls into question who we allow to entertain us,” she said.

After the pandemic hit, Whitehead decided to reorganize some of the work she’d written throughout her career. “It became a book about human monstrosity, but also humanizing the monster in some contexts. There are characters that are morally ambiguous, and there are endings that are not the resolutions that you want,” she said.

The collection includes stories about addiction, the fetish of celebrity and victim shaming. “Each story tests the limits of empathy: where your empathy lies and why you would empathize with certain characters,” she said.

“Monster” serves as a warning to recognize and prevent “monstrous” behavior in ourselves. “The book looks for the humanity left behind, that persists in all of us after experiencing the wrath and trauma of monstrous people and institutions,” she said.

The book is written in script prose format. “I love the idea of teaching the reader how to read a script. In a self-reflexive way, as they read along the content shifts and it turns into not just reading a script but watching it happen,” she said.

Who is she?

Born and raised in Southern California, Whitehead found her passion for film in high school, leading her to pursue a cinema-television production degree at the University of Southern California. “Once I went to film school, I felt like I was in charge of my identity. I think being exposed to so many great resources there and be able to express myself visually was very foundational,” she said.

After graduating in 2006, she worked at Warner Brothers as the assistant to executive producer for the television shows, “Two and a Half Men” and “Big Bang Theory.” She then attended San Diego State University’s Master of Fine Arts writing program and graduated in 2012. 

Whitehead realized she wanted to be a teacher in graduate school. She taught English composition and creative writing at HACC Gettysburg after moving to Mechanicsburg from California with her husband and daughter in 2013. Two years later, she started working at Messiah. “[While I’m teaching,] I feel like I’m constantly learning, seeking out new films, new books, new technologies, so it feeds that desire to explore and discover new things,” she said.

One of her favorite parts about working at Messiah is the impact her teaching can have on her film students. Much like her book explains, she believes the film industry needs an overhaul. “If I can have any effect on the people who go out into the world and make movies and media, this can be a great place to do it,” she said.

—Molly McKim ’23