Our weekly program, Missouri State Journal, is a collaboration between KSMU Radio and Missouri State University. It's hosted and produced by MSU's Office of Strategic Communication, and it airs each Tuesday morning at 9:45 on KSMU.
What happens when a high school student descended from Lady Macbeth is forced to confront her family’s dark legacy?
That question sits at the center of Lady Em, a television pilot written by Cristina Pippa, director of the MFA in Dramatic Writing Program at Missouri State University. The 60-page, hour-long drama, created as a television series pilot, recently earned recognition when it won the Josephson Entertainment Teleplay Award at the Austin Film Festival in Austin, Texas on October 25, 2025.
Pippa joined the Missouri State Journal to talk about how the story was born, how it’s evolved and its accomplishment. And she encourages everyone to give screenwriting a try.
