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“Flower” among top 20% of scripts

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I’m thrilled to say that my Gothic play “A Flower of the Field” has been recognized as one of the top scripts submitted for the 2023 Austin Film Festival Playwriting Competition!

While the “film” title may lead you to think otherwise, the Austin Film Festival accepts all types of scripts, including stage plays that may work well as a film.

“A Flower of the Field” was among the top 20% of scripts submitted this year (and I’m happy to say was also recognized similarly in last year’s festival, as well).

One of the many great things the Austin Film Festival does is provide readers’ comments for your script, which I’m happy to include below and which include many kind nods to my writing:

Plot:

In 1349 Kilkenny, Ireland, a Franciscan friar willingly houses and treats those afflicted with the Black Death in the Nave of St. Francis’s Abbey until a witch, disguised as a healthy woman, exposes his dark secret. The conflict with every character and relationship is exposed with a moral dilemma ultimately well resolved in the end.

Concept:

A FLOWER OF THE FIELD is an original story taking place in 1349 Ireland during the Black Death, with the small cast of men and women questioning and experiencing the conflict between God’s will and witchcraft. The writer crafts a very compelling story with both potential and authenticity in the subject matter.

Overall:

A FLOWER OF THE FIELD is a unique and compelling story that begins with a mysterious slow build of tension that comes together for a satisfying resolution for the audience. The writer handles the material with ease and includes vivid stage directions. The cast size is reasonable, cast list is clear and precise, no intermission, simple location and set design all work well for the production. The writer shines with character development and surprising plot twists. The reader is invested in John Clyn’s journey and the multitude of sub-stories supporting the overall narrative arc. John Clyn’s story is complete, and the story concludes with a satisfying ending. The writer’s note on the stage directions is very helpful and makes clear the purpose is for dramatic cadence and visual poignancies. The lengthy directions do not detract from the story nor necessarily indicate the run time of the show.

Dialogue:

The dialogue works well for the created world taking place within the period 1349 Ireland. Though the speech isn’t written with an obvious Irish dialect, it’s presumed the appropriate characters will adapt appropriately. If the writer so chose, including specific dialect or Irish words might help craft more authenticity to the characters.

Structure:

The 90-page one act script can reasonably be performed in less time since much of the pages are filled with stage directions. The story is well-paced appropriately from slow build to dramatic climax with scenes that move the story forward in a consistent tone.

Characters:

The cast of five characters are interesting, compelling, distinct, and developed through backstory and action. The reader is invested in the characters and their journeys. The characters could have more Irish tone brought into the writing, but overall, all of the characters fit their words well.

Throwback Thursday – “Harriman-Baines”

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For this Throwback Thursday, I am going to highlight my psychological drama “Harriman-Baines,” which is actually one of my favorite works, despite the fact that I haven’t been able to get much traction with it – likely not helped by its darker nature.

In point of order, “Harriman-Baines” ended up being the second “real” straight play I wrote (meaning a play that was sufficiently acceptable to be seen by human eyes) after “Fifteen Men in a Smoke-Filled Room”, authored after I went through an extended phase writing musicals and completed somewhere in mid-2011.

A little over a year later, “Harriman-Baines” won a contest sponsored by On The Brink Productions – some theater enthusiasts and recent graduates from Middlebury College in Vermont – and in conjunction with my own theatrical nonprofit (Speerhead Theatricals), “Harriman-Baines” was accepted into the 2013 Dream Up Festival (hosted by Theater for the New City) and produced in August 2013 during their festival week.

At the time, this was the first time I had the chance to see a play of mine performed, rather than read, and the process was fun from start to finish – as well as challenging – because, due to contest rules, I had to take a 120-minute play and reduce it to less than 80 minutes – which I did and which actually worked rather well – and as for the director (Charles Giardina) and the actors and actresses, I cannot say enough good things about how they handled a rather difficult play.

Now, I say “difficult” because “Harriman-Baines” is my darkest play by far – in full Tennessee WIlliams mode – dealing with a hermetic composer, Carter Harriman, who composes music to the poems of a recently deceased poet, Melody Baines, whose poems are brought to him by Melody’s sister, a bit of a nonentity, named Minnie – and how, over the course of an evening, the lies and abstractions surrounding the identity of Melody Baines are revealed to cutting effect, with an appropriate, surprise denouement.

One of the nice things about having a play about a composer (a modern classical composer, to be precise) involves the use of music – and in the promotional video below, you’ll hear some of the fine music composed by Denise Hoffman for the show.

“Respectfully Yours, Julia Sand”

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I am thrilled to announce I have completed another play (one of two in six months) – a historical drama – “Respectfully Yours, Julia Sand.”

As a lover of history, I have often used my theatrical writing to resurrect little-known or under-reported stories from the past, and this story in particular is one that I find very touching, very hopeful, and very relevant, especially in an age where, regardless of political persuasion – right, left, or in-between – Americans have lost faith in our leaders and our institutions.

Considering that rather depressing situation, it helps to turn back the clock to a man who, though widely decried at the time as pleasure-seeking and corrupt, rose to the greatest of challenges and aimed to restore faith in the American government and in American institutions – and all the time being encouraged by a most unlikely, yet remarkable woman.

This is “Respectfully Yours, Julia Sand”…

Chester Alan Arthur and his unlikely penpal, Julia I. Sand

In the year 1880, James A. Garfield is elected President of the United States, with Chester Alan Arthur as Vice-President – but while Garfield is generally well-regarded, Arthur is a creature of the New York political machine and a participant in the rankest corruption. As a devotee of soirees above all, he is content to remain in the largely ceremonial role of Vice-President – until, that is, President Garfield is suddenly shot and killed by a deranged office-seeker. Propelled into history, Arthur has to choose between feeding the corrupt impulses of his friends and doing what is right for the country. He waffles, he wavers – and then suddenly he receives an inspiring letter from a mysterious woman who gives him the courage to stand up for himself and for what he knows is right.

A brisk-paced, two-act drama – funny in parts, heartfelt in others, and even tragic in some – “Respectfully Yours, Julia Sand” is a play about hope and redemption – and specifically, the hope and redemption of the unlikeliest people from the unlikeliest sources. 

Classical, yet avant-garde in style, the play requires as few as 6 performers and takes place entirely in an English garden, as Arthur relives his life in memory, and is performed, aside from the actor playing Arthur, entirely by young women of all races, who play over 20 different roles.

You can read an excerpt of the play here!

Throwback Thursday – “Memory”

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In this Throwback Thursday, I am revisiting my one (and so far, only) experience with rock opera with an interesting work called “Memory” – a collaboration with the modern classical composer Andrew Seligson.

While I wish I could claim credit, the genesiss for “Memory” was all Andrew, who was in the final stages of studying for his composition degree and was looking for a collaborator for a one-act rock opera.

Through the magic of cyberspace, Andrew and I came into contact and met in New York City, with Andrew having a score about 75% composed and the genesis of an idea about a man, a woman, and a figure who meet under a giant tree – and oh yes, a name: “Memory” – and from there, the ball was in my court to sketch out a broader narrative.

While initially unsure, I found the rather mystical concept intriguing and Andrew’s music lovely and eventually crafted a story out of the basic concept – namely, a man and a woman who mysteriously meet in a blissful, serene dream and then, later, come face-to-face in the flesh underneath a majestic spruce – but while the woman remembers the dream and the utopian peace it bestowed on her life, the man remains in ignorance, eventually causing a rupture between the two, the healing of which ultimately leads the man to a relationship of greater peace with the world and with his own place in it.

Courtesy of Andrew, “Memory” was given a concert presentation at the DiMenna Center in New York City with an extremely talented trio of actors.

The recording below is the key song sung by the young woman, explaining to the young man the peace her dream of him has bestowed on her mind.

THERE’S A PLACE
WE CANNOT SEE.
IT EXISTS
BETWEEN EACH MOMENT.
IN THAT PLACE
YOU AND ME
WE WERE ONE…

You can listen to more excerpts from “Memory” here!

Throwback Thursday – “Fifteen Men” at Theatre40

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For this Throwback Thursday, I am highlighting the Beverly Hills/LA production of my historical drama “Fifteen Men in a Smoke-Filled Room” about the nomination of Warren G. Harding for president at the Republican National Convention of 1920.

Of all my plays, “Fifteen Men” (thus shorteningly called) is very special to me, because it was the first straight play I wrote that was worthy of anyone’s second glance – and indeed, I first wrote the play (as odd as it seems to say, considering how theatrically rich, weighty, and traditional it is) when I was 16 and in full-throttle Arthur Miller/Tennessee Williams/Peter Shafer mode.

Over the years, I never lost faith in “Fifteen Men” and kept tweaking it, with my exertions finally being rewarded when the play was given a staged reading by the Villagers Theatre of Somerset, NJ (thanks to its artistic director, Catherine MacPherson) – which was the first time a straight play of mine got anyone’s attention (my work “Hail and Reign” had already been produced, but that was a musical).

Unbeknownst to me at the time, the staged reading at Villagers would begin a 7-year odyssey where “Fifteen Men” would be recognized in 14 – yes, 14 – playwriting contests – my most awarded play by far – and was given staged readings by Firehouse Center for the Arts (Newburyport, MA), Eventide Arts (Dennis, MA), Dezart Performs (Palm Springs, CA), the Baltimore Playwrights Festival (“it’s obvious”, MD), Long Beach Playhouse (Long Beach, CA), the Historic Elitch Gardens Theater (Denver, CO), and even the North American Actors Association in London, where “Fifteen Men” was read in Covent Garden.

Despite all the attention and recognition, I never could get “Fifteen Man” actually produced, long after other plays of mine had started to make the theatrical rounds – until, that is, an angel named Tom Eubanks, Artistic Director of Elite Theatre Company in Oxnard, CA, gave the play a shot and had it produced at Elite in 2018 – after which a theatre-goer (to whom I am eternally grateful) referred the play to the gentlemanly David Hunt Stafford, Artistic Director of Theatre40 in Beverly Hills, which subsequently did a wonderful production of the play right before COVID threw the world for a loop.

Of all the reviews of the play (some of which didn’t quite understand what I was trying to do with it, as it is NOT a political play, despite the political setting), the best comes from Eric A. Gordon of “People’s World” who understood that, as its heart, “Fifteen Men” is a modern Greek tragedy, using dramatic aspects of Greek theater – everything from the chorus (represented by a radio announcer in the play), to the doom-laden hero, to the uncontrollable and unavoidable pull of fate – or to quote Mr. Gordon: “(Warren G.) Harding is portrayed as an unconscious tool of other men, other forces, almost hounded by inevitable fate, preordained by destiny as if in some ancient Greek play where the gods command the last word in the action.”

Throwback Thursday – “One Little Wish”

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For this Throwback Thursday, I will highlight one of my two musical collaborations with the great composer Paul Robert Bartsch called “One Little Wish.”

Briefly, “One Little Wish” is based on an old French fairytale (in some tellings, it is a Cuban or Puerto Rican fairytale – which just goes to show that stories “get around”) about a miserable old man with a pear tree, who, after helping a stranger (who just happens to be St. Peter in disguise!), is offered the ability to have one wish and subsequently wishes thay anyone who tries to steal pears from his pear tree will stick to the tree until he (the old man) wishes them back down again.

Some 20 years ago now (I am dating myself), I learned about this fairytale during a French history class at Northwestern University, stored it somewhere in the back of my mind as a wonderful idea for a musical, and then, some years later, after I worked with Paul (Bartsch) on the musical “Hello World”, I proposed that we work on a musicalized version of this very yarn together.

Notably, “One Little Wish” has a special place in my heart because it was my first foray into the world of the theater producer, as I self-produced the show after founding the theater company Speerhead Theatricals – and not only that, but I harnessed my inner actor (from college days) and even took a role in the show, starring as the arch-villain tax collector, Morínigo.

Long story short, “One Little Wish” was produced way back in 2012 – including a great concert presentation at The Lambs in New York City and then two productions in Connecticut – with much credit to the Director of Production, Shawn Amdur – and while admittedly not my best work, the show had a typically lovely score by Paul, who simply couldn’t not write tuneful melodies.

The below excerpt is quite extended and taken from very early in Act One – after the opening song – where we meet three people who pester the old man with his pear tree – a pair of young lovers and the aforementioned tax collector, played by yours truly – and of course, in both cases, the old man will suffer no one taking his pears and demands that they all “Leave Me Alone.”

You can listen to other songs from the show here!

Throwback Thursday – “Philosophus” in Texas

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For this Throwback Thursday, I will highlight the production of my play “Philosophus” by Plaza Theatre of Wharton, Texas – a (true story) historical farce about the persecution of the philosopher Voltaire by the minions of King Frederick the Great of Prussia.

One of more frequently produced works – and also a published one – “Philosophus” was given its world premiere production by Alleyway Theatre of Buffalo, New York, after which it was one of three finalists to win the prestigious TNT POPS! Playwriting Contest of 2018 (TNT = “Texas Nonprofit Theatres” – an organization of theaters in Texas dedicated to mutual support of the theatrical arts).

As a result of being one of three winners for 2018, “Philosophus” was scheduled to be produced by a member theater of Texas Nonprofit Theatres, which turned out to be the Plaza Theatre of Wharton, about 40 minutes outside of Houston – and while I had never been to Texas before, I ended up having a great time traveling to the theater and seeing “Philosophus” performed by the wonderful cast.

Above all, I was most struck by the fact that, despite crude stereotypes to the contrary, where one envisions theater as thriving primarily on the east and west coast, Wharton had a vibrant theater community and the Plaza Theatre had quite a storied history – and not only that, but they put on a marvelous production of “Philosophus”, filled with gorgeous costumes and make-up, great acting performances, and a very fine set – so needless to say, I was beyond impressed and beyond humbled to have my play performed by them (as well as chastened to ever think that anyplace outside of the greater NYC or LA area was theatrically limited).

Alas, my greatest regret was that, while I was able to meet the cast of the show (and was feted quite marvelously), I wasn’t able to meet the director, Trace Morris, because he couldn’t attend the one performance where I made an appearance

While “Philosophus” only played for one weekend, the pictures speak for themselves…

Introducing “The Last Flight of the Electra”

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I’m thrilled to announce the “launch” (if “launch” is indeed the right word) of my newest play, “The Last Flight of the Electra!”

Taking place in late 1968, “The Last Flight of the Electra” concerns the retired magazine executive Aileen Craigmore, who finds her carefully manicured (and well-protected) world turned upside down by an obsessive secretary, who insists that Craigmore is, in fact, Amelia Earhart, the famous aviatrix who went missing while flying over the Pacific Ocean in July of 1937.

A brisk-paced, full-length one-act, “The Last Flight of the Electra” is an exciting, even haunting play about the nature of identity – who we truly are and who we choose to be – and, indeed, the extent to which there is any difference between the two – requiring only a single unit set and a cast of five actors to bring its story to life.

The play is inspired by a real-life historical incident, encapsulated in the below picture:

Irene Bolam before the press, denying she is Amelia Earhart – 1970

The woman above is Irene Craigmile Bolam, who was famously (or infamously) “accused” of being Amelia Earhart in a book by Joe Klaas in 1970. Joe Klaas wrote his book inspired by former air force officer Joe Gervais, who became convinced that Irene Bolam – a retired bank executive, living in New Jersey – was actually the living, breathing Amelia Earhart. (Hopefully, most readers know that Amelia Earhart was a world-famous pilot who disappeared while flying over the Pacific in an around-the-world tour way back in July of 1937.) Gervais met Bolam in the early 1960’s at an event sponsored by The Early Flyers’ Club of Long Island (Bolam was a former aviatrix) and became convinced she was Amelia Earhart, secretly repatriated to the United States by the American government following World War II. Bolam subsequently sued the publisher of the book and pursued legal action against Klaas and Gervais, but withdrew the case eventually when a judge asked her to provide her finger prints for comparison with Amelia Earhart’s. This decision – and the fact that Bolam subsequently insisted she be cremated upon her death in 1982 – have kept the extraordinary claims by Klaas and Gervais, if not fully “alive,” at least in a state of labored breathing.

You can check out a synopsis of the play here!