This Gofer is now closed. But don't despair. We've simply split the E-script Gofer into separate pages: News for Playwrights and News for Screen & TV Writers. Twice as much goodness!

Saturday, April 22, 2006

 

From This is London: Screenwriter-directors (and husband-wife team) Paul Mayeda Berges and Gurinder Chadha follow up Bend It Like Beckham and Bride and Prejudice with another tale of the diaspora. The Mistress of Spices is, they say, "an immigrant's tale about keeping the magic alive."

 

From Bloomberg.com: Pulitzers Create Drama by Skipping Playwright Prize. The decision not to award the prize for drama has the theatre world alternately perplexed and chagrined. But it seems extremely unlikely that there was no American play worthy of the Pulitzer this year. More likely is that the drama jury reverted to Pulitzer form and couldn't be bothered to look outside Manhattan. With two exceptions, The Kentucky Cycle and, more recently, Anna in the Tropics, the award has year after year gone to plays that originated in New York or somehow found their way there. Apparently, in the Pulitzer world, a play doesn't really exist until it's arrived at the Port Authority Terminal. If this ever made sense, it certainly doesn't now, when hundreds of new plays appear in theatres across the country each season. The award rules allow for anyone anywhere to submit a script for consideration, so long as it's been produced and had a press opening within the given time-frame. Maybe the solution is for more theatre people (or, for that matter, audience members) outside New York to start doing just that, next time they come across something worthy in their local regional theatre or downtown hole-in-the-wall. That, at least, might make it harder for the jurors to suppose that all the good ones eventually make it to you-know-where.

 

From The Statesman-Journal (Salem, Oregon): Marking the premiere of Going Through Splat, a documentary about his life, screenwriter Stewart Stern chats online about Hollywood and his work, including such classics as Rebel Without a Cause, The Ugly American, and Sybil.

 

From KCRW Theatre Talk (Los Angeles): In this pithy essay (which you can listen to or read), critic James Taylor -- no, not that James Taylor -- takes on the pessimists who say theatre's audience is dying off. Theatre in L.A. has never been so robust, and there's nothing wrong with Broadway that fresher plays wouldn't fix.

 

From Yahoo! News: Which came first, the movie or the game? As film and gaming grow ever closer, the answer grows ever fuzzier -- and screenwriters like X-Men's Zak Penn grow ever richer.

 

From Showbiz Ireland: Bono does Beckett. This pictorial of the U-2er arriving at the launch of the Beckett Centenary Festival concludes, in an absurdist touch that the master might have appreciated, with a picture of some Brazilian samba dancers. (They can't samba on, they must samba on.) For a full report on the Centenary from ABC News, see here.

 

From Yahoo! News: Get the first scene right, and cut the backstory. On the other hand, voice overs have their place. Top screenwriters offer tips in Screenwriters' Masterclass: Screenwriters Talk About Their Greatest Movies. Buy it here.

 

From the New York Theatre Experience: We're big fans of this non-profit, online-savvy organization run by Martin Denton. Once again they've brought out their annual anthology of fresh-off-the-stage plays, this year titled, natch, New Plays and Playwrights 2006. Playwrights this time out include P. Seth Bauer, who in this interview with N.Y.T.E. admits he became a playwright because "I had a bad habit as an actor of trying to act a scene rather than just my character." And Saviana Stanescu posits that "mainstream drama forces you to find a resolution, to 'build an arc and a journey for your characters' and ultimately to compromise in presenting the complexity of life and humanity on stage."

Tuesday, February 14, 2006

 

From The Hollywood Reporter (via Reuters): Seven screenwriters and Writers Guild Award nominees, including Diana (Brokeback Mountain) Ossana, Paul (Crash) Haggis, and Judd (The 40-Year-Old Virgin) Apatow, bat around subjects including critics, directors who take "A Film By" credit, and what happens when a director is silly enough to give the writer a cameo.

 

From Playbill.com: This is the only site we've seen that marks the death of playwright John Belluso by focussing on his talent and work rather than his disability. Good for Playbill.com. And good for you too, Mr. Belluso.

 

From The Powers That Be: Lamenting Hollywood's general ineptitude with religious-themed stories (R.I.P. "The Book of Daniel"), blogger Doug Powers imagines a conversation between writer and producer as they prepare to hatch "Jesus: The TV Show."

 

From The Demopolis Times (Demopolis, Alabama): Typically (too typically), would-be writers leave places like Demopolis, Alabama for places like New York City. Playwright Malik Browne reversed the equation.

Friday, February 10, 2006

 

From The Los Angeles Times: Whatever one thinks of Munich, at least it's a film worth arguing about. Here, co-screenwriter Tony Kushner tells the world what he told his cousin when she had some questions about the movie. And here, the author of the book on which Munich is based recounts his experience of the project -- an article as interesting for its chronicle of the script development process as for its disavowal of the final product.

 

From The American Prospect: More telling, maybe, than all the high-profile obituaries and tributes is this lovely remembrance of playwright Wendy (The Heidi Chronicles, Third) Wasserstein, and a momentary act of graciousness.

Friday, December 23, 2005

 

From The Plain Dealer (Cleveland): As the Munich controversy heats up, screenwriter Tony Kusher responds to the film's critics: "We are living in a world where a great deal of damage is done in the name of certainty." Meanwhile, he works on a gentle children's musical that doubles as an allegory about Hitler.

 

From BBC News: Northern Irish playwright Gary Mitchell is driven from his home and into hiding by a "small minority of idiots."

Thursday, December 22, 2005

 

From By Ken Levine: In his blog, the Emmy-winning writer offers advice on the best shows to spec this season.

 

From Nthposition: On the occasion of Harold Pinter's Nobel, buddy Timeri N. Murari recalls him as a great playwright but a terrible cricket player.

 

From The Simon: Next time you consider joining a screenwriters' group, pick carefully. Pick very, very carefully.

 

From The Guardian: After seeing a production of The Night of the Iguana in London, David Mamet protests "the beatification of Tennessee Williams." We had thought to suggest that Mamet's own plays might not look so hot in forty years time, but, on second thought, we applaud him -- the playwriting world needs less internecine backpatting and more candid criticism. Besides, at Boston's WBUR.org, critic Bill Marx has already given Mamet his comeuppance.

 

From The Evening Standard (London): Screenwriter/director Stephen Gahan stepped off a plane in Beirut and into the dark world of Middle Eastern, oil-driven politics. He survived, and his film Syriana has lived to tell the tale.

 

From the New York Sun: A new biography of playwright Lillian Hellman seeks to rehabilitate her reputation. Not so fast, says another of her biographers.

Thursday, December 08, 2005

 

From Backstage.com: In his Nobel Prize acceptance speech, playwright and screenwriter Harold Pinter says the U.S. has "employed language to keep thought at bay" and asks: "What has happened to our moral sensibility? Did we ever have any? What do these words mean? Do they refer to a term very rarely employed these days -– conscience? A conscience to do not only with our own acts but to do with our shared responsibility in the acts of others? Is all this dead? " See also the full text of his speech, or watch the video (Real Player required): High bandwidth or low bandwidth.