Category: Love & Other Distractions

2021 Marion Thauer Brown Audio Drama Scriptwriting Competition

7/9/2021

It's been announced that my radio script, "Cupid is As Cupid Does" was the winner in this year's MTB Audio Drama Scriptwriting Competition, which celebrates exciting aural storytelling!

The script is an adaptation of my short story that was published in "Love and Other Distractions: An Anthology by 14 Hollywood Writers." You can pick up a copy today. All proceeds go to charity!

The story is a sequel of sorts to my film script "Lost Claus." I've been working on several episodes of a project I call "The Nick Files," where the detective character, Nick Flebber, is called in to solved other odd-ball cases. I started adapting them to radio, getting the idea from the time I took the film script and knocked it down to a 15-minute sketch for Prairie Home Companion. They didn't produce it, but I sent it around to various radio groups and it's been produced. I followed that up with an adaptation of my book "Author in the First" and then found a home with the Lakes Area Radio Theater. They have produced "Never Say Never Neverland Again," "The Leprechaun Job" and "Spoiler Alert" but I'm still waiting for them to post the shows online.

Wow, this post went off in a lot of directions at once.

0 Comments

Sketchy Tales: Valentine's Edition - A Beautiful Friendship

2/10/2019

0 Comments

I once wrote a joke that went "I like my comedy the way I like my chocolate; bittersweet." And I wrote it about this sketch. It's an early sketch of mine and it was very close to my heart, it's almost a one act play. It's combines my love of Casablanca and my social awkwardness. And it certainly stems from my love of movies, to the point that I often, back then, would go to the movies by myself because no one else wanted to see them. I was curious if I could write a bittersweet thing and I was locked on the idea of two people who could not get out of their own way, who could not overcome their own introversion when face with a real connection.

The play did go up at a workshop and it did work. It was a bit that was always included in any packet I sent, as a way to show range ("That's correct, I wrote both "Pet Rock" and this..."}. Man, I even thought so much of it, that I made it the center piece of a play I wrote, the story of a writer whose growth we witness when he presents the first draft of this sketch as a slap-stick, pie-throwing bit and later rewrites it to reflect a more mature attitude. Which is probably a lot of pretense to lay on the shoulders of this little sketch.

This edition of Sketchy Tales is brought to you by "Love and Other Distractions" the anthology for charity! Fifteen Hollywood writers spin tales of romance and more! Including me! Cupid flies the coup and Nick Flebber has to find him in "Cupid is as Cupid Does." Get your copy today at Amazon!

A Beautiful Friendship

0 Comments

Sketchy Tales - Valentine's Day Edition - Blind Date

2/9/2019

0 Comments

This is an early sketch of mine, a real hybrid. It's Python-esque in it's premise; a woman shows up for a date with a bag on her head. It's full of terrible puns (and by "terrible puns" I mean "puns"). But it kinda makes a point. That's something I like about some of my sketches, they start out silly but I actually can hang something on them, or they have a true beginning, middle and end. And a satisfying ending, not just a black-out. I remember working on the ridiculous premise and trying to ground it in some sort of reality as well as an internal logic that holds.

It's a longer form sketch, which I was more in the habit of writing when I started out. I brought it with me to Style Without Substance and they performed it a number of times with different cast members. This is from a show in NYC, which I picked because the video camera was closer to the actors than it was when they performed it at the Whole Theater. I brought it with me years later to the Staten Island comedy troupe Generation Sketch and they used it as well. It's probably one of the few bits I didn't pitch to Prairie Home Companion because it was such a visual bit. I hope you'll agree....wait, what...?

Blind Date

0 Comments

Sketchy Tales: Valentine's Edition - A Guy's Tale

2/8/2019

0 Comments

This is one of those sketches that that gets tricky for me. Writers get thoughts, all kind of thoughts. Some thoughts are creative, some are nice, some are dark and some aren't family friendly. Sometimes a sketch forms at the intersection of frustration and fantasy. A guy cheats on his wife. It's told via a narrator, reading it as if it was a storybook and we go to the actors doing their recreation of the moments. It's sweet and unassuming. It's callous. It's ironic. And a little bit misogynous. I turned it into a short story to submit to a collection of short stories being published at Amazon, Something to Read on the Ride. And it sat there for awhile. But I got some nice feedback on it.

When the "Many Faces of Love" festival rolled around again and I wanted to see if I could turn it into a monologue, one that ran 2-3 minutes. The artistic director of the festival accepted the piece, but asked it I could change the point of view to a First Person narrative, make it into a monologue from the guy in the story. I discovered I couldn't. Or as I responded;

As for point-of-view…I’d been over that when I first wrote the original. It was written like a fairy tale. There needs to be a buffer between the audience and this guy’s actions. There’s betrayal and disloyalty here. I think watching him try to explain it away or “justify” his actions would lose any sympathy for the story teller, IMO.

After making my defense of the POV, I realized the title of the piece, which I did change on a whim for submission from "A Guy's Tale" to "A Guy’s Monologue" didn’t properly frame the monologue. "A Guy’s Monologue" did make it sound like it was going to be a 1st person narrative. So the fix was to revert back to the original title.

As for the recording...my cell phone froze up near the end of the piece. It's the only recording I have of the event, so sorry about that. But it played very well, and I was very happy with it, even as it comes from my less-nurturing side.

Okay, now the technical issues; this was the year I first attended the performances. I was determined to record it with my new iPhone. My new iPhone had other ideas. It cut off toward the end. A dedicated author would have gone back to the second night's show to try it again. I, however, didn't. So, this is the only record I have of that night...

A Guy's Story

0 Comments

Sketchy Tales: Valentine's Day Edition - Mel's Dinner

2/7/2019

0 Comments

A goofy tale of one man who loved too much and not too well. I did a number of "restaurant sketches" which are always fun to do. A couple at a table, some hired help, some weird twist and you got a 5-minute sketch. If it's just a "couple sketch" it's nice to try and mix up the location, but a restaurant sketch has a wonderful air of possibilities, it's a tremendous jumping off point.

The sketch was done by Style Without Substance a number of times and always played well. This is from the 1988 show in NYC. The title is just a weird reference to Mel's Diner, featured in the TV show "Alice" and has no bearing on anything, except the guy's name is Mel.

Mel's Dinner

0 Comments

Sketchy Tales: Valentine's Edition - Married Man

2/6/2019

0 Comments

This was a sketch I had written a long time ago. It was a monologue. I usually don't do monologues, but for some reason, when this idea came up, it was the most natural way to work it. Maybe I was into a Bob Newhart phase, doing one-sided conversations.

Anyway, it sat on my hard drive for quiet a long while, occasionally getting set out to theater troupes until about 6 years ago. The Hudson Warehouse Theater Group was presenting an evening of monologues about love for Valentine's Day. This seemed like a perfect match. Eventually. My friend is the artistic director of the group and since it was the first time they were doing this, she decided she should pester her friends to submit stuff. Hey, I figured, if she's that desperate for material, maybe I'll get picked!

So I pulled it out, cleaned it up and edited to about 2 minutes and sent it in. And it was picked. Alas, I had booked a family vacation so I missed the shows. And nobody taped anything, so I never actually saw it on it's feet. After that (spoiler alert) I was selected for the next 5 festivals and made sure I recorded them (to various degrees of success) just so I'd have something to remember it by. It's a positive little bit that has some clouds of doubt sewn in, but when I write about love, which I don't often do, that's how it comes out.

This edition of Sketchy Tales is brought to you by "Love and Other Distractions" the anthology for charity! Fifteen Hollywood writers spin tales of romance and more! And me, too! Cupid takes it on the wing and Nick Flebber PI is called in to find him! Get your copy today at Amazon!

MARRIED MAN

0 Comments

Leave it to the Prose: Valentine's Edition - Missed Connection

2/5/2019

0 Comments

As Valentine's Day approaches, we celebrate love, even the creepy, stalker kind. After having stumbled onto Craig's List and its "Missed Connections" listings, I got pulled in pretty deep. There are some remarkable posts on there. And some scary ones. Naturally, I got inspired by the latter.

The piece was submitted to the gang over at The Big Jewel and they went for it. I've got a screen cap of the beginning below which links to the article at the site.

Sure, it's a shaky start to the Valentine season but that was just the luck of the draw...

This blog post is brought to you by "Love and Other Distractions" the anthology for charity! Fifteen Hollywood writers spin tales of romance and more! And it includes the Nick Flebber short story, "Cupid is as Cupid Does." Get your copy today at Amazon!

0 Comments

2021 Marion Thauer Brown Audio Drama Scriptwriting Competition

Sketchy Tales: Valentine's Edition - A Beautiful Friendship

A Beautiful Friendship

Sketchy Tales - Valentine's Day Edition - Blind Date

Blind Date

Sketchy Tales: Valentine's Edition - A Guy's Tale

A Guy's Story

Sketchy Tales: Valentine's Day Edition - Mel's Dinner

Mel's Dinner

Sketchy Tales: Valentine's Edition - Married Man

MARRIED MAN

Leave it to the Prose: Valentine's Edition - Missed Connection

Dan Fiorella

Archives

Categories

Blog Roll