Credits/Important Assignments:'; bioContent += '
Plays:
'; bioContent += 'Formative Creative Experiences: Playing the lead role in MACBETH in the fourth grade, as part of the NEW EDUCATION movement. I didn\'t know what the hell I was saying, but it sure sounded as good as anything on Batman reruns. Also, several decades later, as a performance artist, I used singing and screaming on stage to find my voice as a writer, and the finale of my show, CAVALADE OF SCARS in which I had four multiple personalities battling for control via a medly of Rose\'s Turn from GYPSY and Bohemian Rhapsody, taught me that if you use the strongest language, the craziest ideas and couple them with entertainment value, people will go anywhere you take them.
'; bioContent += 'Influential Movies or TV Shows: PSYCHO; THE WIZARD OF OZ; GRAND ILLUSION; THE SINGING DETECTIVE (TV); MOMMIE DEAREST; POLYESTER; FEMALE TROUBLE; IT\'S A WONDERFUL LIFE; THE EXORCIST; OKLAHOMA; FRANKENSTEIN; HOW GREEN WAS MY VALLEY; AMREICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON; BLUE VELVET; WHO\'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOLFF?
'; bioContent += 'Comment on Your WBC Experience: WBC taught me to write from the eye rather than the ear. As a playwright making the trek across the big divide between stage and screen, that was a vital adjustment.
'; bioContent += 'What are your favorite WBC tools? The tool that gives me the most liberty is the Mini-Draft. I can\'t tell you how freeing it is to be able to write bad, on-the-nose dialogue and just slug in the rough action and settings, rather than having to hit a home run the first time out; all that quest for the perfect script stops me dead in my tracks. With the mini-draft, I can rip out a very rough blue-print of the story that sets up the structure and arc of the characters and story without having to make sure everything is perfect. The 3-6-3 is also a dandy little device to keep yourself on track and to make sure the dyanmic relationship is strong and consistent. The Premise Line is a great way to encapsulize the basic idea, so that works for me too. Anything that allows me to distill the info before having to go in and write it.
'; bioContent += 'How you got your start in the business: When I was in my early 20\'s, just out of Northwestern, my old professor, Frank Galati, gave my name to a producer and real estate magnate, Yale Wexler (Haskell\'s brother), who wanted me to adapt a romance novel for his ex-wife. It never went anywhere, but I had a blast being introduced to a new medium that actually paid money for the effort.
'; bioContent += 'Describe the Transition Stages of Your Career: A few years ago, I was getting nowhere in my playwriting career and was really dismayed at my looming Legal Secretary career. Luckily, I met some guy named Jeff from California at a wedding. We hit it off instantly, and my friends and I kidnapped him to our table. He tells me he has a writing school in LA for film and TV, and I said, Hey, I have a Xena spec no one\'s read. So I send it to him and he tells me I\'m a good writer, why not take this six week class. After forcing the money from my wallet, I hesitantly took the plunge. Two and a half years later, I am now a graduate and am working on my first film script commission and looking forward to the great unknown future.
'; bioContent += 'How many hours per week do you devote to your creative work: About 20-30 on the average. I wake up at 5am, work out, make breakfast and write till about 10. Then I go to my day job from 11-7, as head of computer graphics department for a financial consulting firm. Then I go to a play or movie. Then I collapse.
'; bioContent += 'What biases or preferences do you have regarding the writing process? I love writing for both the stage and the screen. They are very different animals, but taking the time to really understand screenwriting has given me to the tools to be able to approach new film and TV projects with confidence. I am looking forward to the happy day when I can get my 40 hours a week back and use it solely on my writing. My Aunt Palma says to me, When are you going to write something that everybody likes? And I look at my lovely 78 year old virgin aunt, and say, Who the hell wants to write something that EVERYBODY likes? You have to write what you like first; if you don\'t like it, nobody else will, either.
'; bioContent += 'Do you have any special rituals, places you write, etc.? I write in the early morning when the city is still asleep.
'; bioContent += 'Do you have anything you’d like to say about LA or the entertainment world? Don\'t know much about LA yet, except that it seems a lot hotter than NYC, but having a writing career in the entertainment industry requires the ability to balance yourself somewhere between art and commerce. Navigating that line needs lots of work and failure and determination and flexibility.
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