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Credits/Important Assignments:'; bioContent += '

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Theatre:

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TV:

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Film:

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Music:

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Formative Creative Experiences: Because of a serious bronchial condition, I was forced to stay home through most of my elementary school years, and wound up continually reading, writing, painting...

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Influential Movies or TV Shows: For me the big influences were more literary: Homer, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Chekhov, Milton, Shakespeare... But the movies that mean most to me (as a screenwriter) are no doubt Billy Wilder\'s. And I do love the classics of structure like Chinatown, Tootsie and The Godfather...

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Comment on Your WBC Experience: With a hit Off Broadway play under my belt, I still knew nothing of screenwriting technique before enrolling in Writers Boot Camp. In fact, it was my first writing course of any kind (Think Tank was the second).

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What are your favorite WBC tools? Definitely, the 3-6-3. And writing trailer moments. And thinking of genre set-pieces. The biggest influence was probably learning to think from the outside in (structure to story) as well as from the inside out (which came to me more instinctively: characters to action).

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How you got your start in the business: I was able to find formal investors and get an Off Off Broadway play on its feet, which -- fortunately enough -- caught on.

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Describe the Transition Stages of Your Career:With early success in the theatre I turned away from opportunities given to me in film/TV. Then , after a flurry of further theatrical activity, I fell into a pretty dark period -- no work, no productions. And the Hollywood folk had all but forgotten about me. I enrolled in Writer\'s Boot Camp, so I could get back into the film world. A few months later I had a screenplay. We shopped it, and of course nothing happened. But, on the basis of a couple of scripts, I made some fans and that finally led to minor assignments, and the breakthrough in television. Likewise, I was able to find my way back into higher-level theatre activity by -- all unwittingly -- making my way into the music world (as a lyricist).

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Lots. As many as I can. But there is always a great deal of business (the writing-career business) work to do as well. And I do have a burgeoning young family I\'m trying to make more and more time for.

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What biases or preferences do you have regarding the writing process? Well, I\'m a student of literature, and that\'s where my heart lives. I want to tell stories that can hold and offer truths for all of us -- that can help articulate what stays inchoate.

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I\'ve always been drawn to classical models -- and have tried to find referents there for my own ways of thinking. I\'ve also always wanted to discover structures that felt true to me, and grew from the material.

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Do you have any special rituals, places you write, etc.? Oh, I just like a place that\'s quiet. Somewhere one can welcome in the angels...

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Do you have anything you’d like to say about LA or the entertainment world? I\'m an inveterate New Yorker, and a great believer in finding your own story. I\'m probably not the best at trying to crack the market or track the trends or even aim for topicality in subject matter. Probably my career has suffered from that; but I\'ve always had my heart set on the long-run, and the work that will be remembered.

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