Biography
I’m a native of Chicago, Illinois, and a graduate of Northwestern University.
I’ve worked as a playwright, screenwriter, critic, journalist, essayist, project evaluator, researcher, editor and writing coach, in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. I’ve sold and been hired to write several screenplays, and have had plays produced and presented in staged readings. I’ve worked as a filmmaker, assistant director and production assistant, a newspaper and magazine columnist, and a print, web and radio reporter. My other freelance work has ranged from wallboards for an exhibit on sustainable architecture to photography for a genealogist.
I’ve worked for companies including HBO, Hallmark and RHI Entertainment, Warner Brothers, Walden Media, The Disney Company, October, Cinecom, Fox Home Video, Great Point Media and several independent producers. I helped acquire and supervise rewrites on projects including Emmy-nominated Tin Man and Weapons of Mass Distraction, The Chronicles of Narnia, Gulliver’s Travels, Moby Dick and Treasure Island. I wrote a proposal which helped secure finishing funds for the HBO film Sometimes in April.
Here’s the detailed run-down:
New York City
• For the Institute for Public Dialogue, edited a fund-raising proposal
• For the Pratt Institute’s Schafler@25 exhibit, wrote wall boards describing energy-saving features in a contemporary architecture
• Had my play Nineteen Men named a Finalist for the 2008 O’Neill Center Playwrights Conference
• For the HBO movie Sometimes in April, wrote fund-raising proposal and logistics materials
• Had my screenplay A Visit from the King (about a small town which goes into an uproar as the result of some Elvis sightings) optioned by Cornerstone Films
• For Tiger Lily Productions, wrote screenplay Sweet Success
• With backing from Titus Productions, secured the rights to and wrote the teleplay Twenty-Six Years to Freedom– the Story of Joe Turner (the true story of an unjustly convicted prison escapee), which was selected as an alternate for the O’Neill Theatre Playwrights Festival Television Project
• Had my play Courage performed at the Quaigh Theatre, W.P.A. and Pearl Theatre companies.
• Had my play Pictures of the Doobie Brothers performed at the Ensemble Studio Theater’s Summer Workshop Festival
• Had my play Hamlet’s Advice to His Plumber named a semi-finalist in the National Ten-Minute Play Contest at the Actors’ Theatre of Louisville
• Contributed articles about New York life to the website MrBellersNeighborhood.com.; the articles were included in the 2009 Mr. Beller’s book Lost and Found
• Wrote freelance articles for the San Diego Union-Tribune
• Worked as a contributing reporter to a special issue of Esquire on prominent Americans under the age of 40
• Worked as a story analyst, story editor and creative consultant for HBO, Hallmark and RHI Entertainment, Great Point Media, Warner Brothers, Walden Media, The Disney Company, October, Cinecom, Fox Home Video and several independent producers, including Steve Kesten, Jeff Weiss and Mila Burnette
• Worked as a freelance reporter for National Public Radio’s All Things Considered news broadcast
• Wrote freelance articles for the Chicago Sun-Times and Diversion Magazine; also published in Continental Airlines Magazine
• Wrote newsletters and brochures for the Women’s Relations Department of the Equitable Life Assurance Company
• Helped organize the 1984 Central Park anti-nuclear demonstration
Chicago
• Served as film critic and feature reporter for the Chicago Daily News; also contributed features on popular culture, architecture and dance
• Wrote a theatre column for Chicago Magazine
• With two partners, formed Dana Productions, and made a series of short films for the El-Tronics Corporation
• Worked as assistant director on the independent feature film Just to Get In
• Worked as a production assistant and assistant production manager on a number of documentaries and industrial films
Los Angeles:
• For producer Barry Elliott, wrote feature screenplay David’s Game
• For producer Chris James, wrote feature screenplay The Destination
• For The Elliott Concern and other companies, worked as an assistant director and production assistant
• Contributed freelance articles to alternative newspaper The L.A.
I’ve also worked as a waitress (cocktails, pancakes, tea room), sales clerk (candy, hosiery, bargain basement), assistant pharmacist, photographer, model, file clerk, graduation ceremony cap-and-gown distributor, and several other things I’ve succeeded in forgetting
Avocations include figure skating, voracious reading, photography, dance, piano, guitar a long time ago, grassroots politics, theatre, film, music.