6/8/12 - T.F. Cahill's The Seduction of Thomas Sorrell will be presented Oct 5,6,11,12,13,18,19,20,26 and 27 @ Geery Theatre, 2130 L Street in Sacramento, CA

6/6/12 - JAC Playwrights Felix Racelis (Date'N'Switch), Susan C. Hunter (Significant Others) and Lucy Wang (The Tao of Fruit) will be featured as part of the 4th ALAP/City of West Hollywood Gay Play Reading Festival on June 18 at 7:30pm.

6/2/12 - Jack Neary's The Porch will play at Hovey Players - Sept 7, 8, 14, 15, 20-21, 8pm and Sunday, Sept 16, 2pm - The Porch @ Hovey Players, Abbott Memorial Theater, 9 Spring St. & Joe's Way, Waltham, MA - www.hoveyplayers.com

6/2/12 - Steven Bergman's Rosie the Teddy Bear will be presented as part of Hovey Players' Summer Shorts, July 13, 14, 20, and 21, 2012 at 8pm at the Abbott Memorial Theater, Joel's Way, 9 Spring Street, Waltham, MA - www.hoveyplayers.com

5/24/12 - Mona Deutsch Miller's The End of the Line will be featured as part of FIERCE INTERVENTIONS, a program of 3 short plays, at headquarters for the Hollywood Fringe Festival. Open Fist Theatre, 6209 Santa Monica Boulevard (near El Centro), Los Angeles, CA. June 12 (6:30 PM); June 14 (2:30 PM); June 15 (11:30 AM); June 18 (3:30 PM); June 20 (11 PM) and June 22 (3:00 PM). Enter "Fierce Interventions" for tickets at www.Hollywoodfringe.org. Tickets are $10.

5/18/12 - FirstStage presents an evening of staged readings featuring Re-Play by Felix Racelis - Monday, May 21, 2012 @ Missing Piece Theatre, 2811 West Magnolia, Burbank, CA. Tickets: $5; free for FirstStage members. Info: (323) 850-6271

5/1/12 - Woodward International Playwriting Prize Now Open to All Playwrights (Durham, NH)

4/5/12 - Felix Racelis' short play, Date 'N Switch, is in the next line-up at Three Roses Players' The Writer Speaks series, Evening #20, April 12, 13 and 15 at Crown City Theatre in North Hollywood, CA.

3/15/12 - In the News: JAC's Lucy Wang is featured in The University of Chicago Magazine: Career Change!

3/14/12 - Planet Connections Theatre Festivity in New York is presenting both O RUMBLES OF JOY! (director: Marcina Zaccaria) and SEARCHING FOR A NEW SUN (director: Katrin Hilbe) from Robin Rice Lichtig. Mark your calendars for these one-time only, free events at 1 p.m. on June 18 and 21 at the newly refurbished Bleecker Street Theatres. www.planetconnections.org

3/13/12 - Robin Rice Lichtig's FRONTIER tackles big issues in a highly charged, highly theatrical drama which took home two awards at the Planet Connections Theatre Festivity in New York last summer. March 18, Oberon Theatre Ensemble presents a reading at The Lambs Club (3 West 51st St., Manhattan) directed by Dianna Martin. 7:30. www.oberontheatre.org.  Also from Robin, ALICE IN BLACK AND WHITE, a new play about the (true) struggles of Victorian photographer Alice Austen, has been invited to the Great Plains Theatre Conference in Omaha, NE, in May and will receive a world premiere in March, 2013, by the Looking for Lilith Theatre Company in Louisville, KY. www.lookingforlilith.org.

2/17/12 - Full Circle Theater Company Presents "Unlikely Allies," a Festival Of New One-Act Plays featuring John Patrick Bray's Surround Sound, March 11, 18, 25, and April 1, 4 PM @ Basement Theater at The Triple Crown, 330 7th Avenue (Between 28th & 29th Sts, NYC). $10 Cash At The Door. No Drink Minimum.  $4 Domestic Drafts Before, During, and After The Show - www.fullcircletheatercompany.com

2/16/12 - An evening of interJACtions contributor Arthur M. Jolly's short plays - all of them humorous takes on love and relationships - will be presented at The Randall Theatre, 10 E 3rd st, Medford, Oregon. April 12 - 15th, peformances at 7pm nightly, with a Saturday and Sunday 1 pm matinee. Tickets are pay what you will. More details at www.randalltheatre.com

2/8/12 - Are you ready for a different kind of story for Valentine's Day? Please join us a for a reading of Death 'N Texas, a new play by Felix Racelis, directed by Peggy Howard Chane. Death 'N Texas has been selected for the February play reading sponsored by the NY Chapter of the National Academy of TV Arts & Sciences. Monday, February 13, 5:30pm reception; 6pm reading in Midtown Manhattan. Please RSVP to Ellen Muir (212/459-3630 x204) for exact location. RSVP is required for admittance.

2/7/12 - 2/14 (7-10pm) - Fort Point Theatre Channel presents the 2nd staged reading of the Marquis de Sade's Justine - a libretto for a new opera written by JAC Playwright Meron Langsner and Silvia Graziano, directed by Christie Gibson. Admission: FREE! For directions to 10 Channel Center Street (Boston) - please visit www.fortpointtheatrechannel.org/directions

2/7/12 - Playwrights Steven Bergman and David Kruh have new published stories in the now released anthology, Final Fenway Fiction: More Short Stories from Red Sox Nation. Check them out at Amazon and Barnes & Noble

2/2/12 - Write Act Repertory Theatre in Hollywood is producing the west coast premiere of interJACtions contributor Rhea MacCallum's Baby Blues as part of their Women Inventing Theatre 3: Connections. Performances are February 1, 6, 7, 13, 14, 20 and 21 at 8 p.m. at 6128 Yucca St. Tickets are $12 for students/seniors; $15 general admission. Reservations: 323-469-3113.

2/2/12 - A reading of Gene Lesser's It's Only Money will be held on Sunday, February 12th at 7:00 PM at Theatre 40 located at 241 Moreno Dr., Beverly Hills, CA - on the BHHS campus. The event is free.

1/26/12 - Drama West presents a reading of Felix Racelis' short comedy Date 'N Switch at its next showcase on Saturday, January 28, 2:00 pm @ Edendale Library, 2011 W. Sunset Blvd., LA (near Alvarado). The event is free. A retired mother enlists her gay son's help in lining up a date, but plans take an unexpected turn. Info: dramawest@cox.net

1/18/12 - Rhea MacCallum's Ladies Choice will receive its world premiere at the Paw Paw Village Players One-Acts XV in Paw Paw, MI. Performances are February 17th - 25th, Friday and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. at 404 East Michigan Ave., Paw Paw, MI 49079. Box office # is: 269-657-PLAY. For more information, please visit: www.ppvp.org

1/18/12 - Rhea MacCallum's Day 41 will receive its world premiere at "She Wrights – One Acts by Women Playwrights," January 13 - 29, Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00 PM, Sunday matinees at 2:00 PM. Tickets are $15.00 General Admission and can be purchase online at www.secretrose.com.  The Secret Rose Theatre, 11246 Magnolia Blvd, North Hollywood, CA 91601.

1/18/12 - Rhea MacCallum's Kill Me, Please! will be produced at the ACME Theatre New Works Winter Festival 2012 on Saturday, January 14th and Friday, January 20th at 61 Summer Street, Maynard, MA 01754. The Acme Box Office number is (978) 823-0003; www.acmetheater.com

1/18/12 - The Actors Workout Studio presents a reading of short plays by FirstStage members including Re-Play and Date 'N Switch by Felix Racelis - Sunday, January 22, 2012, 7:00 PM @ The Actors Workout Studio, 4735 Lankershim Blvd., North Hollywood, CA 91602. Tickets are free, but you have to call to reserve: (818) 506-3903; info@actorsworkout.com

1/18/12 - A closed showing of Robin Rice Lichtig's LISTEN! will be held in Manhattan on February 20 (7 p.m.). Tracy Bersely directs; Nicole Greevy* stars as Turbo, a Maine Coon cat with attitude whose life is disrupted geographically and emotionally, echoing the lives of people around him. LISTEN! is no cute kitty play. It packed a wallop as a short one act in South Africa and in workshops at Emerging Artists and ManhattanTheatreSource. If you are a producer or literary manager and would like to be invited to this one-night-only informal, private showing, please email me ( dramamama@nyc.rr.com ).  LISTEN! heads for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, produced by Liminal Space and Rising Solo. Director: Prav Menon-Johansson. Actor: Wendy Peace*. August 13-27; 1:45 p.m. Surgeon's Hall, The Spaces Theatre Three. Tickets will be available soon on the Fringe website: www.edfringe.com.

1/17/12 - Felix Racelis will receive readings of two short plays in late January: Actors Workout Studio in North Hollywood presents readings of Date 'N Switch and Re-Play January 22, 2012, and DramaWest will reprise Date 'N Switch the following Saturday, January 28, 2012, at their series at the Los Angeles Edendale Library.

1/16/12 - Oral Histories From The 1970s gathered By Garret Mathews - "Folks Are Talking" is a double CD that includes 28 oral histories of folks Garret Mathews interviewed as a young feature writer on the Bluefield, W. Va., Daily Telegraph between 1974 and 1979. To purchase the C.D. "Folks Are Talking"-
The double CD costs $17 plus $3 shipping and handling. Checks should be sent to “Folks Are Talking,” c/o Garret Mathews, 7954 Elna Kay Drive, Evansville, Indiana 47715, or click here to order online!

1/10/11 - In an event called “New Year, New Beginnings,” JAC playwright Lucy Wang will lead an afternoon of storytelling and sharing that will help kick off her 10 weeks as the 2012 writer in residence at the arts facility that once served as the guest house of actress Marion Davies.
http://huntingtonblogs.org/2012/01/lucy-wang-event/

1/8/12 - interJACtions contributor Carol Anne Seflinger's 10-minute one-act, The Session, is one of five one-acts in a women playwrights one-act festival entitled She Wrights, at the Secret Rose Theatre in the NOHO district. The festival will run January 13 through 29 - Fridays & Saturdays at 8PM; Sundays 2PM. $15 General Admission. SECRET ROSE THEATRE, 11246 Magnolia Blvd.,
NoHo Arts District, North Hollywood, CA - 1-877-620-ROSE (7673)

1/8/12 - interJACtions contributor Arthur M. Jolly's one act drama Almost Christmas, set in a bar on Christmas Eve, will premiere at the 17th Annual One Act Festival at the Venture Theatre in Billings, MT. In the play, a bitter waitress, tries to get money from a crusty regular and the bar's naive new owner so she can fund a trip to kill her father. Merry Christmas! 8pm Fri & Sat, 2pm Sunday Feb 10th-19th @ Venture Theatre, 2317 Montana Ave, Billings, MT. $10 tickets available online.

1/8/12 - From February 18-26, OdysseyStage Theatre, 1937 W. Cornwallis Rd., Durham, NC will present a series of performance readings of JAC Playwright Michael Halperin's Desert Stories, two one-act comedies. $10 in advance. $12 at the door. www.odysseystage.org; 919.929.4493

1/6/12 - Vanessa Adams-Harris will be bringing Janice Lidell's powerful Who Will Sing for Lena? to Brandeis University on March 8, 2012.

1/6/12 - Medway Players will be performing Monica Bauer's The Diet Monologues on April 27, 28, May 4 & 5 at Medway Library, 26 High Street

1/5/12 - Congratulations to upcoming JAC Playwright (Worth a Thousand Words) Stefanie DeLeo's book Cry My Safari is available on NOOK as today at Barnes & Noble!

12/7/11 - Congratulations to JAC Playwright David-Matthew Barnes. Barnes' young adult novel MESMERIZED received a second place award in the Rainbow Reader Awards!

12/6/11 - Jim Hetrick's A Blessed Event will be presented at the Jewel Box Theatre, 27334 Balmoral Place NE in Kingston, WA 1/14-15/2012

12/1/11 - Arthur Jolly's Bath Time is Fun Time will be at the Pick of the Vine Season Ten Festival January 13th through February 18th, 2012 at the Little Fish Theatre, 777 Centre Street, San Pedro, CA 90731. www.littlefishtheatre.org/wp/

11/2/11 - Rhea MacCallum's Independence Day will be produced in Tehachapi Community Theatre's 3rd Annual Playwright's Festival at Beekay Theatre, 110 South Green Street, Tehachapi, CA, Friday and Saturday, November 4th and 5th at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, November 6th at 2 p.m. Tickets are $10. For reservations and additional information visit TCT online at http://tctonstage.com

10/19/11 - A world premiere musical comedy by Phil Olson, the author of Don't Hug Me, A Don't Hug Me Christmas Carol and A Don't Hug Me County Fair. The Don't Hug Me musicals are published by Samuel French and have played in over 100 cities around the U.S. and Canada.   Don't Hug Me, I'm Pregnant is playing thru Nov 20, 2011, Fri & Sat @ 8pm Sun @ 2pm.  Tickets: $20. Call 323- 822-7898, Use code "Pregnant" for $10 tickets.  Secret Rose Theatre, 11246 Magnolia Blvd, North Hollywood, CA 91601

9/1/11 - Chronogram Magazine Short Takes: September 2011 reviews Terry Sandler's Mommy & Me Fishing Trip & Other Stories

8/24/11 - November 18-20 – Jack Neary's Sandbag, Stage Left (or, One Dead Dolly!), directed by Tom Hickey. A community theatre diva has been killed by a falling sandbag during the "So Long, Dearie" number in the production of HELLO DOLLY. Her husband has been accused of the crime, and brought to trial. The attorneys cross examine various community theatre types who take the stand to testify, and it is the nuttiest parade of witnesses this side of Perry Mason. The show will be performed at 175 Chandler Street, Tewksbury, MA. $45 per person. The price includes an “all you can eat” buffet dinner and the show. Reservation are required. Call ACTORS inc at (978) 984-3151 or send an email to tickets@actorsincorporated.com 

8/22/11 - Meron Langsner's Bystander 9/11 will be performed on 9/12 in Providence College, 1 Cunningham Square, Smith Center.

8/8/11 - Brian C. Petti's Banshee will be opening August 21st-August 27th at Flamboy'an Theatre in NYC. Director: Mary Ellen Nelligar; Assistant Director: Jim Pillmeier. Featuring: Lauren Murphy, Ron Morehead, Elisabeth Henry-Macari and Matt Meinsen. Tickets $15 in advance, $18 at door call 866-468-7619 or visit WWW.FRINGENYC.ORG

8/8/11 - Three of JAC's Playwrights will be featured in a commemorative 9/11 presentation called "We Remember..." at Ayer-Shirley Regional High School, 141 Washington Street, Ayer on 9/9/11.  The evening consists of Robin Rice-Lichtig's The Fortification of Miss Grace Wren, Steven Bergman's Grieving Process and Meron Langsner's Bystander 9/11.  This event is free and open to the public.  Call 978-302-9121 for information.

7/20/11 - Josh McIlvain's "The Wendy Fund" will be featured Friday, July 29th & Saturday, July 30th (8pm) @ SLC Centers 352 7th Ave. (30th St.) 16th Floor. Reservations: Call 212-244-8888

7/20/11 - Katselas Theatre Company will hold a reading of Michael Halperin's The Spark of Reason at the Skylight Theatre, 1816 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, 11AM, Sunday, July 31, 2011 directed by Rob Brownstein. Minimum donation of $10. Tickets: 702.582.8587. Online: ktctickets.com.

7/11/11 - Felix Racelis' short play "House of Sticks" is part of the lineup at THE WRITER SPEAKS '11, Evening 15, July 17, 19, 24 & 31 at Three Roses Players, Crown City Theatre in North Hollywood, CA

6/15/11 - JAC Contributor Andrew Biss' "Skewed Picture" will be featured as part of Hovey Players' Summer Shorts, July 7 at 9 Spring Street, Waltham - www.hoveyplayers.com

6/9/11 - Phil Olson's Don't Hug Me, I'm Pregnant is the fourth in the Don't Hug Me franchise of musical comedies. The story takes place in Bunyan Bay, Minnesota, in a little bar owned by Clara and Gunner Johnson. Clara is 8 1/2 months pregnant, and suddenly a freak snow storm , a "tsnownami," hits Bunyan Bay, they’re snowed in, Clara goes into labor and Gunner will have to deliver the baby in the bar.  The Lonny Chapman Group Rep Theatre, 10900 Burbank Blvd., No. Hollywood, CA 91601 - June 14 & 15 at 7:30pm.  Reservations: Just show up. It's FREE.  www.DontHugMe.com

6/9/11 - Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national theatre organization will read a selection from Michael Halperin's Freedom, Texas in its National Playwrights' Slam Friday, June 17, 9-11:30PM in the Tiffany Room of the Biltmore Hotel, 506 S. Grand Ave., Los Angeles. The event is sold out.

6/9/11 - This weekend is the 3rd ALAP/ City of West Hollywood Gay Play Reading Festival! Thanks to grants from the City of West Hollywood, ALAP will present two programs of play readings by ALAP members as part of the City’s 2011 Gay Pride Celebration. Both programs take place at the Celebration Theatre, 7051 Santa Monica Boulevard (just east of LaBrea). There is plenty of street parking.  Plays by JAC Playwrights featured on June 11th will be Best Man by Steven Korbar. Each program will conclude with a reception.  Please consider joining this special event. The size of the audience helps determine whether they will get another grant next year, so the more the better. Admission is FREE, no reservations needed!

5/18/11 - JAC Playwright J.C. Svec will be presenting three one-act comedies, John and the Three Bridesmaids, ...and Guest, and Here's Looking at You at the 2011 PlanetConnections, The Gene Frankel Theatre, 24 Bond Street, NYC, June 13-25.

3/22/11 - Shannon Murdoch's New Light Shine Wins 2011 Yale Drama Series Award, By Adam Hetrick, Playbill.com

3/21/11 - Kelly Younger's TENDER (reading) @ Manhattan Theatre Club. On the verge of foreclosure, a working mom and her stay-at-home husband reappraise their assets, including her aging father and his new motor home; but when they take away his keys, they learn love is not a loan that can be repaid. Tender is a timely drama about the debt we owe our parents, the interest we charge our children, and the price of forgiveness. Directed by Lynne Meadow, Artistic Director of MTC and starring Kate Jennings Grant (Broadway: Proof, Guys and Dolls), David Harbour (Broadway: The Coast of Utopia, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf), and Peter Michael Goetz (Broadway: The Last Night of Ballyhoo, Brighton Beach Memoirs). Kelly Younger has had plays commissioned, produced, and developed by the Irish Repertory Theatre, New Repertory Theatre, Orlando Shakespeare Theatre, EST/LA, and The Blank Theater. Younger was a finalist for the Joanne Woodward/Paul Newman Drama Award and winner of the John Gassner New Play Award. New York City Center Stage, 131 W 55th Street. 7pm. Call 212.399.3000 for info, or visit www.manhattantheatreclub.com/about_7@7.as

3/12, 13, 16 & 17 - Felix Racelis' Re-Play will be presented at Three Roses Players' The Writer Speaks'11 (Evening 12) @ St. Matthews Church, 11031 Camarillo St., NoHo, CA. TICKETS $16 at the door, $14 advance.

3/9/11 - Playright Michael Vukadinovich will attend (via Skype) a free dramatic reading of his play "Trog and Clay" at 11:11 Theatre, Factory Theatre, 791 Tremont St. on March 16 at 7:30pm. 1111theatre.com for more information. Check out Michael's hilarious "Even Hitler Wrote a Book"!

2/25/11 - Robin Rice-Lichtig's PLAY NICE! will be presented by Ego Actus Design, LLC at 59E59 Theaters March 8-27 in NYC. www.59e59.org for info.

2/23/11 - The Windham Theatre Guild is proud to present the world premiere performance of Blessed Event, a new work by local playwright Jim Hetrick. After doing a staged reading of Blessed Event in 2009, the Guild is proud to mount this show for its premiere. Somebody once said, “Grandchildren are God’s reward to you for not killing your own kids.” Charley Dube, the main character of Blessed Event, would agree wholeheartedly with that statement. Charlie is the eighty-year-old patriarch of a lovable, dysfunctional, French-Canadian family residing in West Hartford, CT. Come and visit with this off-beat family as they spend Charlie’s last day on this earth grappling with life’s issues and reminiscing about the sometimes comical, sometimes touching events that make up a life well-spent. You will walk out of the theater with your heart filled with love, laughter and tears, and you will recognize yourself, your friends and your own family members in the wonderfully human characters. They will live on in your hearts and minds long after the final curtain falls. Blessed Event will be presented Friday and Saturday, March 4th and 5th at 8pm and Sunday, March 6th at 2pm at the Burton Leavitt Theatre, 779 Main Street, Willimantic. Tickets are $15 for adults, $12 for seniors/students and $8 for children under 12 and are available by calling the theatre at 860-423-2245, online at www.windhamtheatreguild.org or at the door. Blessed Event is soon-to-be-released by JAC.

2/22/11 - Kelly Younger's play TENDER has been nominated for the Best New Play by the 2011 Independent Reviewers of New England.

1/19/11 - Robert Joseph Ahola's Finding the Greater Fool will be presented as part of THREE ROSES PLAYERS' THE WRITER SPEAKS ’11 - JANUARY 23 7PM JANUARY 25 & 27 8PM January 30 7PM. TICKETS $16 at the door, $14 ADVANCE PURCHASE: www.3rosesp.com/THE-WRITER-SPEAKS.html. Three Roses Players at THE CROWN CITY THEATRE, At ST.MATTHEWS CHURCH 11031 Camarillo Street, NoHo, CA 91602 (Where Lankershim meets Vineland turn west at Blockbuster Video) FREE street parking.

1/10/11 - Thursday, February 3 · 9:00pm  - Terry Sandler's When the Bedbugs Bite will play at HUDSON GUILD THEATRE, 441 West 26th St. (between 9th & 10th ave), New York, NY. WHEN THE BEDBUGS BITE is a dramatic look back at the relationship between a loving father and his young daughter during their bedtime rituals. While tucking Dolly into bed, a mysterious clock echoes the sentiments of mortality and loss as he fights to keep her awake. “The seasons changed slowly. Holidays were never the same.”  Starring Nina Day, Brittany Pierri, and Terry Sandler; Lighting by David Markoff; Sound Design by Fay Gerbes. BEDBUGS is playing in part of NYC's prestigious Riant Theatre's "Strawberry One-Act Play Festival". Series B. More info:
www.therianttheatre.com/index.php?n=strawberry_one-act_festival 

12/16/10 - Philana Gnatowski's short plays Cold Feet and Patrick & Gwen will be featured as part of Acme Theater Productions' 2011 New Works Winter Festival 2011, January 7-15 @ ArtSpace Maynard, 61 Summer St., Maynard, MA - 978-823-0003; www.acmetheater.com

12/16/10 - Steven Korbar's I Thought I Heard a Voice I Knew is about an embittered divorced couple that argue as their younger selves say the things they wish they could. It will be part of the 8th Annual 10-Minute Play Festival, 12/16-18 at the Secret Rose Theatre.  And while you're there, Felix Racelis' Re-Play is a finalist in the Festival and will be performed during "The Best of..." on Sunday, December 19, 2010.  The evening will feature five other ten-minute plays.  There will be special guest judges, sake tasting and more. Ph: 1-877-620-ROSE - 11246 Magnolia Blvd., North Hollywood (CA) - www.secretrose.com

12/13/10 - On 12/18, there will be a  reading of Jack Neary's new play, AULD LANG SYNE, at 3 pm in the Hallie Flanagan Studio Theatre, Mendenhall Center for the Arts, at Smith College, Northampton (MA) under the auspices of New Century Theatre. Admission is free.

11/3/10 - Phil Olson's A Don't Hug Me Christmas Carol

Orlando Shakespeare Theatre's PlayFest! The Harriett Lake Festival of New Plays (featuring special guest Philip Seymour Hoffman) will present ONCE A MARINE by Kelly Younger. Directed by Richard Perez.  A shell-shocked marine returns home with no recollection of the life, or the wife, he left behind. The only woman he does remember – the one he came back for – is his first love of fifteen years ago. His bittersweet homecoming rekindles that love, and dredges up his most painful of memories. He must choose a future of blissful ignorance or a past of buried grief. But he is not the one who will decide. For more information and tickets: http://www.orlandoshakes.org/PlayFest.html

3/25/10 - Scenes from JAC monologue contributor Martha Patterson's The Big Hat will be read at SWAN Day (Support Women Artists Now), directed by Roxanna Myrhum, Boston Playwrights Theatre, March 27.  Her short comedy Cookin' with Gas has been selected for the next One Act eco-friendly showcase 'We Mean to be Green' being held in April 23-24, 2010 by Thespian Productions in Ft. Myers (FL). Shoestring Radio Theatre online, will be featuring her half-hour comedy/murder mystery Veronique in May, 2010, and An Artful Marriage will be produced by The Pink Banana Theatre, directed by Ashlea Woodley, at the Off Broadway Theatre, 342 North Water Street, Milwaukee (WI). Show dates May 21-June 5.

3/25/10 - JAC monologue contributor Arthur M. Jolly's Past Curfew will run at the Pacific Resident Theatre April 1-18, Thurs-Sat 8pm, Sundays 7pm. 707 Venice Blvd (4 blocks West of Lincoln), 90291 - (323) 460-2508. Suggested donation $15. Recommended for mature audiences only. www.pacificresidenttheatre.com

3/20/10 - David-Matthew Barnes will be a featured author (along with Clifford Henderson & Lisa Girolami) at Pride in Monterey (CA). He will be reading from his novel Mesmerized at the Marina Library on April 24th. His stage play Temporary Heroes opens in Odessa (TX) on April 14.  Barnes will be a panel moderator and a featured reader at the Saints & Sinners Literary Festival in New Orleans from May 13 - May 16. For more info, visit www.sasfest.org.

3/15/10 - Leslie Bramm's MARVELOUS will be read March 28th at 3pm at ART/NY, 520 Eighth Avenue 3rd floor, Studio B. Reservations are not required. There is a suggested donation of $5.

3/10/10 - Felix Racelis' New Business, a short play, will be performed at ShortLived 3.0, an audience-judged playwriting competition taking place at 8:00 pm on April 2, 3, 9 and 10 at The Asylum Lab, 6320 Santa Monica Blvd. For tix and info, visit www.brownpapertickets.com/event/103421 or email felixracelis@yahoo.com

3/2/10 - Robin Rice Lichtig's Suki Livingston Opens Like a Parachute is playing 3/15 @ Theater for the New City, 155 1st Ave. (between 9th & 10th St.) Contribution: $5 - www.theaterforthenewcity.net.

2/28/10 - Phil Olson's Don't Hug Me will play at the historic Paramount Theatre, August 19-21 in St. Cloud (MN) - (302) 259-5463

2/25/10 - Michael Vukadinovich's A Giant Arc in the Skyspace of Directions (or The Story of Miracles) is running at LA Theatre Ensemble's Powerhouse Theatre, 3116 2nd St., Santa Monica (CA) 3/4-27, 2010. www.powerhousetheatre.com.  His Terrarium is running at Red Tie Productions, 3302 Beverely Blvd., Los Angeles (CA) 4/8-25, 2010. www.sonofsemele.org. His Trog and Clay (an Imagined History of the Electric Chair) is running at LA Theatre Ensemble's Powerhouse Theatre, 3116 2nd St., Santa Monica (CA) 4/22-5/15, 2010. www.powerhousetheatre.com

2/24/10 - STOP THE VIOLENCE: Remembering the Execution of Lena Mae Baker - Saturday, March 6, 2010 ● 5:00 p.m. Heritage Education Center Auditorium ● 4th Floor, 101 Auburn Avenue, NE ● Atlanta, GA 30303-2503. Panelists include: Dr. Josephine Bradley, Chair, Department of African-American/Africana Women’s Studies at Clark Atlanta University; Dr. Eugene Walker, DeKalb County Board of Education Representative; Dr. Janice Liddell, Professor, Department of English at Clark Atlanta University; Kathryn Anderson Weaver, Media Specialist with the Atlanta Public Schools; Ms. Latonya S. Peterson: Consultant, writer and member of the National Black Herstory Task Force, Inc; Kathryn Anderson Weaver will perform an excerpt from Who Will Sing For Lena.  ALL PROGRAMS ARE FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC. For additional information call AARL at (404) 730-4001, ext. 100

2/24/10 - LIVE @ THE LIBE SHORT PLAY FESTIVAL - three one-hour programs of short works. All programs are free and open to the public. Included are: JAC monologue compilation playwright Arthur Jolly's Bailing Out on February 28 (2pm) @ West Los Angeles Regional Branch, 11360 Santa Monica Blvd. - (310) 575-8323; www.lapl.org

2/24/10 - LIVE @ THE LIBE SHORT PLAY FESTIVAL - three one-hour programs of short works. All programs are free and open to the public. Included are: JAC monologue compilation playwright Gene Lesser's The Pitch on March 3 (6:30pm) @ Westwood Branch Library, 1246 Glendon Ave. - (310) 474-1739; www.lapl.org

2/24/10 - LIVE @ THE LIBE SHORT PLAY FESTIVAL - three one-hour programs of short works. All programs are free and open to the public. Included are: JAC monologue compilation playwright Chris Hare's Scraps, and JAC monologue compilation playwright Janice Kennedy's Shadows Round the Moon on March 6 @ Donald Kaufman Brentwood Branch Library, 11820 San Vicente Blvd., (310) 575-8273; www.lapl.org

2/10/10 - David-Matthew Barnes' Pensacola is running at the Lambda Players from February 19 thru April 3 @ 21st & L Street Theatre, 1127 21st Street, Sacramento - (916) 444-8229; www.lambdaplayers.com

2/10/10 - Mona Deutsch Miller's comedy Strangers on a Train will be part of a series of short plays read at the Westwood Public Library, located at 1246 Glendon Avenue, Los Angeles, on March 3, 2010 at 6:30 PM.  Deutsch Miller is one of the playwrights to be included in JAC's upcoming monologue compilation.

2/4/10 - Playwrights 6 is presenting Rick Mitchell's award-winning play, BRECHT IN L.A., directed by Jonathan Levit, as a staged reading on Tuesday, February 9th, at 8:00 p.m., at  the Underground Theatre, 1314 N. Wilton Place, Hollywood 90028. Admission is free, and a reception will follow the performance. For further information, please call Playwrights 6 at (323) 860-6625.  Mitchell's Acadiana Sludge is forthcoming from JAC, as well as his monologue "The Party" in JAC's upcoming monologue compilation.

1/22/10 - Tim Ryan's Who Pushed Humpty Dumpty will be performed at Windham (ME) High School, April 9, 10 & 11, 2010.

12/22/09 - 3/10 - Janice L. Lidell's Who Will Sing for Lena will be performed at Russ College in Holly Springs, Mississippi.  Additional May dates TBA.

12/16/09 - Phil Olson's Polyester The Musical is running thru 12/20 @ Actors Forum Theatre, 10655 Magnolia Blvd., North Hollywood, CA  91601 (between Vineland & Cahuenga).  POLYESTER The Musical is the story of The Synchronistics, an over-the-hill, ABBA wannabe group, that re-unites after 20 years to perform at a public access TV Telethon. It’s "Mamma Mia" meets “Spinal Tap.”  Book by Phil Olson (Don't Hug Me, A Don't Hug Me Christmas Carol, A Don't Hug Me County Fair); Music by Wayland Pickard (e-Love, Is This Any Way to Start a Marriage, Liberace); Lyrics by Phil Olson & Wayland Pickard.  Directed by Wayland Pickard & Doug Engalla; Choreography by Michele Bernath; Featuring: Pamela Donnelly, Gwendolyn Druyor, Christopher Fairbanks, Robert Moon and Jim Staahl. 
General Admission: $20; Seniors/Students: $17; Groups: $15.  Reservations: (323) 822-7898 or reserve online at www.PolyesterTheMusical.com.  For more information on Phil, visit him online at www.philolson.net.

11/20/09 - Outsider's Inn Collective will be presenting Leslie Bramm's BIG BALL at PrimaVera Arts Center, 112 5th Ave.N, Seattle (WA) December 4-13, 2009.  See the show poster!

11/20/09 - Check out another side of Fred Rohan Vargas - his songwriter side!  Give him a listen to his "Movin' On" and you're sure to become a fan!

11/12/09 - Nicholas Conti's The Merry Women of Windham, which won an award at Gettysburg College in 11/05 and is now published through Lazy Bee Scripts-UK, was done by the Trinity Drama Group in Dublin, Ireland in October, 2009.  It was entered in the 'The Dundrum One Act Play Festival' and came out 2nd in the Confined Division

10/30/09 - Favorites is the new book by author/playwright Garret Mathews. It is a collection of newspaper columns about Americana, 'the likes of which are fading from print.'

10/15/09 - Leslie Bramm's Islands of Repair will be presented at Hole in the Wall Theater in New Britain (CT) January 22 thru February 20, 2010. Performances run Fridays and Saturdays with two matinees. For more information, visit www.hitw.org

9/30/09 - L.A. Premiere - Freedom, Texas by Michael Halperin – (Q&A with playwright) starring Michael Rachlis, Rachelle Carson, Donald Sage McKay, Jeff LeBeau, Rico E. Anderson.  A comedy about a Jewish kid from Los Angeles in 1953 who ventures to small town Texas with dreams of being a radio star!  Oct. 17 - JCC at Milken Play Series, 22622 Vanowen St., West Hills 91307 - Ticket Info: 818.464.3300; Oct. 18 - Westside JCC Play Series, 5870 Olympic Blvd., Los Angeles 90036 - Ticket Info: 323.938.2531 Ext. 225

6/28/09 - Of Interest? - Submitted by Thomas M. Kelly: NYTimes: Rethinking Gender Bias in Theatre by Patricia Cohen & Princeton Study: Opening the Curtain on Playwright Gender: An Integrated Economic Analysis of Discrimination in American Theater by Emily Glassberg Sands (PDF)

6/19/09 - William Arnold's Night of the Musical Dead runs July 24 through August 22. The performances are Friday and Saturday nights at 8:00PM. There are also two Sunday matinees at 2:00PM (August 2 and 16th). The Hole in the Wall Theater is located at 116 Main Street in New Britain, CT. Visit www.hitw.org for directions and more info.

6/3/09 - Catch George Matry Masselam's Angela and Her Dad as part of Playwrights' Platform's 2009 Festival of New Plays, June 11-20 at the Boston Playwrights' Theatre. 949 Commonwealth Ave., Boston - www.playwrightsplatform.org

5/20/09 - Nicholas Conti's Pageant Play, commissioned by the City of Poughkeepsie (NY), takes place on May 26th at 3 PM in celebration of the Quadricentennial of the Discovery & Exploration of The River named Henry Hudson! There'll be Revolutionary Army Re-Enactors, Coast Guard Ships, 1 or 2 tall ships...a West Point Band, George Washington, wearing his wooden teeth and riding his white Stallion, singers Musicians even politicians. Come down to the River in Poughkeepsie it's free and Bring the Family! They are also dedicating this plot of land with a Plaque an American Revolutionary War Shipyard and on Livingston's Land.

3/17/09 - Judith Pratt New improved website and blog! www.judithpratt.com and http://blot.judithpratt.info for info on working with freelance writers!

1/14/09 - East Lake High School Drama Team in Sammamish (WA) will present David Tucker's Check, Please on January 29 & 30, 2009.

1/8/09 - Rick Mitchell's play The Composition of Herman Melville (abridged), with music by Max Kinberg, will be part of the Metropolitan Playhouse's Melvillapalooza, running January 12 thru 25 at 220 E. 4th Street in NYC. For mroe information, visit www.metropolitanplayhouse.org/melvillapalooza.htm

12/12/08 - Robert Ahola happily announces the second edition of his fantasy novel,  I Dragon has been fully released by Great Concept Books.  You can order it at Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com, and wherever fine books are sold.  You can also order it directly from the publisher by clicking on I, Dragon

10/27/08 - Robert Ahola happily announces the New Second Edition of The Return of the Hummingbird Wizard, recently released by Great Concept Books and available at www.BarnesandNoble.com, www.Amazon.com or wherever fine books are sold.  You may also order it directly from the publisher.

10/27/08 - DramaWest presents a free staged reading of a new short play, NEW BUSINESS by Felix Racelis, Saturday, November 1, 2008, 2pm @ Edendale Library, 2011 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles 90026.  Two members of a group in decline discuss momentous new business. Brandon Harrison directs Randy Roberts and Jace Kent.  Also on the bill are short plays by Diane Grant, Barbara Krupa, Kuang Lee, Julio Martinez and John Lane.

10/14/08 - Bishop Amat Theatre Arts presents I Think You Think I Love You and Other Plays, including Kelly Younger's Forgive Me, Father, 10/25-11/2 @ the Performing Arts Building, 14301 Fairgrove Ave., La Puente, CA

9/24/08 - Felix Racelis' Uncommon Threads, which won Fire Rose Productions' First Annual Ten-Minute Play Contest, will be performed Saturday, September 27, 7:30 door/8:00 performance @ Barnsdall Gallery Theatre, 4800 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood.  Bill White directs a cast that features Shirley Jackson and Alma Collins.  Wary of a snobbish museum staffer's motives, an African American retiree withdraws her quilt submission until she discovers they have more in common than just their ethnicity.  The evening also features Papa's Boy by Kaz Matamura and short plays by other writers.  Tickets: $22. Evening features a silent auction, sake tasting & more. Proceeds benefit Fire Rose Productions' Youth Ensemble Outreach Programs. Info: 1.877.620.ROSE x707, www.ItsMySeat.com

9/15/08 - Felix Racelis' New Business, is part of A STAGE ODYSSEY at FirstStage, on a bill with short plays by Jennifer K. Hugus, Dan Davis, Tom Misuraca, Roger Brookfield and Michael Sadler. In NEW BUSINESS, two long-standing members of an organization in decline discuss some serious "new business." Performances are Thursday, Sept. 18; Thursday, Sept. 25; Monday, Sept. 29 and Tuesday, Sept. 30, all at 8pm. Location: 6817 Franklin Ave. (at Highland), Hollywood (CA). Tickets: $10. Info and reservations: (323) 850-6271.

8/23/08 - SummerStage (Delafield, WI) presents Three Irish One-Act Play Readings including Kelly Younger's Forgive Me, Father

8/22/08 - Tim Ryan's Who Pushed Humpty Dumpty will be performed 9/24 & 25, 2008 in New Plymouth, Taranaki, New Zealand.

7/25/08 - The Boys of Winter, antiwar play written by Barry Brodsky, Dean B. Kaner, & Eric Small; Directed by Bridget Kathleen O’Leary. September 5-21; performances run Fri.*-Sat. at 8 pm, Sun. at 2 pm and 8 pm. [*September 5th benefit performance for Veterans For Peace and Iraq Veterans Against The War.] At the Boston Playwrights’ Theatre, 949 Commonwealth Ave., Boston. Convenient to the Green Line (B train) [detailed directions at www.bu.edu/bpt/directions/index.html]; wheelchair accessible. Tickets: $20, $10 for students/seniors/veterans/first responders; group rates available. Box Office opens one hour before each show (cash or credit cards only). For advance tickets, log onto www.ovationtix.com/trs/cal/2692 or call 866-811-4111 (toll free). For general information, log onto www.boysofwinterplay.com.

7/24/08 - The Ridgefield Theater Barn Presents a Staged Reading of Jim Gordon's AND THE MEEKS SHALL INHERIT. Directed by Lester Colodny with Kim Lowden, Tracy James, Mike Boland, Linda Denholtz, Kevin Smith & Maureen Cummings - Tuesday, July 29th at 7:30 P.M.  Admission: Donations Appreciated; Light refreshments served.  Ridgefield Theater Barn, 37 Halpin Lane, Ridgefield, CT.  (203) 431-9850; www.Theaterbarn.org

6/5/08 - The Play's The Thing: It's words, words, words for busy local playwright by Ronald B. Hellman
Astoria Times: Thursday, June 5, 2008 2:22 PM EDT
In the beginning was the word, and Fred Rohan Vargas has lots of them. Chatting at my office, overlooking the LIRR Douglaston station, it was hard to tell who was doing the interviewing. But since it's my column, we decided it should be me, especially since Fred, now age 59, has done so many things that most people never get to do. "I'm just starting the second act of my life," he proclaims. If you go to Fred's Web site, www.RohanVargas.com,  it says that he's a playwright, artist and composer, but that's just scratching the surface.  Read full article

4/30/08 - JAC Publishing's own JulieAnn Charest is directing Michael Healey's "The Drawer Boy."  The production runs May 1 thru 17, 2008 at Beatrice Herford's Vokes Theater, on Route 20 in Wayland, MA.  Visit www.vokeplayers.org for information.

4/29/08 - "House of Sticks," a short play by JAC Playwright Felix Racelis (and a finalist in Fire Rose Productions' Ten-Minute Play Contest) is part of OFF THE WALL, an evening of short plays presented by FirstStage and the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce.  In the play, a young homeless shelter director escorts a major donor on a tour to seal the deal on a major gift, until a homeless client throws a wrench into her plans. Felix Racelis directs a cast that includes Camille Ameen, Arnie Weiss and Jennifer Hugus.  Wed. & Fri., April 30, May 2, May 7 and May 9, 2008 all at 8pm. Tickets: $10. Info & Reservations: (323) 850-6271.

3/21/08 -

csweekly Remembering Malvin Wald

Malvin Wald (1917-2008): A Writer First, and Above All Else By Erik Bauer

"The roads to becoming a creative artist. Music. Poetry. Painting. Photography. Drama. Film. An artist's life never ends with his death. He lives on through his work. Think about that, my young friend. Seriously." - Photographer Alfred Stieglitz, 1934 (as told to a 17-year-old Malvin Wald)

On Thursday, March 6, Malvin Wald died in his sleep and Creative Screenwriting lost one of its first and most important collaborators.

I first spoke to Malvin in 1994, right after the first issue of Creative Screenwriting had been published. I had reached out to film faculty across the country and Malvin called me, enthusiastic about my new journal. He wanted to help any way he could. I added him to Creative Screenwriting's original editorial board, and we created a new section in the journal, The Screenwriting Life, to accommodate the many amazing stories he had about his career in screenwriting. It is that life which I celebrate here.

Malvin Wald grew up in the working class Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn and entered Brooklyn College at the age of 15. He wrote a weekly humor column and graduated cum laude in psychology and education. Later, he would add graduate studies in drama and a law degree.

In 1938, he followed brother, Jerry Wald, to Hollywood. Jerry was a prolific producer (An Affair to Remember) and the primary inspiration for Budd Schulberg's book, What Makes Sammy Run? Malvin wrote an original script called Benefit of Mankind, based on his experience as a "sometime student of undergraduate law courses" and his two years working in the Brooklyn Post Office. He got the script into the hands of agent Arthur Landau, once famous as the agent for Jean Harlow and Marie Dressler. "But when those two great stars died, Landau fell on bad times and was willing to accept anybody as a client, even unknowns like me," Malvin wrote.

Landau sold the screenplay to Warner Bros. for actor John Garfield. Signed to a Warner Bros. writing contract for $250/week as part of that deal, Malvin wrote a treatment for The Shadow, but Jack Warner told his producer, Brian Foy, "Never will Warner Bros. do a comic book. We do the great pictures. We will go out of business." I guess times have changed a little.

Being on the Warner lot had other advantages for Malvin. He met Jack and Harry Warner, and was invited by John Huston to dine at the legendary Warner Bros. writer's table. There he was introduced to Humphrey Bogart, Julius and Philip Epstein, Errol Flynn, and veteran writer, George Bricker, who told him, "If you don't make it big by time you are 40, you will be considered a washed-up hack." Maybe times haven't changed so much.

After his seven-month contract ran out, Malvin was unemployed. He sold a story to Fox studio head Darryl Zanuck, Ten Gentlemen from West Point, which he had researched in the history room of a local public library. The screenplay for the film was written by Richard Maibaum (From Russia With Love, Goldfinger) and George Seaton, with an uncredited $1,000/day polish by legendary screenwriter Ben Hecht (Wuthering Heights).

In April 1942, while working on an assignment at Columbia Pictures, Malvin was drafted. He entered the Army Air Corps, serving in the First Motion Picture Unit. He wrote more than 30 instructional films there, working with Ronald Reagan, William Holden, and other notable actors. Former Editor-In-Chief Den Shewman and I took Malvin to lunch about six months ago, and Malvin told us about his experiences working in the unit. One of the films he wrote, Ditch and Live, was very well regarded by the Air Force, and his vivid recollection of the story inspired me to begin a horror treatment on a related concept (a B-29 bomber crashing in the Artic). Such was the power of his enthusiasm.

After the war, Malvin was unemployed and he took up play and short story writing. His one act play, Talk in Darkness, was popular, with a young Sidney Poitier and Harry Belafonte appearing in it in Harlem. He credited that success with earning him the opportunity to write The Naked City.

In 1946 Malvin met Universal-International Producer Mark Hellinger and sold him on the idea of researching the NYPD homicide case files for a new kind of police story. Malvin wrote, "My concept was that the police department, with its fingerprint experts, crime scene photographers, autopsy physicians, solved murders, not Sam Spade type private eyes working alone.

"When I returned to Hollywood a month later with a notebook full of story ideas, Hellinger asked me eagerly, 'Do you have a good story?' 'I don't know,' I answered. 'There are eight million stories in the Naked City.' Hellinger replied, 'Forget about the eight million, just give me one good one.'"

Malvin worked for six months on the screenplay, and when it was finished, "Hellinger called me in and said he couldn't do it. It was too original. I had written a script where actual locations in New York were to be used instead of Hollywood studio sets. Hellinger said that would be too difficult to produce and was shelving the project. I begged him to get a second opinion, and he reluctantly gave the script to director Jules Dassin, who had just finished making a picture called Brute Force for him. Hellinger called me a few days later to say that Dassin loved the idea and told Hellinger that they would make film history with it," Malvin related.

The gritty, black-and-white film noir did make history, inaugurating the police procedural genre and popularizing the method of shooting scenes on-location. Because of some intrigues by the producer Hellinger, Malvin would share credit on The Naked City with Albert Maltz, and their screenplay would receive nominations for the Writers Guild screenplay award and the Academy Award for best story in 1949.

In 1948 Malvin teamed up with Washington columnist Drew Pearson to write an inside story about presidential politics called The Washington Story. This was one of two screenplays he would write for legendary Columbia studio head Harry Cohn. In the course of his research, Malvin sneaked into a Harry Truman press conference at the White House and was present at a confrontational congressional investigation between Alger Hiss and Richard Nixon.

The final screenplay was a hard-hitting exposé of corruption on the highest level in Washington. Cohn said he thought it was a great script, as good as Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, but he couldn't produce it. Why? Malvin remembers Cohn saying, "After the war, Jack Warner and I visited Germany as guests of the U.S. Army, and I discovered that Hitler had used Mr. Smith Goes to Washington as anti-American propaganda, claiming that the character of the crooked senator played by Claude Rains was typical of all U.S. politicians." Cohn screamed that he was ashamed of having made the film and would never again produce anything critical of our government.

In 1952 Malvin was hired to write and help produce a TV series called The Tales of Hans Christian Andersen. During the course of this production, he gave John Neville his first movie job and encountered Peter Ustinov and Orson Welles. Welles told Malvin that he was interested in narrating the tales, but first he would need $75,000 for expenses -- actually money he needed to finish his film version of Othello. After Malvin's attorney confronted him on this, Welles responded, "Look at me, Mr. Wald, I'm 37 years old, fast approaching middle age. No longer the boy wonder. I have lost years and years of my life fighting for the sacred right to do things my own way and mostly fighting in vain. The tycoons think I'm crazy for trying to subsidize my own films. But I will never surrender. Better to live one day as a lion than your whole life as a sheep."

In 1959 Malvin was hired to write a screenplay based on the life of Fidel Castro. The deal to make the movie was struck between Castro and oil magnate Frank B. Waters at the Shamrock Motel in Houston, TX. Castro had approval over the writer for the film, and laid down the following conditions: "1) No goddamn gringo. He must speak Spanish perfectly. I don't want to be insulted by having a person who can't speak my language. 2) No Hollywood creep. The writer had to have an academic background. And 3) The writer had to have a recent success." Malvin had five years of Spanish and had just become adjunct faculty at the University of Southern California. Throw in Malvin's recent success with Al Capone, and he was hired.

Interviewing Castro in June 1959 in Havana, Malvin asked if the Russian Revolution had been an inspiration for him. Castro answered, "No, it was the American Revolution. Why has Hollywood never made an important film about the American Revolution? Are they ashamed of it?" When he returned to the United States, Malvin was interviewed by the CIA and threatened by a pro-Castro group not to publish the information he had received in Cuba. The film was never produced.

Continuing his film writing, Malvin adapted James Warwick's play, Blind Alley, into the film noir The Dark Past, and co-wrote, with Collier Young and Ida Lupino, the story for Lupino's Outrage, before moving mostly into television. During the '50s he wrote for anthology series including Lux Video Theatre, Fireside Theatre, Goodyear Television Playhouse, The Alcoa Hour, Playhouse 90, and The George Sanders Mystery Theater. He also wrote episodes for Cavalcade of America, Climax, Brave Eagle, The Silent Service, Have Gun -- Will Travel, Shirley Temple's Storybook, Peter Gunn, Combat!, The Great Adventure, and Perry Mason. Later, Malvin wrote for The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, Daktari, and The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams.

Continuing his interest in documentary writing, Malvin worked with Mike Wallace of 60 Minutes fame on a Marilyn Monroe documentary shortly after her death in 1962, and was assigned to work with an aging Walter Winchel on a series about his life.

He was a writer with an insatiable desire for research, ferreting out new stories, exploring new ideas and innovative ways to tell a story. A long list of credits for largely forgotten TV shows and movies isn't nearly as impressive as the long bookshelf in his Sherman Oaks, CA home, filled with his produced screenplays bound in leather. From his screenplay Homicide (later retitled The Naked City) to his work as a story editor on Daktari, Malvin was proud of each of his screenplays. He was a man who worked.

Reflecting on his life, Malvin wrote, "One of the wonderful by-products of being a Hollywood writer is that occasionally you get to meet real writers -- world-famous authors and playwrights. In my long career I had brief encounters with Dorothy Parker, Jack Kerouac, Upton Sinclair, James Hilton, John Hersey, James Cain, Henry Miller, and Clifford Odets, but the most memorable experiences were with two Nobel Prize Winners -- William Faulkner and John Steinbeck."

Malvin Wald was a real writer -- one of the finest and most prolific screenwriters in Hollywood history. But he was also my friend, mentor, and the nicest, most giving person I have had the privilege of meeting in Hollywood. He is gone now, but the stories he created and the lives he shaped live on.

Erik Bauer was the founding publisher and editor of Creative Screenwriting. He is currently developing feature screenplays for production and can be reached at erik@erikbauer.com.

1/8/08 - There are several chances to catch Felix Racelis' Tel Aviv Take-Off, a hilarious apocryphal romp. A Southern matron visits her son who’s studying in Tel Aviv, and makes his school an offer that’s hard to refuse.  But did we say she’s got an agenda? FirstStage’s 2008 Stage Odyssey - Friday and Saturday, January 11, 12, 18 and 19, 2008. all at 8pm @ Hollywood United Methodist Church, 6817 Franklin Ave (at Highland).  Directed by Peggy Chane, with Elizabeth Farley and Bryna Weiss.  Also on the bill: plays by Michael Sadler, Herman Poppe, Keith Neilson, Thomas J. Misuraca and Jennifer Kristin Hugus.  $10, or donate what you can.  Reservations and info:  (323) 850-6271 or FirstStageLA@aol.com -- or -- @ DramaWest, Saturday, January 12, 2008, Edendale Library, 2011 W. Sunset (at Alvarado), Los Angeles, CA 90026. Directed by and starring Helen Duffy, with Marcie Lynn Ross. Free. Info:  dramawest@cox.net

10/17/07 - DramaWest Productions presents a free staged reading of Felix Racelis' "Bride of Godzilla" on Saturday, October 20, 2007 2pm @ Edendale Library, 2011 W. Sunset Blvd. (at Alvarado), Los Angeles.  A young couple who are part of a studio diversity writing program have one last chance to pitch a project to an impatient producer.  It's a matter of life or debt. Directed by Jacque Lynn Colton, with Hettie Lynn Hurtes, Brian Westerey, Cathy Chang and Tony Rayner.  The afternoon features other original works by L.A. writers.  Info: dramawest@cox.net or felixnash@sbcglobal.net.  Six of Felix's short plays are available at JAC Publishing & Promotions.

9/19/07 - JAC Playwright Garret Mathews Releases New Book - Defending My Bunk Against All Comers, Sir

8/31/07 - JAC Playwright Mark Lambeck's "Lucky Day," which won the Audience Choice Award in a one-act festival at the Eastbound Theatre in Milford in July will be going up at The Producer's Club (44th St. at 8th Avenue) in an equity festival in NYC being produced by Emerging Artists Theatre Company from October 18 through November 4th, 2007.

8/2/07 - JAC Playwright Robert Eiland Featured in the Harvard Post

7/12/07 - LATV Fellowship Diversity Program Accepts 4 CAPE Members: JAC Playwright Lucy Wang Included: CAPE proudly congratulates writers Leo Chu, Eric Garcia, Young Il Kim and Lucy Wang who have been accepted into the prestigious LATV Fellowship Diversity Program.  "Thanks to CAPE, I've been accepted into the LATV Fellowship Diversity Program where Carole Kirschner will be my mentor and I will be able to network with some of today's finest TV professionals," said Lucy Wang.  Chu sits on CAPE's Board of Directors, and executive produces and writes Spike TV's "Afro Samurai" starring Samuel L. Jackson. With his writing partner Eric Garcia, who has penned Disney's "Recess" and "Lloyd in Space," he is currently writing a feature for Sony Pictures Animation. Young Il Kim was the 2006 CAPE Foundation New Writers Award Screenwriting winner for his feature script, "Hyung's Overture." Wang was the 2006 CAPE Foundation New Writers Award Television winner.  CAPE is thrilled to continue to foster the development of these talented writers, and others like them, to advance diversity in entertainment.

Playwright Opportunities

Hudson Writer’s Group
seeks members - Beginning and experienced writers are invited to share their work and give feedback to others at the new Hudson Writer’s Group. The group will meet the first Monday of each month from 6:30-8:45 at the Rodgers Memorial Library, 194 Derry Road, Hudson, NH. Call (603) 886-6030 x4522 for more information.

Interesting Links

The Alliance of Los Angeles Playwrights/ALAP)	The Playwrights Center Minneapolis, MN	The Northwest Playwrights Alliance
The Saints and Sinners Literary Festival New Orleans, LA	PlanPenn: New Works Development Philadelphia, PA

__________________________________

Perhaps of Interest?

New from Limelight Editions: Writing the 10-Minute Play by Glenn Alterman Written for the beginning or seasoned playwright, as well as for actors (or anyone) wishing to attempt their first ten-minute play. Every aspect of writing a ten-minute play is covered, from perking with an idea, to starting the play, to developing it, to effective rewriting, to completing it, even to how to get the most out of readings of your play once you've finished it. Writing the 10-Minute Play also reveals the best ways to market your play and includes an extensive listing of ten-minute play contests. The guide contains many in-depth interviews with international playwrights who have had substantial success with their ten-minute plays, as well as publishers of ten-minute plays and producers of ten-minute play festivals. Included as well are several award-winning ten-minute plays, followed by a discussion by the respective playwrights on how they went about creating their play, from start to finish. The final chapter offers tips and suggestions from artistic directors of ten-minute play festivals and from well-known playwrights whose ten-minute plays have received awards and publishing deals. ($19.99; ISBN: 9781557838483) www.halleonardbooks.com