Shameless Plug Saturday

We announce our competition judges, Write Loud is approaching...and something big that we can't announce yet

I know you know this already, but…

…there are not a lot of veteran playwrights. And you know that we’re trying to encourage more.

Our submissions have been outstanding. Truly an impressive group of writers. Whittling the group down to the top ten was not easy. But it’s important to note - some writers might start a bit further down the pipeline than others. Some may have been writing longer than others. Some may have a better grasp on dialogue or structure. And that's to be expected. But we're trying to develop ALL of our finalists (not even just the top ten, but that's a different post). Feedback is crucial for a writer’s development. So that meant we didn't just go with anybody to judge our veteran playwrights. We looked for judges with a wide range of showbiz experience and with a wide range of writing styles. We looked for judges that are articulate, who can deliver feedback that will be specific and understood. We looked for judges that have experience developing talent and polishing a quality end product. In short, we looked for judges that would be good for our finalists. And we couldn't be happier that each of our finalists will receive significant notes and feedback on their submissions from judges who know what quality work looks like.

So who are these judges?

Glad you asked.

Rob Long received Emmy and Golden Globe nominations in 1992 and 1993 as executive producer for the long-running television program Cheers. He also created the television show George and Leo, among others. In addition to his television work, Rob Long is a contributing editor for National Review, as well as a contributor to TIME, Newsweek International, The Wall Street Journal, and the Los Angeles Times. He hosts the syndicated weekly radio commentary Martini Shot and is the co-founder of the Ricochet podcast network. Rob received an award from the Writers Guild of America, and is on the board of directors of The American Cinema Foundation, a non-profit arts organization created to nurture and reward television and feature-film projects. His published works include Conversations with My Agent and Set Up, Joke, Set Up, Joke.

Bob Balaban created, produced and starred in the Academy Award-winning movie Gosford Park, produced and directed the HBO movie Bernard and Doris, starring Susan Sarandon and Ralph Fiennes, which was nominated for ten Emmys, three Golden Globes, and two SAG awards. He produced and directed the award winning hit Off-Broadway play, The Exonerated. He has directed over thirty television episodes, both hour and half-hour, as well as four pilots and a number of television commercials. As an actor, he has appeared in nearly a hundred movies, most recently The Monuments Men, starring George Clooney, and Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel. He has also appeared on Broadway in Edward Albee’s A Delicate Balance.

Jonathan Leaf is a playwright, screenwriter, author and journalist based out of New York City. He is the writer of the off-Broadway play The Caterers, which was nominated for Best Full-Length Original Script of 2005-2006 in the Innovative Theater Awards. Leaf's The Germans In Paris was the highest rated show in New York according to audience surveys on the Theatermania website. Leaf has written both about the arts and culture for such publications as The Weekly Standard, The New York Sun, The New Yorker, The New York Post, The New York Daily News, The American and National Review. Leaf has also been a contributor and editor at the Web journal New Partisan, and he has written for The New York Press, where he served as the Arts editor. Leaf’s recent dramatic play “Pushkin,” premiered at New York's Sheen Center in the summer of 2018. The Wall Street Journal's Terry Teachout called it 'one of the best new plays to open in New York in recent memory.’ The National Association of Scholars President Peter Wood, in a review, wrote that it was 'an extraordinary achievement...Leaf has created a work that will stand the test of time.’ Teachout subsequently named the play one of his four best new plays of 2018.

Jeremy Kareken co-wrote the Broadway hit The Lifespan of a Fact, starring Daniel Radcliffe, Cherry Jones, and Bobby Cannavale which received the 2019 John Gassner Award for New Plays from the Outer Critics Circle. He graduated from the University of Chicago and the Actors Studio Drama School. For almost 20 years he worked for Inside the Actors Studio, as the researcher, the Associate Producer and Producer. He has won the EST Next Step Fellowship, the Walter Dakin Fellowship at the Sewanee Writers Conference, the Hamptons Film Festival's screenwriting conference, the Playwrights Center/Guthrie Theater's Two-Headed challenge, and the 25th Annual Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Awards.

Christian Camargo is well known for his pivotal roles in such films as The Hurt Locker, Twilight and National Treasure: Book of Secrets as well TV shows such as Dexter, Penny Dreadful and Apple TV's See. Christian wrote and directed Days and Nights, a modern retelling of Anton Chekhov's The Seagull, starring Allison Janney, Mark Rylance, Katie Holmes, William Hurt, Ben Whishaw and Jean Reno. Christian's New York theater work includes title roles in the Public Theater's Kit Marlowe, Theater For A New Audience's Coriolanus, Pericles and Hamlet, for which he received Obie and Drama League nominations. Other theater credits include Steve Martin's Underpants at Classic Stage Company, and playing opposite Dianne Wiest, John Lithgow and Katie Holmes in Arthur Miller's All My Sons on Broadway. Christian was a lead in The Bridge Project's presentation of Shakespeare's As You Like It and The Tempest both directed by Sam Mendes. He portrayed Mercutio in the 2013 Broadway revival of Romeo and Juliet, directed by David Leveaux and starring Orlando Bloom as Romeo and Condola Rashād as Juliet. Christian also portrayed a mid-career Robert Evans in Simon McBurney's stage adaptation of The Kid Stays in the Picture, staged in London's Royal Court Theatre.

There is almost so much else to talk about but, it is just a little too soon for most of it. But not this…

A cracking lineup of veteran writers and poets for this Valentine’s Day on Instagram Live. You will note one name is redacted with a pseudonym. The reveal will happen during the show. Right now, odds (and the rumor mill, for some reason) are lining up that I’m the Savage Gentleman. You’ll have to watch to find out…

And have you listened to the Brad Thomas episode of Savage Wonder yet? Or are you tired of stories about that cliched Delta Force operators-turned-metal guitarist career path?

Talk soon,

Chris