When I initially finished “Don’t Eat Paper!” in 2023, I began to submit that comedy screenplay to competitions: major, minor and those in-between. I then started to submit my older screenplays to some of these contests simultaneously because I had never submitted to most of them. (Since 2023, I’ve done several re-drafts of paper as the current version is shorter than what I submitted in 2023… ditto, I’ve done polishes on the older scripts too.)
“DON’T EAT PAPER!”
– 2023 Semi-finalist – Final Draft’s Big Break
– 2023 Semi-finalist – Flickers’ Rhode Island International Film Festival
– 2023 Semi-Finalist – Polish International Film Festival
– 2023 – Quarter-Finalist – Wiki World’s Fastest Screenplay Competition
– 2023 – Official Selection – Culver City Film Festival
On March 1, 2024 at the Chinese Theatres in Los Angeles on Hollywood Blvd, the script for “Don’t Eat Paper!” was names Best Fantasy Romance Screenplay at the Golden State Film Festival.
And earlier at the Hollywood Reel Independent Film Festival (held at LA Live), the same screenplay was named Best Screenplay – 3rd Place.
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“I must snare this hare before she becomes rabidly aware.”
In the style of Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and other classical comedies, the play is chock-a-block with word play, alliterations, internal rhymes and couplets, physical buffoonery and mistaken identities. “THE MASTER AND THE MAGICIAN” is a fractured fairy tale for adults.
On the final night of a magician’s life, she seeks to pass on her knowledge to an heir, while at the same time playing a last game of hearts with a puckish fairy spirit in which they use four lovers as pawns.
However, underlying the comedy and farce are serious disquisitions into love, gender, the nature of leadership and especially the metaphor of the artist as magician.
Starring: Gabriella Biziou, Riley Conrad, Will Dixon, Caroline Quigley, Demitra Sealy,
Roy Vongtama and Mari Weiss. Stage directions: Judy Victor
Rehearsal photos:Caroline Quigley, Roy Vongtama and Gabriella Biziou in a scene from the play
Very shocked, surprised and saddened to hear of the sudden passing of Michael Brooks – writer, leftist political commentator and humanist – at age 37. I didn’t watch all of the time, but when I did I was always impressed by his intelligence and knowledge. I particularly liked his interviews with professors like Cornelll West, Harvey Kaye and Adolph Reed, leaders like Lula and other like-minded folks.
I’m surprised how much I’m crying today. I listened to a lot of remembrances today. A common refrain was how many people said how giving he was, how encouraging, how helpful to other people. He didn’t see them as competition but rather as allies. In unity, there is strength. One of the things I learned that he never spoke about when I listened to his show: he grew up very poor, and fought very hard to not just rise up out of it, but that it was something he wanted no one to go through. So, his progressive values, which could sound so intellectual because he was so well-read, came from a deep emotional belief and genuine compassion. I always thought that was true, but to know the history, it just made it more real. He also had a great laugh. (I’ll admit that I didn’t find him as funny as other people did, but I found his sense of humor and joy very enlivening.)
Here’s one of the best things Michael Brooks said, and lived by: “Be ruthless to systems but be kind to people.”
Michael Brooks (1983-2020) got a chance to meet former Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva early this year after advocating his release from prison.
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Synopsis: It is just after World War 2, and Sian and her husband Joe love each other, but each has been changed by their wartime experiences. For Sian, working in an aircraft factory was the beginning of an evolution of consciousness. At first, however, she can only act on her feelings for her tempting next-door neighbor, Katrina, in a filmnoir fantasy where Sian is the detective and Katrina is the femme fatale. Meanwhile Joe struggles with both PTSD and survivor guilt. Sian eventually finds the courage to accept her sexuality and risk everything in real life.
About the Playwright: Julius Galacki is a graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, NYU’s Gallatin School of Interdisciplinary Studies and the Yale School of Drama – Playwriting dept. His monologues have been published by Smith & Kraus. His plays have been read or produced Off Off Broadway in NYC, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, New Jersey, Connecticut, South Carolina and Hawaii.
Starring (in order of appearance): Demitra Sealy, Gabriella Biziou, Adam J. Smith, Marieve Herington, Cutty Cuthbert, Debralee Daco, Annika Marks and Ingrid Walters
My funny, sweet 6 1/2 minute short FIRST NIGHT will have a reprise showing. It stars Molly Kasch and Michael May. Written and Directed by me. Produced by Ashley Hillard. “I’m sorry.”
a reading of my play THE FRISCO FLASH. It will be on Sunday, October 14 at 2 pm at the Second Stage at the Broadwater , 6320 Santa Monica Blvd. (between Lillian Way and Vine) in Hollywood. Free.
