And now... the Screenplay

l-r: Robin Gilbert, Taylor Gordon, Nathan Kosla, Rebecca Whittington Ross, and Christian Serrano in "Arnie's Ballet" from FUNDING THE ARTS.

I guess it did pay off to go back to the screenplay of FUNDING THE ARTS last Spring and rewrite it as an exercise before I tackled the stage play, because it's now one of 25 Semi-Finalists in the Free Screenplay Competition -- out of a field of 3264 entries. (They'll announce the winner on February 15th.) But I'm amazed at how different the two works are turning out to be due to the differences in the two forms -- stage and film. While the cast of the screenplay is growing larger all the time, the play's cast has shrunk considerably. Scenes that were cut entirely in the play (i.e. the cocktail party) remain in the film (which, of course, features more gun fights, car chases, explosions, and special effects).  While the play is becoming more and more dance-oriented, the film does not currently use dance as much (although it certainly could, and I'd love to see much more of the screenplay realized in animation -- animation that is way beyond what can be done with one little computer here.  So Disney and Pixar, if you're out there looking for projects... please give me a call!) -- Felice Lesser