playbill vip

A dank office, a bored receptionist, the smell of cheap cigarettes and cheap whiskey.... and a rumpled gumshoe with a rock-fisted name, straight out of the seamy side of 1950's L.A.  And then, a dame in distress, an alluring whiff of sex, and money, and mystery.... pulp fiction, film noir.

A tale right out of the decrepit typewriter and fertile imagination of a screenwriter on his first six-figure contract with a Hollywood studio. As his own characters talk back to him in his head, he will do battle with a meddlesome mogul, a strained marriage, and the glamorous allure of money, fame and fabled Hollywood, with its easy temptations and its backdrop of Hayes Office lists of cinematic no-no's and blacklist witch hunts.  Most of all, he'll wrestle with his own insecurities, fantasies, and failings – and his integrity.  Is the Pen mightier than the almighty Dollar?

A story not set in Stone, but set to a jazzy Cy Coleman score and the whip-smart sensibility that brought you M*A*S*H on TV.

We hope our modest efforts today will help bring all of this to life on the screen.

Joe Phillips

Director