DOUG DEVITA
A member of the Dramatists Guild of America, Doug’s play The Fierce Urgency Of Now was produced at the 2016 Fresh Fruit festival, where it won four Fresh Fruit Awards of Distinction, including Outstanding Play, Outstanding Production for director Dennis Corsi, and two Outstanding Supporting Performance awards. Other work includesThe Phillie Trilogy, which won Scrap Mettle Arts Inaugural Emerging Playwrights Program competition, was chosen to inaugurate Great Griffon’s “Seeking The Queer Voice” reading series in January 2017, and was produced as part of the 2017 Fresh Fruit Festival; The Gruesomely Merry Adventures of NELL DASH, An Irrepressibly Sensible Capitalist With A Vengeance (Winner of two Winterfest Competition ’17 Awards: Best Set Design, and a Best Director nod to Dennis Corsi); and Just A Rumor (co-written with Gary Lyons) which was a semi-finalist at the Eugene O’Neill Playwright’s Conference and has had readings at New York’s Abingdon Theatre Company and London’s Menier Chocolate Factory. His ten-minute play, Checking The Basement for Leaks (the first play in The Phillie Trilogy) has been performed at the Gallery Players Black Box Festival in New York, The Driftwood Players Short Works Festival in Seattle, Ramapo College in New Jersey, and The Warner International Playwrights Festival in Connecticut. He has also collaborated with actress Lane Bradbury (the original Dainty June in Gypsy, starring Ethel Merman) on her one-woman show Lane Bradbury: Let Me Entertain You, Again, which was performed at the Strasberg Institute in Los Angeles, and at Feinstein’s/54 Below in New York.
Doug belongs to both The 9th Floor Playwrights Collaborative and The 36th Street Writers Block (formerly Abingdon Theatre Playwrights Group 1) in Manhattan.
He has also worked as an Art director/Copywriter for such advertising agencies as Grey Global Group, J. Walter Thompson, and N.W. Ayer, and was the marketing director for Abingdon Theatre Company for four years. He is currently an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Advertising Design Department at F.I.T. in New York. Please produce his work so this part of his life can become a (sometimes) pleasant memory.
DORIAN PALUMBO
http://dorianjpalumbo.blogspot.com/
Dorian Palumbo is a graduate of the Tisch School of the Arts’ Dramatic Writing Program, where she studied with Pulitzer Prize-winner Tad Mosel. She is also an alumna of Columbia University Teachers College, (M.A. – teaching writing), and the MBA program at NYU’s Stern School of Business (Entertainment Marketing). Her comedy Carnegie Hill was optioned for Broadway by Tony winning producer John O’Boyle (Radio Golf, Is He Dead, A Catered Affair, LaCage Aux Folles (2010) [Tony Award]) after being produced at Clockwise Theatre, Chicago.
Dorian was a semi-finalist in the Final Draft “Big Break” Screenwriting Competition with her screenplay Just Three Things, a script which was also a Second Rounder at the Austin Film Festival and a Semi-Finalist in Scriptapalooza 2015. Other screenplays written by Dorian which have reached quarter finals in top competitions; Gone, Daddy, Gone (comic drama 2005, Scriptapalooza and AFF), In the Pines (sci-fi thriller, 2006 AFF), and Choosy Mothers, a female ensemble comedy about the Austin Texas Rock Music scene (2011, Scriptapalooza).
Dorian studied acting at the Atlantic Theater Company in New York, which was founded by David Mamet and William H. Macy, and directed a short film, The Mentor starring Terasa Livingstone. She was Associate Producer on the independent feature film Anne B. Real which features performances by Carlos Leon (“Empire”), Mike Starr (“Dumb and Dumber”, “Ed”) and Ernie Hudson (“Oz”). Most recently, Dorian’s supernatural comedy drama “Once, and Again” was a Second Rounder at Austin in 2016; she is represented in New York by attorney Jason Baruch, Partner, Sendroff and Baruch, and in the U.K. by attorney Alan Moss, Partner, Harbottle & Lewis. Dorian has been a member of the Dramatists Guild since 1986
Dorian was a quarter finalist in the 2005 Scriptapalooza screenwriting competition, with a comedy called “Gone, Daddy, Gone”
Her screenplay “Isolation”, a sci-fi thriller, was a quarter finalist in the Austin Film Festival screen writing competition, 2006
Her script “Choosy Mothers”, a female ensemble comedy about the Austin Texas Rock Music scene, was announced as a quarter-finalist in the 2011 Scriptapalooza competition.
PATRICK HICKEY JR.
Patrick Hickey Jr. is the Founder, Editor-in-Chief, Master Jedi and Grand Pooh-bah of ReviewFix.com and is the author of the upcoming book, “The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews with Cult and Classic Video Game Developers,” from leading academic and non-fiction publisher McFarland and Company.
Over the past 12 years has also interviewed some of the biggest names in sports, including David Wright, Martin Brodeur, Negro League Legend Buck O’Neil and MLB Hall of Famers Jim Palmer and Mike Schmidt.
Hickey’s passions also transcend sports. He’s interviewed Tony Award Nominee and musician Adam Pascal, actors Channing Tatum, Paul Walker and Philip Seymour Hoffman, while conducting one on ones with comic book writer and artist David Mack, Voice-actor Dana Snyder, as well as Pro Wrestling Legends Daniel Bryan, Harley Race, The Ultimate Warrior, Bob Backlund. His upcoming book from McFarland and Company delves deep into the video game industry, chock full of interviews with legendary developers.
He has also proven himself as a music journalist, interviewing Guns and Roses Drummer Steven Adler, Pantera’s Rex Brown and Creed’s Mark Tremonti.
Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. He has had his work published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, Bay Currents Newspaper, where he served as the paper’s Sports Editor, the Brooklyn Papers, the Wave of Long Island, Brooklyn Free Press, Blasting News, Tri-Games.net, The Lo-Down, the Brooklyn View, NYSportsday.com, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, BBallCentral.com, PlayLikeAGirlSports.com, NYCityWatch.org, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders.
Hickey is a full-time Lecturer of English and Assistant Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He’s also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports.
Name of Book:
The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews with Cult and Classic Video Game Developers
Links:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/593e943be4b014ae8c69e23d
https://www.amazon.com/Minds-Behind-Games-Interviews-Developers/dp/1476671109
GARY MORGENSTEIN
Gary Morgenstein wrote the critically acclaimed off-Broadway rock musical The Anthem, as well as Mad Mel Saves the World, and his dramatic works range from A Tomato Can’t Grow in the Bronx to Right on Target, Ponzi Man and Saving Stan. Morgenstein’s literary works include the upcoming science fiction-baseball novel A Mound Over Hell, set in 2098 following America’s defeat in World War Three. The first book in The Dark Depths trilogy, A Mound Over Hell will be published by BHC Press in March 2018. His other novels include Jesse’s Girl; Loving Rabbi Thalia Kleinman; Take Me Out to the Ballgame and The Man Who Wanted to Play Center Field for the New York Yankees.
MUSICALS
The Anthem (Book Writer) — inspired by an Ayn Rand novella. The Anthem had a critically acclaimed, limited run Off Broadway. Set 200 years from now following a global ecological disaster, the world has outlawed individuality. However, the young rise up and, fueled by love and dance and absolutely beautiful music, they overthrow the regime in this musical hailed by The New York Times and EW, among others. https://www.gofundme.com/zsdyyp-the-anthem-by-ayn-rand-rock-musical
https://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/30/theater/a-spoofy-spin-on-ayn-rands-anthem.html?mcubz=1
http://ew.com/article/2014/06/02/anthem-ew-review/
Mad Mel Saves the World (Creator/Book Writer) — Thousands of years ago, ancient aliens called the Marradians visited Earth to share their knowledge and make humanity what it is today. Well, we gotta blame someone! Now they’re coming back to destroy us. Journey 16.7 light years to Mad Mel Saves the World, an intergalactic musical adventure blending pop, rock, rap, Vogue and club dancing with a dose of political satire, which had a sold out run at the 2017 Midtown International Theater Festival.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhgvWeP4FLo
http://wormholeriders.net/Drama/
God Loves Most of Us (Book Writer/Creator/In Development) – A musical about political tolerance no matter who you vote for, featuring a wealthy conservative businessman who believes the time has come for Republicans to be able to sing and dance like everyone else.
King David (Book Writer/In Development) – Finally! A musical about the rise and fall of one of history’s most fascinating figures, King David.
DRAMAS
Saving Stan – A three character love story which premiered at the inaugural 2017 Broadway Bound Festival. When wealthy 60-something corporate lawyer Stan Nagel suffers an incapacitating stroke and can’t speak, he asks his oldest friend, Jack Sanders, a failed 60-something writer desperate for money — who can somehow hear Stan’s voice — to help him commit suicide in exchange for Stan’s considerable estate. Patrice Doner, Stan’s 30-something health care worker, becomes suspicious while falling in love with Stan.
https://malinism.com/2017/07/14/meet-gary-morgenstein-saving-stan-broadway-bound-theatre-festival/
A Tomato Can’t Grow in the Bronx –Think Neil Simon with an edge. In the tumultuous 1968, a dysfunctional blue-collar Jewish family languishes under the thumb of a patriarch, who employs emotional tyranny over his fragile middle-aged daughter to keep them in line. Her dreamy-eyed husband dares to assert himself by wanting to leave the Bronx and move to the suburbs. His unlikely ally is his teenage son, who dares challenge his grandfather in an ultimate generational battle of wits and will. Brooke Fields, Larry Pine and Robyn Strasser appeared in a stage reading.
Right on Target — A timely, bipartisan romantic political comedy about an African American conservative – fired for what he claims are political reasons – and his liberal Jewish wife as they navigate sex, love and politics featuring a diverse cast.
Ponzi Man – Inspired by a true story. Before there was Bernie Madoff, there was Reed Slatkin, a Church of Scientology minister who stole a quarter of a billion dollars in what was then the largest Ponzi scheme in American history.
NOVELS
A Mound over Hell (March 2018, BHC Press) – Baseball, a sport now identified with terrorism and treason, begins its final season in 2098 following America’s loss to a radical enemy in World War Three. Revitalized by the miraculous appearance of great players from the past fueling one last hurrah, baseball becomes a pawn between those who want peace and those who want another war.
This first novel in THE DARK DEPTHS trilogy. http://www.bhcpress.com/Books_Morgenstein_A_Mound_Over_Hell.html
Jesse’s Girl – A thriller about a widowed father’s desperate search for his troubled adopted teenage son, who has run away from a wilderness treatment center to find his biological family. Currently in development as a movie by OnFireFilms/Ksenia Solo (“Turn,” “Lost Girl,” “Pet”)
http://luxuryreading.com/jessesgirl/
http://www.garden-of-books.com/2009/10/jesses-girl-by-gary-morgenstein.html
http://fishbookreviews.blogspot.com/2009/10/11109.html
Loving Rabbi Thalia Kleinman – What happens when a hopelessly romantic divorced man falls madly in love with a beautiful woman rabbi — but he’s not yet over his ex-wife? In other words, why are relationships always so difficult? As this poignant love triangle opens, Joss Katz crashes a bat-mitzvah and becomes smitten with the enigmatic Rabbi Thalia Kleinman. Desperate to meet her, Joss contrives a wild excuse about needing spiritual guidance, beginning a roller-coaster relationship.
https://www.simplystacie.net/2010/04/book-review-loving-rabbi-thalia-kleinman-by-gary-morgenstein/
The Man Who Wanted to Play Center Field for the New York Yankees – A baseball “Rocky” about a failed athlete who decides to pursue his unrealized dream and try out for the New York Yankees.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQWqvq_cha8
Take Me Out to the Ballgame – A greedy owner whips up crowds to boost attendance, leading one psychotic fan to turn to violence.
Jay Michaels Global Communications 