Matthew Moore is a playwright originally from New England currently living in D.C. His work has appeared at the Boston Theater Marathon, the Toronto Fringe Festival, Durango Arts, Two Oceans Theater, and the Chain Theater.
Sydney Strange has been writing and directing since she was in middle school, her passion for storytelling and film driving her throughout the past decade to make numerous short films, pilots, and more. With a strong focus on how people love and feel, Sydney focuses on trying to tell relatable, emotional driven stories that can represent everyone.
LIGHTS UP. A small, bland waiting room. Used furniture. Old magazines. Bad carpet. Weird paintings. Plastic plants. Muted Muzak. A middle-aged lady, Claire, sits looking a bit shocked and confused. There’s a knock at the door and a young man enters. It’s Steve. He looks like a Jehovah’s Witness with a clipboard, pen and white walkie-talkie clipped to his belt. He’s not a Jehovah’s Witness. STEVE: Hi. I’m Steve. Claire looks at him. Steve reads from his clipboard. STEVE: Claire Gifford. 226 Willow Crest Lane, Hammond, Missouri? CLAIRE: Yeah. Uh—I’m sorry. I was— STEVE:(at the clipboard) It’s okay. You’re dead.…
Peter Sands was first commissioned by the BBC in London for his original screenplay The Spiral. He wrote Undertow and Visions In The Fire and wrote and directed the Academy Awards® qualifying short, Blacktop Afternoon. Peter’s writing credits include SyFy’s The Secret Adventures of Jules Verne, Girl On A Train, The Other Day and most recently the story for Take My Heart which he also produced. It received the Emmy® Nomination for Outstanding Daytime Fiction Program. He is a Member of the Playwright Directors Unit at The Actors Studio, New York. Current Projects: NOSTRADAMUS & THE KING
Bethany Leigh Greenman is an award-winning playwright, screenwriter, dramaturg, and stand-up comedian from New Jersey. She obtained her BFA in Playwriting at Ohio University. A Virginia Hahne scholarship recipient, she produced a reading of her full-length play, TEMPLE, at the Undergraduate Playwrights’ Festival. Since moving to Los Angeles, she has worked as a production assistant for multiple shows, including Abbott Elementary. She has also performed stand-up in multiple cities at various venues, including the Hollywood Improv. Most recently, she won the February 2024 Go Try PlayWrite Contest, presented by Kumu Kahua Theatre and Bamboo Ridge Press, for her monologue Lilies.
Aaron Cullers studied Writing for Film & Television at the Vancouver Film School and co-founded independent film team Pasquinade Films, which produced multiple feature-length and award-winning short films. Aaron’s screenwriting has been produced and screened at the New York International Independent Film Festival, Hondance, and others, while his stage work garnered a Best New Playwright award from the Fitton Center for the Creative Arts. One co-written film production, 7/11: The Hit Musical, had its global premiere listed by SPIN Magazine as a “Best Night Out.” He currently resides in Austin, Texas with his wife, two young children, and two…
By Allen M. Price
EXT: ROCKY POINT PARK – AFTER WORK – NIGHT
In view of the coastline, but a distance away. The unlit amusement park rides hug the night sky.
A SHIP HORN SOUNDS
Ezekiel and Patience and Matthew sit on the rock wall, cartons of clam chowder and clam cakes and beer are next to them. The moon and the stars reflect in the ocean. The ocean waves slap against the rock wall; it’s high tide. A light breeze blows.
Patience takes her sandals off, dips her feet into the water. Ezekiel lights a joint then passes it to Patience. Matthew’s drinking a beer and smoking a cigarette.
None of them has touched their food.
By Kevin Kautzman & Abbie Lucas
INT. RITZ GENEVA LOBBY – DUSK
JENNIFER (F 50), a flustered Texan “of a certain age,” enters a bustling hotel lobby. Her flats SLAP against the checkered floor. She checks in with a passport and gold credit card. Très fabu.
Behind her, a polished but anachronistic flapper type FIGURE (F 30) appears and positions herself at the concierge desk. You know her but you don’t. Jennifer DARTS a glance toward the Figure. A faceless hand SWIPES the gold card.
JUMP CUT TO:
INT. THE SUITE – DUSK
The door SHUTS and Jennifer faces Lake Geneva at magic hour: golden, stunning, a heck of a long way from Texas. She reveals and FLICKS a business card: “Thomas Egger Ph.D., Université de Genève.” She places the card onto a surface and takes a toiletry bag from her luggage.
BY: Jaime Parker Stickle Elizabeth Crane is the author of such novels as We Only Know So Much and The History of Great Things. She has a unique, honest, and quirky voice, and you’ll relate to her characters, even those at odds with each other, recognizing them as friends or family. Crane’s writing is addictive in all the best ways. When film director/writer/producer Donald Lardner Ward suggested Crane adapt her novel We Only Know So Much into a screenplay, she did. The result is an award-winning film. The Coachella Review had the great pleasure of sitting down with Elizabeth Crane…
By Billy Minshall
Janet Scott Batchler is the author (with her husband and writing partner, Lee Batchler) of Smoke and Mirrors, Batman Forever, Pompeii, and My Name Is Modesty. Most recently, they have written Jack and Dick, a behind-the-scenes look at the 1960 Kennedy-Nixon election, set to go before the cameras in 2019 with Hyde Park Entertainment. She is a graduate of the prestigious Directing Workshop for Women at the American Film Institute and served on the Board of Directors of the Alliance of Women Directors from 2004 to 2010. Batchler is currently a screenwriting professor at the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts.
The Coachella Review talks with Batchler about writing, teaching, and the film business.