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TV/Film Scripts

KIDS-TV Educational comedy series Ages 6-8 I wrote a few scripts and punched up a few others for this Showtime series based on familiar characters from Weekly Reader magazine, and earned a Humanitas award nomination. Each episode followed the comic activities of a group of kids (anthropomorphized animal puppets) researching, preparing for, and producing a broadcast news segment on a current event. I had previously worked with the puppet masters (Flexitoon Studios) writing scripts for comedy and quiz series that aired on the pioneering ACTV Interactive Network.

 

Fox Kids Club/DJ Kat Show Comedy skits Ages 6-10 I wrote a few hundred live-action comedy bits, sketches, and promos that aired between cartoons during a two-hour weekday-afternoon program block. Although we had almost no budget, we had free reign and a lot of fun emulating and updating old-fashioned host-driven kiddie shows.

 

Guide to New York City Housing Courts Educational film I co-wrote and co-produced this narrative film informing tenants and landlords about procedures they must follow when facing eviction or serving a notice. Originally produced in 1990, this short film can still be viewed -- in English or Spanish -- on monitors in the lobby of Manhattan's Housing Court.

 

Plays - Published

 

What a Vacation! Comedy Grade 5   One of my editors knew I had sketch comedy, sitcom, and playwrighting credits, and gave me this assignment: Write a funny play about a family on vacation. Concocting a comedy about all the little things that can go wrong during a typical family vacation to a cabin by the lake -- and do -- was relatively easy. The hard part was making sure the play served a three-fold purpose: 1) Be read, individually, like a book 2) Be read aloud in class, like a staged reading 3) Be simple enough to produce as a class play

 

Up in Arms History/Courtroom Drama Grade 7   A dramatic recounting of an infamous trial from 1741 in which a gang of rebellion-minded slaves faced charges of conspiracy. Much of the dialogue is culled from eyewitness accounts. Scholastic Search was a history magazine used in junior-high school classrooms.

Plays - Produced

These plays have been produced on stage, or performed in workshops or as staged readings.
Contact me for more information.

 

Journal News feature article about the M&M Production Library Tour from Spring, 2003

The Substitute Tooth Fairy Farce Ages 6+ What would happen if the Tooth Fairy got sick the same day a lonely little girl who doesn't believe in the Tooth Fairy looses a tooth? The Tooth Fairy would dress up an oversized gangster with more hair on his knuckles than his head in a tutu and toe shoes to take her place, of course! The result? A fast-paced farce for the whole family with mistaken identities and parallel plot lines that come together in a door-slamming chase. With a message about the power of imagination to boot! Three sets, seven actors, 80 minutes.

 

The Imaginary Unit The Ascetics battle the Aesthetics in an absurdist-influenced piece of "intellectual vaudeville" about a bureaucrat's inability to damper the creative spirit of a pair of irreverent freethinkers. One set, three actors, 30 minutes.

 

Boys Will Be Boys What tragic event from the distant past compels two middle-aged men to act like little boys around an elderly mother? A comic mystery that's equal parts Edward Albee and Bugs Bunny. One set, three actors, 30 minutes.

 

Wading for Cousteau A precocious preteen ichthyologist (someone who studies fish) invites the Loch Ness Monster to his suburban family barbeque, but is the only one in his short-sighted clan who sees the legendary lake serpent when he actually shows up. A conspicuous consumption comedy with bite. One set, five actors, 60 minutes.

 

Larry and His Old Lady A comedy about the comeuppance of a teenage lothario who gets involved with an older woman. Includes a tongue-in-cheek essay, "On Gastrojudaism: The Uses and Meaning of Food in Larry and His Old Lady," by the fictional Rabbi Ben Ben Ben. Two sets, seven actors, 90 minutes.

 

The Plot Beneath the Plot A comedy set in a cemetery about the machinations of a man vying for his wife's affection. The bizarre plot twists and twisted characters are explored more fully in "Clues to The Plot Beneath the Plot" a "paper" given by mock-professor M.A. Barnesenoble. One set, four actors. 60 minutes.

 

It's a Dog's Life A modern retelling of the J.R.R. Tolkien short story, "The Farmer Giles of Ham." Multiple sets, nine actors, 90 minutes.

 

Featured Script

 

 

Attack of the Googolplex: A Lone Integer Math Adventure Educational Cartoon Ages 8+ Pilot episode for an animated TV series that makes math fun by spoofing science fiction and super hero conventions. (To download a PDF file, click here)

 

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