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Writings. Thoughts. Musings.

Month: May 2015

Los Lobos del Malpaís

May 25, 2015 / / 0 Comments

The Wolves of the Badlands

A tale of horror in the Old West

by Kevin Rush

I’ve always loved westerns, ever since I was a small boy playing cowboys and Indians. The Long Ranger was one of my earliest TV heroes. I still love the saga of the frontier, of brave men battling an untamed country, savage enemies and themselves to carve out a life of freedom. The saga of the Old West is a metaphor for our national journey as well as each individual’s inner struggle for integrity in the face of temptation.

The Western is a beautiful entertainment form because it lays bare the human soul and forces us to accept that moral choices must be made. Perhaps because it is so elemental, it is also a flexible form that can be married to others. Witness Westerns as action-adventures, melodramas, histories, revisionist histories, tragedies, comedies and musicals. There are tales of epic quests, desolate isolation, damned perdition and sweet redemption. There are heroes archetypal, reluctant, ethereal and illusory, villains irredeemable and roguish.

This tale, Los Lobos del Malpaís, is a horror story. It features what is probably the favorite monster of my youth. I wrote it originally as a film treatment, because I thought it would make a fun popcorn-muncher. Unfortunately, Roger Corman is no longer with us, and B-movies are now made with A-List stars and $100 million budgets, meaning there are fewer a fewer all the time. Like the Old West itself, Hollywood is vanishing before our eyes. The price of progress I suppose. Fortunately, we’ll always have John Wayne on celluloid. A good thing, too, since there will never be another.

Doubtful Provenance of Haverford College antiquities

May 13, 2015 / / 0 Comments

Where did I get my inspiration to write Doubtful Provenance? Not on the bucolic campus of Haverford College.

But, as it turns out, my alma mater has several antiquities of doubtful provenance due to its close connection to one of the world’s most notorious traffickers in looted artifacts. Here’s an interesting article on fellow HC alum Robert Hecht who had quite a career as a black marketeer. I didn’t know about Mr. Hecht when I wrote Doubtful Provenance, though I was working on it before he passed away in 2012. He could have been quite a resource, but alas, we never met, nor did I know of his reputation. I’ll have to remind myself more often to exploit my alumni network.

News for Doubtful Provenance

May 12, 2015 / / 0 Comments

Monday night (5/11/15) I had the pleasure of talking to a dramaturg who is well-regarded in the Manhattan theatre community. She’d read my play, Doubtful Provenance, not once, but twice, and was trying to get a very busy director to read it. While I can’t go into all the details of our discussion, I will say I was encouraged that she embraced the intelligence of the script, the depth of the characters and the substance of the ideas. About my lead female, she said, “A lot of people try to write that character, but they get her wrong. You got her right.” The character is complex, but as the dramaturg said, “She’s someone who exists in the world,” meaning she’s real and she resonates. When we left off our discussion, we shook hands enthusiastically, and I felt that, finally, the play has the strong advocate it deserves.

I’ll keep reporting on any progress we make bringing Doubtful Provenance to the New York stage.

Producer’s Endorsement of The Lance and the Veil

May 10, 2015 / / 0 Comments

Ready for prime time?

I have the privilege of being on the email list for a producer in Hollywood working to establish a Christian entertainment studio. In his weekly email blast this Saturday, he mentioned The Lance and the Veil in a roundabout way, writing:

Whenever I can free a few moments, I continue to enjoy reading a book written by a friend…. It would make a tremendous multi-episode television special and subsequent streaming and DVD release. With study guides, it could also be of interest to church and Bible study groups, too.

I pray often for his success, because he is a good Christian gentleman with the utmost dedication to serving the Lord through quality, faith-based entertainment. Our work seems to have several possible points of intersection, and it would be my pleasure to work with him sometime in the future. But, if not with him, I’m confident someone in Hollywood will see the merits of Lance and Veil when it’s brought to their attention. That starts with building an audience for the novel, which I work at daily. Your help in that regard is greatly appreciated.

Preview_L_VPurchase_L_V

 

 

Front Stoops in Brooklyn

Stoop Talk Radio

May 9, 2015 / / 0 Comments

a slacker romance

by Kevin Rush

This story is a love letter to a small borough on the Hudson. I first wrote Stoop Talk Radio as a pilot for a sitcom. The pitch (“It’s WKRP in Mom’s basement!”) never made it to the networks. I even wrote lyrics for a theme song. Whatever happened to the TV Theme Song, anyway? (“Flintstones, meet the Flintstones….”)

Enjoy.

 

© 2011 by Kevin Rush, all rights reserved

If you’d like more episodes of Stoop Talk Radio, let us know in the comments below.

Crossing Event Horizon

May 9, 2015 / / 0 Comments

Winner of the Chameleon Theatre Circle 2007 New Play Contest

Crossing Event Horizon is a humorous and heart-warming dramedy about a Catholic high school guidance counselor’s midlife crisis. Frustrated by his inability to get his students to face reality, Thom Gilmer must separate fantasy from reality in his own life when a DVD of a lost Hollywood film mysteriously surfaces, and presents him (the film’s breakout star) with a Faustian bargain.

Synopsis

Thom Gilmer is an over-worked, 45 year-old failed-actor-turned-high school Guidance Counselor. His students love him but won’t take his advice. His Vice Principal is an out-of-control adolescent who leans so heavily on Thom, he prevents him from doing his job. His stodgy-cleric-boss wants Thom to stop rocking the boat. And his wife can’t understand why Thom is so emotionally entangled with his students, but won’t engage with his own kids.

Thom is collaborating with the California State Police to stage a dramatic fantasy re-enactment of a drunk driving car crash to deter the student body from drinking and driving. Since none of his over-the-top ideas have yielded tangible results, the school President (Monsignor), criticizes Thom’s “flair for the dramatic,” and urges him to drop the “bells and whistles.” As Thom pushes forward with his “event” he feels increasing pressure to “produce a hit.”

Amidst this pressure, Thom receives a mysterious DVD, apparently of a major Hollywood film, previously unreleased, in which he co-starred twenty years ago. The star of the film, Lance Ransome, died shortly after shooting. Thom tries to wrap his head around the possibility that despite destroying his burgeoning acting career with cocaine, he had made an impressive debut that got shelved, and this has enormous implication for his future. After the drunk-driving event hits an embarrassing speed-bump, Thom decides to retrace his steps to see if he can have a second chance at the acting career he almost died pursuing.

Availability

Theatre groups wishing to perform Crossing Event Horizon can contact the playwright directly through this website for further information. The play will shortly be released in paperback and e-book formats.

 

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