Day 5: Screenwriters Showcase

View all 2008 Screenwriters in the Creative Directory

The UCLA Screenwriters Showcase is a gala evening of staged readings of award-winning screenplays and teleplays.

Honorees Include

Distinguished Achievement in Screenwriting recipient Eric Roth (Forrest Gump, Munich) and 2008 Hunter/Zakin Chair Sacha Gervasi (The Terminal)

Emcee: Mike Werb (The Mask, Face/Off)

Catered reception and open bar to follow.

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Parking at Writers Guild of America Theater (135 South Doheny Dr.)

Free in the structure next to the theater.

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• Featured Screenplay Winner: Christina Eliason
• Featured Screenplay Winner: Jennie Malika Evenson
• Featured Screenplay Winner: Maureen Johnson
• Featured Screenplay Winner: Amanda Parham
• Featured Screenplay Winner: Kit Steinkellner
• TV Pilot Winner: Ryan Tavlin
• TV Pilot Winner: Ben Taylor
• Featured Screenplay Finalist: Barbara Curry
• Featured Screenplay Finalist: Greg Daubenspeck
• Featured Screenplay Finalist: Meg Gifford
• Featured Screenplay Finalist: Julie Mullen
• Featured Screenplay Finalist: Alice O’Kieffe
• Featured Screenplay Finalist: Richard Rapoza
• Featured Screenplay Finalist: Andy Shrader

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Christina Eliason

(805)895-6991
celiason@ucla.edu
http://www.christinae.com

Christina Eliason comes to the UCLA MFA Screenwriting Program from an extensive background in acting (domestic and international professional theater, film, television and commercials) directing (BA Film Directing, UCLA, summa cum laude) and modeling (Elite Modeling Agency). Her career has led her to live and work in Australia, Japan, Italy, Spain, Amsterdam, New York, Los Angeles and other cities and countries. Christina is happy to be back in her native California, because she loves to surf.

WINNER: DIVINE MISTRESS (drama)
Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship Winning Screenplay. The very sexy tale of Madame du Chatelet and her infamous lover, Voltaire. “Gorgeous writing, just about every word seems exactly right and essential, and nothing beyond that…close to genius in how elegantly it explains this complicated but fundamental concept.” -Matt Malkan

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Jennie Malika Evenson

(310) 403-5584
jevenson@ucla.edu
Jennie has a BA, MA, MFA, and PhD. Next stop beauty school.

WINNER: THE WAKING (thriller)
When Annie’s health takes a sudden and shocking downturn, she suspects her doctor of foul play. She investigates — and discovers that her husband both murdered and re-animated her as part of a guarded experiment. As Annie’s body decays, she must figure out how to protect herself and her daughter.

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Maureen Johnson

(310) 475-4049
maureenjohnson@verizon.net

Maureen Johnson is in her second year of the MFA screenwriting program. She was one of last year’s UCLA Showcase Winners, with a script titled The Boy From Settignano, presently titled Michelangelo and Davide. She loves writing scripts that positively portray gay characters. For three years running she’s been a finalist, honorable mention and second-place winner of the One-In-Ten Screenplay Contest, the world’s largest gay and lesbian screenwriting competition. She also is interested in writing for television. A spec script of Two and a Half Men was selected as among the top 5% of entries to the 2007 Warner Bros. Workshop.

WINNER: LIFE’S A DRAG . . . (comedy)
Developed as both a feature and a half-hour comedy pilot, Life’s A Drag mixes the worlds of an uptight single mom, living in Pasadena, with the gang at Jimmy’s Cabaret, a drag club featuring Annie Spandex and the WeHoRythmics.

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Amanda Parham

(925) 639-1700
aparham@ucla.edu

Amanda Parham is a second year MFA screenwriting candidate from Walnut Creek, California. The daughter of a chemical engineer and a banker, Amanda made the only logical career move — she became a screenwriter. When Amanda is not writing, she is busy pursuing her secondary goal of reaching all seven continents before she hits thirty. Now if only she could find a way to recharge her laptop while in the Serengeti.

WINNER: GALAPAGOS (animated)
After being abandoned by his family, Rico, a young blue-footed booby, tries to befriend a giant tortoise named Noe as they struggle to save each other from extinction at the hands of vicious pirates who have invaded their islands.

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Kit Steinkellner

(805) 451-6367
kitbruin@ucla.edu
http://kitsteinkellner.blogspot.com

Kit Steinkellner is a first year MFA Screenwriter.As a playwright, her work has been produced nationally, credits include Off Broadway at Playwrights Horizons, the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C, the Blank Theater Company and Powerhouse Theater in Los Angeles, and UCLA’s Graduate Theater Department. Recent awards include 2007 Tim Robbins Award for Playwriting, Kennedy Center’s 2008 National Student Playwriting Award, and a 2008 Sundance Theater Lab Playwriting Fellowship This fall, Los Angeles Theater Ensemble will produce a festival of Steinkellner’s plays. Steinkellner also co-created the web series “Odyssey Years”, www.odyssey-years.com.

WINNER: THE GREAT FITZGERALDS (biopic)
The dazzling, wildly passionate, and ultimately tragic love story of famed American writer F.Scott Fitzgerald and his wife, charismatic, troubled Zelda, set against the sweeping background of the Roaring Twenties into the Great Depression.

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Ryan Tavlin

(917) 853-5418
rytav@yahoo.com

Ryan was born in New York, raised all over, and really likes diet peach Snapple. Seriously. Get me one? Credits include— STAGE: “Somewhere, There’s Still Good News” (produced, Warehouse Rep. – St. Louis), “Treaty of Long Island City” (produced, The Kraine Theatre – NYC), “Fool’s Parade,” and “Best of Times” (works-in-progress) FEATURES: “Counting Backwards” (produced feature, Montague Films), “Steinbeck’s Son,” “After the Fall,” “Bye, Beautiful.” TV: “The Trust,” “Ladies of Lambry,” “uNderdogs,” and “The Office: High Holy Days.”

WINNER: LADIES OF LAMBRY (TV Pilot)
Three mafia wives are coerced by the feds into testifying against their husbands with the promise of a “fresh start.” But a fresh start that includes PTA meetings and Chuck E. Cheese-a-thons makes being “offed” by the mob worth a second thought. Away from everything they know, kids in tow, and no real skills of an honest nature, all they can do is what they’ve always done best…..survive.

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Ben Taylor

(310) 266-6955
bentaylor@ucla.edu

Ben Taylor is a first year MFA screenwriting student and a professional program graduate. Prior to entering graduate school Ben worked as an Editor at the Hollywood Creative Directory, as a production assistant on a Fox Searchlight short and Animal Planet’s Pet Star, and in assistant positions at American Zoetrope and Red Hour Productions. In addition to scripting two television pilots and three screenplays Ben was a popular humor columnist, penning columns on sex and pop culture respectively for the alternative newsweekly, Nashville Scene. Ben earned his Bachelor of Arts in English at the University of Tennessee.

WINNER: PCU: PETTY CRIMES UNIT (sitcom)
In the LAPD’s Petty Crimes Unit four underachieving rookies take on every case too small, too trivial, too unglamorous for real detectives, saving the city one small affront to society at a time.

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BARBARA CURRY

bacurry@mac.com
(818) 324-6703
Barbara Curry is a second year MFA screenwriting student. She holds a JD from Northwestern University School of Law and worked as an Assistant United States Attorney in Los Angeles for nearly ten years in the Major Violent Crimes Division. Since turning her efforts to screenwriting five years ago, she has won several awards including the Diane Thomas Screenwriting Award and last year’s UCLA Screenwriting Showcase.

Finalist: THE DATING GAME (romantic comedy) A female CEO, who questions whether men are interested in her for her money, lies on an internet dating application that she is merely a secretary. Meanwhile, a male nurse, who believes most women are attracted to power, success and money, lies on his application that he is a doctor. The two are matched and are instantly attracted to each other.

TALK OF THE TOWN (romantic comedy) A cut-throat tabloid reporter goes undercover as a nanny for the children of America’s most popular actor, in order to get the scoop on his impending marriage. But when she ends up falling in love with the actor and his two needy, motherless children, she must decide between going public with her story or protecting the family she has grown to love.

WICKEDPEDIA (thriller) A struggling young actress discovers anonymously written articles about herself on Wikipedia. At first, the articles are flattering and predict her rise to fame. But when she becomes intoxicated with her newfound celebrity and wealth, the articles turn sinister and begin to predict ominous future events.

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Greg Daubenspeck

(310) 313-2506
screenpoet12@gmail.com

Third year MFA screenwriter Greg Daubenspeck comes from an eclectic background, having lived in Oklahoma, Florida, and California. As an undergraduate, he studied theater and English literature. He holds a master’s degree in writing from Oklahoma City University. Prior to attending UCLA, Greg spent six years teaching literature, writing, and theater courses. His work has received recognition in numerous national and international screenwriting competitions, including Scriptapalooza, Austin, and CineStory, where he was a Finalist (top 8). In 2007, Greg was honored with a Jack Nicholson Screenwriting Award.

Finalist: THE PIPER (fantasy)
Against his mother’s orders, 12-year-old Jack Browning leaves his younger brother Nate at home alone. When he returns and finds the front door shattered and Nate missing, Jack must venture into the underworld to save his brother from the Piper.

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Meg Gifford

(213) 924-0858
meggifford@gmail.com

Meg Gifford is a first year MFA screenwriting student who came to Los Angeles to pursue her dream of writing for the screen after completing a masters degree in organic chemistry. She currently teaches chemistry at two colleges while taking courses in the MFA program. She has written eight feature films and four television specs. One co-written feature is currently being produced by American Trademark pictures.

Finalist: PORCELAIN (black comedy)
Alice Walker has been living what many might consider the American dream in an upscale Minnesota suburb until something happens to turn her world upside down. A Vietnamese exchange student arrives just in time to see Alice unravel as she begins to see the cracks and illusion involved in maintaining what seems like a perfect home life.

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Julie Mullen

(213) 618-1417
julieannmullen@gmail.com

Julie Mullen is a third year MFA screenwriting student who came to screenwriting through writing comedy for herself as an actress. She appeared on King of Queens, MAD TV, and Grounded for Life, as well in many commercials. She studied improvisation with the Upright Citizens Brigade and had a small part on their show. As a UCLA student, she won the George Burns and Gracie Allen Comedy Writing Award, the Dini Ostrov Reel Women in Spirit Award, and the Streisand / Sony Fellowship. She has written several times for Instant Films, a 48-hour film festival, where she has won best writer. She is also an ESL and writing teacher.

Finalist: JUST BARELY MANAGING (TV Pilot)
A young, spoiled Beverly Hills heiress is forced to find a job as an apartment manager in a down and out building in a rough neighborhood.

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Alice O’Kieffe

(323) 252-7113
aokinla@charter.net

Alice O’Kieffe is a third year MFA screenwriting student. She has written five films, a sitcom pilot and two television episodes. In addition to finishing her MFA, Alice teaches English Composition to UCLA undergraduates where she asks her students to watch and write about her favorite films and TV. Prior to UCLA, Alice was a stand-up comic in Los Angeles . These days, when not writing, Alice can be found at local parks with her eighteen-month-old daughter, sand in their shoes, flying down slides.

Finalist: LOUDMOUTH (Comedy)
An extremely introverted teenage girl gets hit on the head and suddenly can’t stop herself from speaking her innermost thoughts out loud.

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Richard Rapoza

(209)815-5583, rickrapoza@gmail.com
Richard Rapoza has a B.A. from UC Berkeley and is a second year MFA screenwriting student.

Finalist: THE HOLE IN THE BRAIN OF PHINEAS GAGE (suspense)
A devoted wife and mother must grapple with the suspicion that her husband may be a different man after surviving a skull skewering injury in an automobile accident.

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Andy Shrader

(310)770-4217, andshr@gmail.com

Andy Shrader has been an elected official representing 55,000 people, an accomplished mountaineer, and has written the celebrity speeches each year since 2000 for the Revlon Run/Walk for Women’s cancers. But what his mother brags about most: he once danced the hustle on an episode of “Ally McBeal.” His epic Antarctic feature screenplay, GLORY HOUNDS, was a finalist for the 2006 Disney Fellowship and won an Honorary Mention in the 2007 UCLA Showcase. His latest, BOTTLED LIGHTNING, is a finalist for the 2008 Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellowship. His romantic comedy, THE END OF MY MISERABLE LIFE, is currently optioned.

Finalist: VAMPS (TV Pilot)
Hour-long comedy: After five hundred years, Dracula’s daughter finally finds her soulmate, but he doesn’t know she’s a vampire, she doesn’t know he’s a slayer, and her best lesbian vampire girlfriend is insanely, murderously jealous.