Screenwriting : Period Piece contest closed - who submitted? by Pat Alexander

Ahhhh I just got an email that it was extended again, but on the website it's now closed for submission. Good luck to those who submitted!

I submitted four scripts this time out, as most of my material would be considered period: "Abe Lincoln: Public Enemy No. 1," a fantasy adventure, "The Normandy Club," a time travel thriller/romance pilot, and "Starring... John Dillinger," an alternate history pilot. The fourth one, and my favorite of the lot, is my coming-of-age romance, "Whiskey Mountain Days," which just won both the Romance & Comedy Award and the Grand Prize in the 2023 WriteMovies Writing Contest.

I submitted my script "Gods of the Forgotten" which is the story of the Korean War, also known as the "Forgotten War" and how the United States averted a nuclear World War III with Russia and China. This script won the Berlin International Screenplay Festival prize for war-themed feature. I want to get it to Steven Spielberg. I think it's right up his alley.

I submitted my script "The Fuhrer" which is a biopic on Adolf Hitler. It shows how a man becomes a monster and takes over a country to spark a world war and a holocaust. This is a story that needs to be told given the world political climate. I haven't really submitted it to contest until now. Wish me luck.

I submitted my script “Kitiara” which got into the finals for the last action/thriller contest at Stage 32. It takes place in 18th century Japan and shows just how brutally dangerous and unknown female samurai were. I picture it being a foreign film ( spoken completely in Japanese with subtitles of course ) as it portrays a female samurai who struggles with her allegiance to the daimyo and the family she was sent to infiltrate. I came up with the idea some years ago and have been developing it ever since. I love the idea of putting interesting characters in difficult situations and seeing how they react. I don’t know who I would want to make this film but my gut tells me to keep it in foreign film territory. I wish everyone good luck in these competitions!

I submitted a romantic thriller, "Cadenza", which has a musical flavour, set in Paris in 1955, but has historic flashbacks to 1705. It actually began life as a stage musical, but I rewrote for feature film, with most of the music dropped. (Talk about kill your darlings...) It features Stradivarius violins, a curse, love interests, etc. A little bit like "Knives Out", but without the cutlery...

This is my ebook/screenplay. My Mom thinks it's really good. Instead of everybody chopp’in and

shoot’in each other up and having a

heap of funerals and hard feelings,

all the Czars and Kings and

Presidents had a meeting and put

their heads together and decided

they would do like ancient Zeus and

Mercury and that bunch and every

four years, have a contest to see

who would have bragging rights

until the next one. I asked Howard

what was they going to do with all

the cannons and rifles and swords

and such and he said they would

just have to knock em into

plowshares and the whole business

was of biblical portions. After he

tole me that, I got kind of solemn

and religious, being the team

mascot and everything, so I

reckoned I would go to church the

next morning but at the last minute

I back slid and went up on deck to

have a smoke.

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/126973

I submitted the pilot episode for my limited series FORBIDDEN: Once Upon a War... the story of a teenage French girl who falls in love with a Nazi Communications Officer during the occupation of Paris during World War 2., based on a true story.

I submitted my TV Pilot NORTHERN VOICE. On the eve of the Klondike Gold Rush in 1896 a demoralized woman and her preacher father arrive in rough and tumble Hope, Alaska. When her angelic singing brings the Lord to the fledgling community, family secrets, vices and past traumas threaten her chance for a new life in the far north.

My entry Is "Kyla's War," a one-hour-format TV series set in just-invaded Poland during the early days of WWII. Kyla's War chronicles the adventures of a 12-year-old girl who leads a double life -- pampered princess by day and unstoppable Resistance fighter by night.

Kyla's motivation is revenge for the assassination of her best friend, but she soon becomes the scourge of the Third Reich which pulls out all the stops to locate the one individual who seems to be a ghost, not knowing they're tracking down a mere child.

The daughter of a respected surgeon, Kyla is very much a frail child whose claim to fame is her uncanny marksmanship and ability to come and go entirely unnoticed. But clearly, if Kyla were ever caught, it would likely mean death for both her and her family.

As the price on her head grows almost daily, Kyla battles not only the Nazi invaders but also the "real" Resistance who are convinced her antics will get all of them killed.

Kyla's War is meant to carry us through the entirety of WWII with a nearly endless source of stories, characters, and problems as we watch its main character grow from impetuous child to thoughtful young woman.

As a side note, the character of Kyla was inspired by the life of my sculpture professor in design school who himself was a 13-year-old Resistance fighter in Poland.

Looks like a lot of good stuff was submitted! I threw in Betsy's Battlefield and Foundings.

Hey writers! Wow, there’s some strong looking entries in this competition! I included my western Blood Trail. The logline is… When a young boy runs away from home to join his father’s outlaw gang, his stepfather must go into hostile territory to try and bring him back.

All the best to everyone. Y’all took on some powerful subjects matters. I’m looking forward to watching them someday soon.

I submitted Madame Égalité, a screenplay set during the French Revolution. On the eve of the Terror, Sophie, Marquise de Condorcet, invites playwright and human rights activist Olympe de Gouges to confront Maximilien de Robespierre regarding his alliance with the Marquis de Condorcet and the fractures in their faction. The dramatic tension builds as the women's breezy badinage shifts to icy innuendo when Robespierre's autocratic intentions become clear. The situation mirrors the political landscape in the USA today.

Good luck to all these creative writers! These scripts sound amazing! I submitted, “Blackness of Space, Whiteness of Bones,” a script about female artist Georgia O'Keeffe and her love for her husband, Alfred Stieglitz, and later for her assistant Juan Hamilton, (whom she believed was the reincarnation of her late husband Alfred). Georgia's life centered around not only her fierce drive to create art, but also her fierce love for these two men. She is my favorite artist and I spent many years researching her life in order to tell her story in a way that effectively portrays her life-altering love for these two men. This is a period piece, yes, but mostly it is a love story.

I submitted my award-winning supernatural thriller, THE DRESS ("Best Screenplay" 2021 Block Island Film Festival). It also earned "Official Selection" status at the 2019 Beverly Hills International Film Festival. The story focuses on the pool-drowning murder of a young starlet at a silent screen film idol's Hollywood hills mansion in 1923. Our murderer then makes great strides to achieve a clandestine burial that very night. Fast forward to the year 1985, where we meet the mansion's new owner-- A young, successful film director, who happens to be a functioning drug addict. This is a ghost story in which our spirit not only haunts...... it pleads-- "Find me! Find my remains!"

My screenplay Cheap, Sexy, and Shocking! is set in 1960s Miami. Cheap, Sexy, and Shocking! is loosely based on the career of Louise Downe, who played a significant role in the exploitation cinema movement in the 1960s and early 1970s. Her contributions as an actor, screenwriter, assistant director, and designer are a noteworthy chapter in twentieth century cinema history, but her efforts have been routinely overlooked, as she has been overshadowed by her moviemaking partner, the king of gore, Herschell Gordon Lewis.

Wayward Souls - my historical fiction period piece set in 1863. It explores themes of displacement and the need to find home and community. This is the pilot of a 9 episode series.

My script, The Dorchester Plan, started out as one crazy cat burglar scene and built from there. In 1935 London an impetuous MI5 agent recruits a gypsy hustler to spy on German spies, putting his career in jeopardy when the gypsy goes rogue on his own quest to find his wife's murderer. A caper film with heart.

I submitted The Brothers O'Neill, a historical crime drama sets in 1934 Seattle. I've long been fascinated by the history of labor on the docks, specifically the Waterfront Strike of 1934, which brought about enormous changes to tens of thousands of working people. Readers have compared the script with Chinatown, because I weave in a mystery with LGBTQ+ themes and a family struggling with secrets. Here's the logline: As the Seattle waterfront seethes with revolution, a beat cop struggles to understand his brother’s underground life, while identifying the powerful man behind the murder of his snitch.

Humbled to be among such talent. Good luck, everyone! I submitted JEZEBEL - a re-imagining of the Old Testament account of King Ahab and Queen Jezebel. Jezebel won historical genre in the Capital Fund Screenplay Contest (2017). Using the biblical narrative as the basis to the main plot, I further built on the story through characterisation. The script is also adapted into a 7-part graphic novel and mood trailer - edited by Mark Moorer.

https://vimeo.com/559741048?fbclid=IwAR2awh1vFnmp8pN5Kc9xSyk7_RRY4z7F3hz...

I submitted "Against The Grain", a female-driven drama (with some action elements) set in 1902 America. Logline: An overachieving young woman races to build a grain elevator that a Wall Street clique and a corrupt labor leader try to stop so that the clique can corner wheat.

I have no hope of winning this contest against such talent. I had to learn to write a screenplay because I couldn't find A-list talent to help me. But after 30 years of trying to get the true story of women pilots in WWII told - I just have to give the true story exposure any way I can. As I watch Hanks and Spielberg's miniseries number 3 about men in WWII - "Masters of the Air" - I await the "right fit" to share this amazing true story of women in WWII. I intertwine the stories of the women who flew in the ATA (Air Transport Auxiliary) in England, the women who flew in the WASP in the U.S. and the black women pilots in the U.S. rejected due to color. And "Masters of the Air" doesn't tell the story of Gen. Hap Arnold (the man who won the air war in WWII and created the USAF after the war) but I am working with his grandson to tell his story. 38 women died flying for the U.S. and 15 in England, including Amy Johnson (the British Amelia Earhart). All these stories deserve to be told. Luck to all.

This first of three different submitted screenplays has gone through drafts by signing up through Stage 32 with then development director for New Republic Pictures, Courtney Shepherd, now with Castle Rock Entertainment, and also reviewed by Ken Korba Jr., prior Universal Distribution Executive.

The screenplay was sent to Jayne Sullivan from Paul Giamatti’s Touchy Feely Films to find interest in Mr. Giamatti, while he was filming Billions season 5’s latter episodes.

THE BELL a.k.a. DIE GLOCKE, is inspired by real-life people such as David Halberstam, Richard Donaldson, Hans Kammler, and the purported top-secret Nazi antigravity weapon, The Bell, or Die Glocke.

LOGLINE: Inspired by true events in 1968, a journalist investigates a Nazi scientist for a shady government official and finds himself involved in a time-travel conspiracy.

My grandmother and I are Catholics born in Warsaw, Poland. She in 1927, and I in 1978. My grandmother stayed behind, as my mother and father took me, and fled communist Poland in 1981. A few years ago, my grandmother and I visited the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews. There, we both learned facts about royal bloodlines, contracts, laws, and economic rules, which influenced the history of Poland and its occupants. My great-grandfather, was executed in a Nazi concentration camp, and my great-aunt was medically experimented on in another yet survived.

An economic contract, was signed into law and provided to Jewish merchants by royal decree having an expiration date of one thousand years in certain territories. A theoretical extrapolation seemed to fit from the information gathered in the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews. The contract was running out, seemingly forcing bloodlines into World War II as their vessel to end it.

This idea is one layer in the story of Die Glocke, featuring thee most powerful engineer in the SS, Hans Kammler, who purportedly led and built the antigravity device rumored to have crashed within the U.S. Now, Jerry must find the device before the Soviets, otherwise, World War III will ensue.

Best,

Rafal Zlak (Owner)

Mysterian Film Group L.L.C.

Mysterianfilms.com

The second of three different submitted feature screenplays is BELA KISS A.K.A. THE NEIGHBORLY KILLER, a period-crime-drama also available through Tiffany Boyle at Ramo Law who provided feedback on drafts.

LOGLINE:

Inspired by true events in 1913, a crafty Hungarian serial killer desperate to survive during wartime goes on a spree, pickling bodies in his basement as he hides his deeds from his clients, friendly neighbors, and a detective.

BRIEF PITCH:

The rise of European serial killer Bela Kiss; the one who got away. The story, steeped in shades of noir, revolves around a disturbed individual whom we feel compassion for despite his murderous impulses while carving psychological-thriller moments. Bela Kiss is a rare early 1900s period piece that creates instant intrigue as it’s grounded in a Gothic-like tone with dark quirkiness and sinister behaviors of characters, who all have their secrets lurking beneath the surface.

When Bela Kiss gets fired, he starts giving astrology readings, but when one backfires causing him to be sued, he murders the woman and her lover. Having got a taste for money after selling his victims’ stolen goods, as well as their siphoned blood to a Charcutier, he continues luring single, wealthy women to slaughter, while also falling in love with a married woman. Soon, a retired detective's neighbor grows suspicious.

Best,

Rafal Zlak (Owner)

Mysterian Film Group L.L.C.

Mysterianfilms.com

Mr. Keli Price of Priceproductionsltd.com currently has the interest of a prominent actor and is awaiting the response of an experienced period piece director. He's taking lead on equity/financing opportunities for the submitted horror-period-drama feature screenplay, THE EXECUTIONER.

LOGLINE: Inspired by true events, 1740, an executioner in Bratislava under the Holy Roman Empire contends with the era's realities while attempting to safeguard his identity.

Best,

Rafal Zlak (Owner)

Mysterian Film Group L.L.C.

Mysterianfilms.com

Breakaway Heart sheds light on the great Vietnamese diaspora from 1975-1996. More than 400,000 refugees perished trying to find happiness abroad. This is a story that was swept under the carpet, hidden from public view, and largely ignored. The Vietnamese community deserves more. Watch the POC at the link below...

https://youtu.be/Umtkfu6DxJ0?si=LhN0eXyAsEbsgTWA

I submitted Not Mrs. Singer, which begins in the early 1860s, during the first wave of feminism. It explores the industrial revolution from the perspective of woman who becomes the life partner of one of the great inventors of the era. There are big echoes with today in the way tech titans and others who experience instant massive wealth are given a pass when it comes to moral responsibility. It recently won the historical category at the New York Screenwriting Awards and Chicago Script Awards. Judging by the other outstanding entries here, judging will be tough. And I need to get some fancy artwork done, too.

I submitted PRISONER OF HEAVEN, a period-piece biopic about the life and death of Nicolo Paganini, the legendary violinist and composer. My script goes back and forth between Paganini's life and death, as his death was so outrageous that it is listed in Ripley's Believe It or Not (although it is all true). I recently won the Scriptmatix True Story Competition with this script so I am hoping to win this as well.

Hi Stage32ers. I submitted two scripts into the Period Piece Contest; “Yanga” and “I Am Virginia”. Both are based on true stories and both are set in Colonial times. Both scripts have won multiple screenwriting awards. Yanga is believed by many to be the greatest African hero story of all time. www.yangathegreat.com

I am Virginia is a love story, set in a unique window of Colonial history, 1640-1670, before slavery was institutionalized, when whites and blacks had equal rights and an equal opportunity to pursue the American dream. It tells the story of the transformation of a free-spirited, dreamy adolescent girl of African descent, into an iconoclastic social leader who insists that her voice be heard in a time when women played subservient roles to men. Virginia challenges her father, her community and lobbies the British Crown to outlaw lifelong servitude. Industry execs have characterized the role of Virginia as "the role of a lifetime".

Greetings! I submitted NO MAN'S PROPERTY

No Man’s Property is inspired by “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl” by Harriet Jacobs. While there are other films about this era that follow the journey of an enslaved person's battle for freedom, too many "render Black people as merely Black bodies onto which the sins of this ragged country are violently mapped" (A.J. Bastien, 2020). By contrast, Linda, the Black protagonist in this screenplay, is far more dynamic and greater than the suffering forced on her. Instead of reaffirming the violence that everyone correlates this topic with this story highlights the inner strength and life of Linda poignantly.

Greetings! I submitted FIRST DROP OF RAIN

First Drop of Rain is a historical fiction, based on the true story of Frances Burney, a

revolutionary author in 18th century England.

First Drop of Rain tells the story of Frances’ journey into society, her struggle to find out who she is, who she loves, and to fulfill her aspirations of authoring her novel, Evelina. In this story, Frances willingly steps away from a conventional life of security through marriage and instead accomplishes something truly meaningful when she becomes the first drop of rain for female authors.

Everyone knows of Jane Austen; however, her predecessor Frances Burney is largely unknown. When Austen died in 1817, it was not obvious that Austen would become the archetypal British woman writer. Frances Burney was far more famous in her lifetime than Austen was in hers, and Burney’s novels, particularly Evelina, achieved as much, if not more, critical acclaim than Austen’s works. However, Austen’s legacy has been managed far better and it is the intention of this screenplay to give Frances her due.

Link to screenplay pitch teaser video: https://youtu.be/bWX10Svst8g

I submitted my Teton Reckoning, a female driven western set in 1890, beginning in the Ft Worth Stockyards and ending in the Grand Tetons of Idaho, just as Idaho was set to join the United States as our 43rd state. I explore the abuse by those in power directed at men and women fighting to survive from day to day.

I submitted THE TRIALS OF THE BOSTON MASSACRE. It's a historical courtroom drama that takes place shortly before the American Revolution, when British soldiers are put on trial for firing on a crowd in Boston and John Adams is the only man willing to represent them, risking everything to uphold the rule of law by defending his enemies. Sadly, it's incredibly relevant today: it's set at a time when friends and family found themselves increasingly divided in a hyper-polarized society, and it addresses themes like equality before the law, the dangers of false incitement, and rejecting violence as a tool for political change.

Wow, these period pieces all sound amazing, mostly true stories and I would love to see them all made into a film. I submitted my screenplay, MATHEMATICAL MERMAID, that is based on the true story of the Russian self-taught math genius Sofia Kovalevsky. Living in Russia in the tumultuous 1800s, women had no voice, no power, and were thought to be less intelligent than men. They had no opportunities outside the home. Women were not allowed to attend a university, and most had little education. Kovalevsky's story is a fabulous one of sacrifice, determination, and perseverance as she solves a problem that had vexed mathematicians for 100 years (a problem called the elusive Mathematical Mermaid), and finally finds acceptance and respect as the first female professor in all of Europe and Russia. It is an uplifting story of someone without any power who, armed only with an indomitable spirit, makes a significant social change for women.

I am intrigued, fascinated, and in awe after reading about the screenplays above and hope that each and every one of you find your way to the BIG screen.

Here is my submission:

Hidden within the archives of the mind, there lives the essence of the soul. Deep within the convoluted tunnels hide our fears, the music of our past, the dreams of yesterday, and our hopes for tomorrow. It is where the Id, the Ego, and the Superego learn to live in harmony. And as we journey through life searching for meaning in our existence, we eventually learn to nurture the child within.

"KALEIDOSCOPE OF BLUE" is dedicated to a generation of baby boomers who walked this path and live today in its shadow.

This screenplay is based on facts, as I experienced them, sprinkled with fiction and captures the fierce uncertainty and often bittersweet love of yesterday. It describes a time when this nation's young bonded… the "Flower Child" and the "Soldier,” the "Activist" and the "Hippie.” America was on her knees begging for inner peace yet on her hands was the stain of drugs and blood… in her heart, the pain.

As the stars align in Chicago during the unrest of 1968, Bryan, an ambitious student of law, and Amy, the small town girl who won his heart, begin their journey together. Amy’s past, however, begins to unravel and one April day, years later, love turns blue.

Greetings and Good Luck to All! I submitted A WOMAN’S HAND, an action/adventure script broadly inspired by Chapters 4 and 5 in the Book of Judges, in which Jael, a young, nomad bride caught up in the conflict between Israel and their Canaanite oppressors must use stealth, wit, and courage to defy a lecherous, pagan general in order to protect her marriage, restore peace, and fulfill a prophecy. An early version of this script won Movieguide’s $10,000 Kairos Prize for Spiritually Uplifting Screenplays and it recently won a “Best Scene Table Read” at Wildsound’s Feedback Female Festival, which noted this “impactful historical epic is on par with stories like GLADIATOR.” I believe those wins helped get me named as one of the International Screenwriters Association’s “25 Screenwriters to Watch in 2024.” The table read (N.B. “iron core” was a misread of “iron ore”) can be viewed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQy5n5I2G6k

Pat, lots of great, great stuff made it into the first annual Stage 32 Period Piece Screenwriting Contest! (I've read Melissa L. White's "Blackness of Space, Whiteness of Bones," Gary A. Piazza's "Breakaway Heart," and James Brosnahan's "No Man's Property." Loved every last one of 'em!)

Well...here goes...here's what I turned in (they're all comedies):

1. "Fine Tooth Comb," where a videotape inspires a teenager in 1994 Davenport, IA to form her own band in the hopes of playing at the city's Dixieland jamboree, the Bix Beiderbecke Jazz Festival.

2. In "Kitten on the Keys," the death of her husband on a train trip out West in 1876 forces a college-educated woman (an educator) to strike out on her own at the next stop: Dodge City, KS.

3. "Got Any More Bullets, Sister?" spoofs gangster films. In this one, two siblings struggling as vendors in 1930 Cleveland seek to better their lives...but while one woman, a bashful sort, decides to enter music, her domineering sister chooses a life of crime.

4. "Tin Mine," my takeoff on 1930s Hollywood musicals, centers on a song plugger and a radio organist whose careers have hit a rut in 1939 New York City...so, they decide to become composers.

5. Speaking of New York City...I also turned in "Jingle Belles," set in the Big Apple of 1959. It's where a songwriter-manager-record producer and a record-store clerk team up to start their own music-publishing company...all in the name of seeking to usher in the new breed of rock-and-roll hitmakers (on the heels of the Clear Lake, IA plane crash that claimed the lives of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson).

Here's wishing much success to everyone who entered!

Forgot to post a logline for the 8-10 episode limited series "The Women with Wings". "A pilot shortage in WWII creates a place for women pilots in the U.K. and the U.S. to take over military flying duties at home while overcoming gender prejudice, the military establishment and friends dying to prove themselves equal to male pilots in the cockpit of any plane, all while qualified black female pilots are rejected due to color". The women flying in the ATA in England and the WASP in the U.S. join the Tuskegee Airmen as minorities in WWII who had to prove themselves equal to white male pilots in the cockpit of any plane. And they did - only to be sent home (like the women in the factories) when they weren't needed anymore. Women were not allowed to fly military planes again until the mid 1970s - thirty years later. And they were finally allowed to fly in combat in the 1990s. The women pilots of WWII laid the groundwork for future women pilots. Jackie Cochran who created the training program in the U.S. held more aviation records then any pilot ever, male or female, when she died in 1980.

My entry, DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA, is based on Alexis de Tocqueville’s journals when two colorful Frenchmen document their epic road trip across America during its formative years.

In that sweet spot of American history between the Revolutionary and Civil Wars, two close friends, Alexis and Gustave travel from France to trek across America for nine months. Tocqueville’s insights written as Democracy in America are now known the world over.

At its core, this is a ‘Buddy movie’ - an adventure-driven quest. It is a true story which echoes through history and is mirrored in today’s times. Alexis tells OUR story… of the grit, determination and idealism that built this country’s foundation. America has never needed more to be reminded of how we became a great nation.

Good luck to all!

Bonjour, all! I threw my "bicorne hat" into the ring with my TV pilot script "Betsy and the Emperor", which is based on my YA historical novel from Simon & Schuster published in 15 languages globally, and true events. Series bible also available. "Betsy and the Emperor" is about a rebellious teenage English girl who befriends the most feared man on Earth-- Napoleon Bonaparte-- while he's being held prisoner by the British on St. Helena, and schemes to help him escape from captivity. It's totally different from Sir Ridley Scott's "Napoleon"-- you might say mine is the French view of Napoleon, with a radically different storyline, budget, tone, time period, setting, characters, and POV-- and the novel won the Festival Napoleon in Paris and was endorsed by the President of the Napoleonic Society of America. Recently, another historical screenplay of mine won the Bronze Prize in the PAGE Awards. And my WWII feature script "The Girl From Krakow", also based on IP (by Alex Rosenberg), is a Semifinalist in the 2023 Austin Film Festival Screenplay competition and has Afterglow Pictures attached. Bon chance, everybody!

I entered my Vietnam era action-drama "Nobody's Heroes". It follows the struggles of eight young people in 1968, lead by an emotionally damaged Vietnam vet as they attempt to survive major societal changes at the intersection of the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights movement.

Hi Stage 32 members. Glad to be aboard.

My screenplay, "REVOLUTION,” was inspired by a close relative's friendship with the legendary musician, John Winston Lennon of the Beatles. Their infamous relationship became my family lore. This story is a fantastic retelling of events that occurred around 1968, reported by thousands to be true - and which may have changed the course of history.

Well done, everyone! There are some incredible entries here!

I submitted my TV Pilot GOLD COAST. It’s a crime thriller about the greatest jewel thief in U.S. history and my great-uncle, Arthur Barry. It takes place during the Roaring 20’s in New York City where he stole over $10 million worth of jewels ($170 million today) from the most powerful families in the world, including the Rockefellers, Woolworths, and the Prince of Wales. He even successfully escaped from Auburn prison after staging the biggest uprising in U.S. prison history at that time. It's a thrilling story of redemption, love, and betrayal.

Best of luck to everyone! I’m looking forward to watching these someday soon.

I submitted a screenplay : QUEST FOR FREEDOM - My Memories of Robert Smalls. A Historical portrayal of Robert Smalls, the enslaved black man who stole a Confederate Gun ship and sailed it to freedom with the families of his crew. The challenge of creating a story based on the significant historical character ,took me on a journey. Extensive research of the man himself , the history of the times, the people, their dialogue, and everyday life in Pre-Civil War Charleston. Dates and history are accurately detailed.

To narrate the story, I recruited Charleston Ship builder, anti-slaver, white, John Simmons, who befriended and hired Smalls to pilot his steam powered paddle steamer through the shallow coastal waters surrounding Charleston harbor though laws forbid black men from being pilots.

I began with Robert Smalls, 16 years old, living above a horse stable at the Planter's Hotel in Charleston, working the local docks and coastal waterways around Charleston harbor. Smalls falls in love with an older slave woman who had two children. They join together in a forbidden marriage but were allowed to live together. His wife bears him children and he attempts to purchase their freedom with money he has saved but realizes that he will never earn enough to finalize the transaction.

Smalls became a skilled navigator, but also worked as a farrier, warehouseman, waiter and rigger. During this period, slaves were permitted to work away from their owner's and allowed to keep one dollar of their paid wages. The rest of their salaries was sent to their owners to provide for their care.

The story takes you on an epic journey deep into plantation rich South Carolina, Georgia and Florida where rice, cane and cotton were grown and abuse commonplace. There, you get a sense of what true desperation is, as you witness the toil of enslaved men and women held against their will. Attempted escape could end in torture or death. It is also here, that you can first see the fires of freedom burning deep inside the man who risked everything to save his family.

At the start of the Civil War, the steam ship he worked on, The PLANTER, a Side wheeled steamer, specially designed for shallow water journeys, was leased to the Confederate Army and retrofitted into a light gun boat used to transport soldiers and equipment down the black rivers of the deep South.

For years, Robert Smalls, his fellow, enslaved deckhands and engineers, spent weeks working, living and sleeping on board the PLANTER. . Though uneducated and unable to read, Smalls memorized the routes, signals and passwords used by the white captain and his engineers.

The CIVIL WAR erupts around them. The Great Fire of Charleston destroys much of the city.

Smalls formulates a dangerous plan, to steal the ship, and sail it to the ships of the Union Blockade stationed seven miles outside of Charleston Harbor. Smalls informs his wife, HANNAH. She agrees to take the dangerous journey because to her, freedom was worth the risk.

We watch in anticipation as Robert Smalls dons the captain's coat and a similar hat and mimics the captain's movements and gestures to fool the guarded checkpoints they must pass at each confederate Fort. . . Planter makes her historic trek to the blockade... towards unaware Union ships anticipating an attack.

Tense moments in the fog at dawn before the improvised white flag is seen on the ship and the Union caption declines to blow it out of the water. This is followed by joy and surprise when the Union Sailors see who just surrendered a gunship to them, a bunch of slaves.

Following the successful surrender of the Planter, we follow Smalls during his time spent piloting an assortment of military ships for the Union forces as they battle the confederacy. We highlight several important historical battles which he participated.

The story concludes ten years later, when he Pilots the USS Planter, the same ship he commandeered and sailed to the Union Blockade, saving his and the families of the slaves he sailed with, passed Fort Sumter during the celebration of the end of the Civil War.

This is a story of courage, love and sheer will. It needs to be shared and made into a film. Making this film is very possible as there are historical locations still present in the Charleston area and side paddle steamers in operation.

Robert Smalls became literate in Philadelphia and went on to do great things for the freed black slaves. He became a successful Republican Politician in later years. I hope to continue to showcase more of his wonderful achievements. It is a film which should be made to help illuminate the struggles of those enslaved men and women in that tumultuous time period.

I entered a piece based on an odd little corner of history. When George Washington died, William Thornton, a doctor and the architect of the US Capitol, proposed a scheme to bring Washington back to life. What if they had let him? What if it had worked? I give you, YANKEE DOODLE ZOMBIE!

(I live about five miles from Mount Vernon. I'm not really a good judge of the quality of my writing. But I can guarantee you that Mount Vernon is accurately depicted!)

Congrats to everyone who submitted, that's so exciting!

What wonderful stories! Thank you for sharing them. And congratulations to each writer who dared to dream the dream and then penned the story in the end -- even though, as we know, "The End" for writers is always just the beginning...

Anyway, "Kid Soldier" is a coming-of-age true story about a lighthearted Christian-raised Arab boy who after his brother is deployed to WW II, is forced to become the man of the house and confront the horrors of his anti-Semitic and racially divided community.

It is my father's boyhood story which unfolds over seven tumultuous days as he struggles to provide for his ten siblings and welfare mother, battles with an absentee father and his mother's priest lover, confronts death in the loss of his Jewish best friend, and in defending a damaged but insightful prostitute ultimately discovers the secret to his life's purpose.

It is an intriguing and modestly budgeted film which weaves themes of racial and culture conflict, morality, honor, family and love. And, honestly, I feel blessed and honored to share a slice of my father's life.

Quarterfinalist, Academy Nicholl Fellowship, 2023

Finalist, Page International Screenwriting Contest, 2022 and 2021

Can't wait for our judges to dig in and see all the great scripts everyone submitted!

I wish we all had posted at exactly the same time, because many of the people who posted last don't seem to have the "likes" they deserve. There are some seemingly amazing stories that have not received what seems their due, even in the "introductory stages" of this contest. I am in absolute awe of the obvious "academic/historical chops" of the writers in this contest. Taking a story about a real person or timeframe and trying to portray that in a cinematic way is VASTLY more difficult than creating a story from one's own imagniation. Again, I wish everyone Good Luck in this competition!

Birgit Syran Myaard I find it quite interesting how you separate writers of this contest into two camps-- The VASTLY superior ones who focus on creating historic biographies or time frames and the "lesser than" writers, who ONLY create ORIGINAL narratives from their extraordinary imaginations. According to your logic, I'm a proud member of the "imagination" group. Say what you will about us "Deamers." At least we don't rely on history books and documentaries in order to tell some STELLAR stories.

So? What's the takeaway here? Elevate one type of writer and belittle the other. The last line of your post really had me chuckling-- "I wish EVERYONE good luck in this competition." Um.... Yeah..... Okay.

Everyone's stories sound SO interesting. I want to view them all! Maybe Stage 32 should run a contest solely for period pieces based on true stories. I'll bet agents and executives looking for those types of stories would love to have possibilities all in one place. :)

I didn't learn about the contest until late in December. I already had a pilot, Montana Sky, adapted from book one in my bestselling Montana Sky Series that I planned to enter.

Logline: In Gilded Age Boston, a dispossessed society beauty travels West to a Montana ranch, where she braves grizzly bears and an influenza epidemic, and must choose between the man who has everything, and the man with nothing but his heart to offer.

I'd also toyed with and started a feature adaptation of the sixth book in my series, Montana Sky Justice. But I came down with Covid on New Year's Eve, and writing went out the window for two weeks. But I'd been listening to the audiobook off and on and TWO DAYS before the contest final deadline, I realized I could write a pilot instead of a feature. Then I realized, I wanted to start the pilot in a different place than the feature, which meant I had to go back to an earlier set book, Montana Sky Christmas, where my female sheriff first appears. And, in addition, I had to figure out her backstory, which wasn't in the book, although I vaguely had it in my brain.

So in day one of my two days, I wrote the second two thirds of the pilot, because I had that part of the story plotted out in my books. Then, on day two, I had to do a lot of thinking to figure out what happened in the first third and what the scenes were. So then, I wrote and wrote and uploaded the UNEDITED pilot with two minutes to spare. I paid extra for the coverage because I knew I'd need the feedback and the extra time. I was so proud of myself and rather high from the intense process, although I felt very sorry for my poor coverage writer! I felt even more sorry for the person on Tuesday when I finally had a chance to go through and edit the pilot. :) I wish I could thank them and also apologize!

The coverage came back and is about what I expected as a mixed bag of really good and what needs work.

Sorry, no longline yet.

Wow. I am pleased to be in such talented company. Good Luck everyone. I submitted "CALICO SISTERS" Logline: In the 1860s six orphan girls from diverse backgrounds unite to protect themselves and others while pursuing their dreams in the West as they spread a trail of righteousness and justice for all. This is a TV miniseries inspired by stories my grandmother told about her grandmother traveling from Oklahoma to Tennessee by wagon train. Also, during my career I've had the pleasure of supporting at-risk women from all walks of life and admire that although the most abused they are the most resilient. Calico Sisters is in the vein of Little Women and Enola Holmes. It is family friendly and I feel needed as what we learn from the past prepares us for the future. Also, not many westerns are told from a young womans point of view.

GENRE: Western/Family TV MINISERIES

Bill Brock I'm saddened you read my post in such a negative way. If you look again, I did not write about any writer being "vastly superior.." I wrote about being in awe of those writing about real people/events because of the process being vastly more difficult. And some of the people toward the end of this thread were not getting the "likes" I felt they deserved for tackling their projects. My meaning was that the people who write period pieces based on true events or real people must first do the painstaking job of historical research and then try to put that real person's life or those real events into accepted cinematic structure. A person writing about a fictional character has the freedom to dream up all sorts of ways to get them through their hero's journey. The script I submitted to this contest is based on a person about whom we know next to nothing. I was able, therefore, to do much "dreaming up" of obstacles. The biopic on which I currently am working is proving to be much more difficult because the man left a body of personal letters, articles, and books he wrote, and there is a plethora of articles and books written about him. His life doesn't always want to comply with cinematic "rules." If he were fictional, I could dream something up. But he is not. I am, therefore, in awe of writers who have been able to wrestle their real life characters' lives into cinematic shape. And yes, I wished everyone good luck, again, as I'd already wished them luck in my earlier post.

Inspired by real life pirates Anne Bonny and Mary Read, BOLD IN MY BREECHES is a full-length tv pilot and historical action adventure, a Thelma and Louise on the High Seas, with material to span multiple seasons and a tone somewhere between Black Sails & Twelfth Night.

Logline: In their attempt to avoid unwanted marriages, two young women - a rich American and a poor Englishwoman - become frenemies and largely unintentional pirates while rebelling against the 18th century patriarchy.

It’s 1720, the Golden Age of Piracy…

The genteel privateering model of piracy sanctioned by governments who give carte blanche to gentleman captains to raid any foreign ship has disintegrated.

In its place?

The ‘every ship for itself’ version of piracy populated by marginalized misfits from all walks of life who prey on any ship worth its plunder. But the misfit version includes surprisingly progressive democratic touches – open voting on who captains the ship, as well as the matelotage, an early version of gay marriage open to all pirates.

But even piracy isn’t open to misfit women.

Or is it?

In the pilot episode, we meet privileged American Anne, who loves her father, but still nurtures grief/anger against him for reneging on an early promise to let her wear breeches and become a lawyer. Gobsmacked when he wants to marry her off in a business deal, Anne flees marriage to a man who would control her every behavior (including how she dresses and uses make-up).

But before she can leave, she must return the engagement ring that was stolen from her. At the conclusion of her engagement party, she secretly shimmies from a balcony, tears her dress to make a rope to escape, and ends up in a pirate tavern confronting the pirate who stole the ring, where she becomes the prize in a card game.

Set free by the winner Captain Calico Jack, she resolves to escape on Jack’s ship (against his wishes) and secretly rolls herself in a stolen carpet that gets stowed in his cabin- on the very ship that plundered her family’s remaining fortune. When discovered by Jack, she defies his order to stay hidden after he locks her in the cabin, steals and muddies his clothes and her face with boot blacking, cuts her hair, jimmies the lock. The episode ends with her leaving his cabin disguised as a boy to stowaway again in another part of the ship (now under fire from her spurned fiancé), hoping Jack will be forced to accept her onboard as a male pirate.

In the pilot episode, we also meet underprivileged cross-dressing English Mary who’s been forced from an early age to support her mother and sisters by wearing breeches and working as a footman. While defending her employer and employer’s daughter from highwaymen, she loses her male wig and is recognized as female.

With the possibility of continuing working for her employer as a male ended, she similarly confound expectations by rejecting an offer of marriage from her lecherous employer which would set her poor family up for life. When her scheming mother disowns her over her decision, Mary joins a merchant ship disguised as a boy, but is haunted by her mother’s threat to pimp her sisters while Mary’s away.

During both pilot and season, their vengeful nemesis is Anne’s spurned fiancé, Lord Frederick, whose pride and need to dominate motivates him to hunt Anne and any who harbor her to kingdom come-

In his way is Anne’s reluctant protector, Captain Calico Jack Rackham, a holdover from the genteel version of piracy, who must overcome his own preconceptions about the frailty of women in order to allow Anne to succeed as a pirate. But he is forced to defend Anne surreptitiously, even playing the sexual libertine, so as not to trigger his own nemesis Cognac, who’d like to replace Jack in a mutiny and ruin Anne.

Of course, Anne makes Jack’s life as difficult as possible by rejecting attempts to keep her safe – undermining his gendered assumptions with her need for freedom.

In the pilot and throughout the first season, Mary is abetted consistently by the ship’s disabled cook, Tom, who sees through Mary’s male disguise, and who admires Mary’s initiative and physical daring. To help preserve her cover in the pilot, he starts to secretly teach Mary to fight like a man. Over the first season, this close contact makes both try to squelch emerging romantic feelings.

In the second season, having lost their pirate lovers to the noose, both Anne and Mary must re-face their original marriage choice, now offered as the only alternative to hanging once they give birth.

And in the third season, pursued by both Frederick and multiple bounty hunters, Anne, newly pregnant with Frederick’s baby, and grieving Mary’s death in childbirth, will struggle to raise Mary’s baby, and captain her new pirate ship, now a magnet for other dispossessed women enthralled by her example, who want to be pirates, too.

Anne and Mary are roles that actresses like Emma Stone, Brie Larson, Florence Pugh, Bella Ramsey, and Rachel Zegler would relish.

This script is a finalist for the Stage 32 Period Piece Open Writing Assignment.

The musical script version was a Moondance International Film Festival finalist.

The novel version was a 2022 Catalyst Story Institute Literary Selection.

As a Cambridge University graduate, former actor, former counselor, housing provider, life coach, speaker, political candidate, with a 20 year all-around female pirate obsession, BOLD IN MY BREECHES may be the closest I will ever get to practice the only profession out of my reach.

If you made it this far, thanks for reading the pitch!

Greetings fellow writers and contestants! In perusing the Contest posts, it’s a compelling collection of inspiring and passionate stories! Best of luck to all!

My submittal, GREEN BLOODS, is inspired by the untold true story of Stephen Mather, a steam-rolling early 20th-century industrialist who, while secretly battling manic depression, risks his riches, reputation, and nearly his life, in a fevered push to save natural treasures from annihilation by establishing an American conservation legacy - the U.S. National Park Service.

Today’s highly esteemed national parks can easily be ‘taken for granted.’ In the 1910’s, they were nearly taken for everything – allowed to be stripped of giant trees, dammed for water, scoured for minerals, killed for sport. The great protectors – John Muir and Teddy Roosevelt – succumbed to death and elections, respectively. Stephen crashes into the conservation void with manic abandon and risks it all – not for himself, but for all of us. For future generations.

He succeeded where preceding luminaries had failed – because of his ‘bipolar’ condition, not despite it. What was a personal and near-deadly struggle for him proved to be a fortuitous gift for the world.

GREEN BLOODS is an award-winning, cinematic, true story of the classic unknown hero who battles personal struggle and formidable adversaries to ultimately rise to, and define, a landmark moment for the greater good in world history. It's like “A Beautiful Mind” meets “Hidden Figures,” set amidst Disneynature's “Earth.”

Greetings, I appreciate you looking over my Bio. Many thanks if you have read my script as a contest judge and are now reviewing this. If you are a fellow contestant, I'm glad we're in this together and I'll share any feedback I get from my entry in this forum. I submitted a Musical Dramedy screenplay called: Radio Girl and the Sputnik Satellite Radio Show to the Period Piece Screenwriting Contest.

I know that a small percentage of screenplays have period songs included. In this case it's fitting, because it's set in the middle of the Swing and Rock N Roll era as a film noir drama and plays on the misfortune of a washed-up Big Band Singer in trouble with the mob. Six songs are original and it's the style of music I perform live.

I'm Blair Hebert - a writer, musical producer, performer, voiceover artist and host of the Sputnik Satellite Radio Show podcast.

I've been actively working in the entertainment business as an author, producer, and entertainer for many years. I live in Vancouver BC and am a long-time member of IATSE 891 and I've contributed to many LA productions as a film tech in various departments. My most memorable show lately was the first season of 'Zoe's Extraordinary Playlist,' a musical production series aired on CBS. 'Seeing music play such a crucial role in a TV series (including the amazing choreography of Mandy Moore) inspired me to finish my own musical production and the script is available upon request. This screenplay also exists as a musical stage play and as a storytelling podcast. A three-part book series prequel is almost complete and unfolds the Hero's Journey of the Narrator: Mundane Radio Man, the wise elder and glue of 'Radio Girl and the Sputnik Satellite Radio Show'.

Regarding music, I continue to perform live as a solo act, favoring early swing music on a vintage archtop guitar. I've released two CDs that can be streamed on platforms like Spotify, Last FM, and iTunes, and I'm always writing and recording original music, which I post to YouTube, Vimeo, and Facebook. My passion doesn't stop there—I'm an avid collector and player of vintage jazz guitars and old-school jazz songs. So, if you have a cool old swing acoustic guitar for sale, I'm probably interested - let me know!

The plot of the show revolves around three major characters and a few minor characters and is set in a struggling swing music radio station WNYK Nick 1150 AM Radio in 1957. It tells a story of how the station manager/DJ, a gambling big band singer, is robbed of the staff's wages in a mugging over a gambling debt. When told about this, the staff quits. Nick is left alone to keep the station on the air until a solution can be found. A neurodivergent, mildly autistic voice mimic with a comedic flair akin to Lucille Ball—offers to step in and cover as a news anchor. When the biggest news story of the century breaks, she is neither overwhelmed nor intimidated and ingeniously blends the international news story of the Soviet launch of Sputnik, with the opinions of local call-in listeners in small town America. Hilarity ensues. Americans love it and it becomes the go-to radio show for the Soviet/American Dramady. The show gets syndicated and launches her as a national celebrity: ‘Radio Girl’. She eventually saves Nick and the station from financial ruin.

Radio Girl and The Sputnik Satellite Radio Show delves into how the innocuous beeping of Sputnik, a small metal sphere with whimsical antennas, sent America into a frenzy, marking the beginning of the U.S.-Soviet space race against the tense backdrop of the Cold War. The show highlights what Americans thought, felt, and feared in the 1950’s.

Trivia: Between October 6 and November 1, 1957, the New York Daily News alone ran 279 stories on Sputnik. That's a staggering eleven articles a day—an overture to an era when media was just as obsessed with "the latest news," as we are today.

First slide from the Pitch Deck. If anyone is interested in viewing the pitch deck, Please respond and I will leave a Canva link. Cheers.

https://www.canva.com/design/DAF0i-kRcoI/0l7ef2cmGnzmiMpflFv3Ig/view?utm...

Canva Link. For those who are interested. Comments welcome.

Per our friend Lee Musgrave, who wanted to share his story as well:

"I submitted my limited series pilot, a romantic amateur sleuth thriller, adapted from my published novel The Beautiful One. The story, set in 1912 Cairo and Berlin, begins with the discovery of the famous sculpture bust of legendary Egyptian Queen Nefertiti. After learning about the significance of Queen Nefertiti a young Egyptian couple is inspired to support woman’s suffrage in Berlin and Cairo, but a killer is stalking them because they have uncovered how Egyptian artifacts and mystical amulets are illegally trafficked. The writing challenge is how to incorporate the fantastic discoveries made in science, medicine, engineering, and the arts during this era. Plus, I see each episode including original early 1900’s B&W film of Berlin and Cairo interspersed/blended into the story where appropriate to help establish the tone. The book was only released on Nov. 16, 2023, but has received several 5-star reviews. Ideally, I'd like to see the series made in Europe, perhaps by a German production company consisting of German, Egyptian and Turkish actors and grew."

Good luck to Lee!

PORT ROYAL (TV Series)

In the year 1665, ten years after Jamaica is conquered by the English, Captain Henry Morgan is recruited to hunt down Spanish rebels hiding in the island's Central Mountains. But, even as a former pirate, struggles with the brutality the job requires.

Black Sails meets Game of Thrones meets Downton Abbey

“…the story of pirates without the Disney elements of Jack Sparrow is incredibly compelling. From the teaser to the final blow of Captain Morgan assuming the role he is most famous for is just excellent from start to finish.”

Do you mean replying directly to someone, Hope Hickli? If so, you can reply directly to someone by putting @ in front of their name.

You're welcome, Hope Hickli.

What an amazing group of writers and stories. Best of luck to all! Here's my story, LORENZO'S PASSION.

(Finalist: Italy International Film Festival, Beverly Hills Film Festival; Creative World Awards; High score from the Page Awards.

Although this story has been made into a successful TV series, my screenplay -- written well before the series -- could have widespread International appeal and follow in its footsteps.)

LORENZO’S PASSION is the David and Goliath story of a teenage poet who battles a power-hungry Pope in 15th Century Italy to save the city he loves – Florence.

LORENZO DE MEDICI spends his days rescuing Greek antiquities from extinction with his friend ANGELO until his father, the leader of the city, is assassinated. Convinced Florence’s welfare hangs in the balance, Lorenzo reluctantly accepts leadership.

Naïve to the political landscape, he spends his days fashioning a city of art and culture – including a magnificent library. Meanwhile, his enemies –jealous Florentine families, fanatical monks and the POPE and his nephew, RIARO – plan his downfall.

Lorenzo meets and falls in love with CATERINA, the beautiful daughter of his ally, the Duke of Milan, but loses her because of political backstabbing. When PAZZI, a Florentine jealous of Lorenzo’s power and popularity, suggests to the Pope that Florence is ripe for liberation from the Medicis, a conspiracy takes shape.

Will this young idealist survive the political ambitions of the most powerful man in Italy and find the political will to save the city he loves?

Rediscover one of the most dramatic periods of history – LORENZO’S PASSION, inspired by the true story.

Personal Note: I learned of this story while my husband was researching a lecture about Michaelangelo for a Mediterranean cruise. It struck me as inherently dramatic and mesmerizing, as well as contemporary in its themes of religious fervor vs. freedom of thought. Although familiar to Italians, I thought the larger world would want to learn of it. So did Mike Medavoy, CEO of Phoenix Pictures, who tried to secure Italian funding for the project.That didn't happen at the time but I think the story is still worth telling in a feature format.

Kathi Twomey Wahed This is a really great idea. I studied Italian Renaissance Art a long time ago and am always intrigued by the era.

Kathi, sounds like such a juicy premise - I'd watch this!

Hi, Nikki, Don't count yourself out yet - I haven't seen an official announcement, plus I received the following on March 21st (so perhaps the decision hasn't been made...yet...)

Hi Elizabeth,

I hope this email finds you well! We are following up regarding BOLD IN MY BREECHES for OWA 204 we appreciate your patience.

This OWA is still being reviewed by the exec but we will continue to follow up and advocate on your behalf. In the meantime, we will give you all the updates we receive as they come.

Thank you for your patience and being part of the Stage 32 Writers' Room!

Cheers,

The Stage 32 Team

Hey Pat, I entered JANISSARY (epic), THE MESSAGE (biopic), and THE MONK WHO WOULD BE SPY (action/historical). Historical fiction genre which includes Period is my main genre of writing as I love, love, love the different settings and opportunities to learn new things as I research.

Nikki Oldaker Announcements for contests go out at 4 PM PST on Fridays.

How many entries were received in the Period Piece competition and how many finalists will there be?

Sam, good question - for transparency's sake, I hope Stage 32 answers :)

Thanks for your response, Elizabeth. I’ve been revising my historical script for ten years. I only get it out to make another pass at it because of these competitions. Our period piece scripts must be strictly passion projects, since they advise us not to write them, they’re too expensive to make, and no one is looking for them. We can always use them as writing samples.