Tony Kornheiser of ESPN stands beside Corporal John Fitzgerald of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police on the red carpet at the The Hill-Extra-Thomson Reuters Reception at the Embassy of Canada in Washington D.C. on April 29, 2016, the night before the White House Correspondents Dinner. Kornheiser is a former sportswriter and columnist for The Washington Post, as well as a radio and television talk show host. He co-hosts Pardon the Interruption on ESPN. (Photo by Jeff Malet)
I have been working hard on reconstructing my first act
of my current play, Play by Play. I told you I would have an update for you. The update is now upon us. My problem with
the act was that it was taking too long to bring my second
lead character into the script. I had to cut and
unfortunately that means I had to sacrifice bits I liked. It was all for the good. Now I have the staff meeting in first
five pages of the play. Now Marty is in the second scene of
act one on page 19.
By bringing Marty in earlier, I was able to play with
Marty and bring about his naive nature. Marty thinks he's
therefor an interview, with the owner, who told him he would
like to meet with him. Marty thought he was having an
interview for the new Play by Play jobs for the Seadogs. What didn't realize is he's already been hired When he arrives,
the staff is about to watch a video of his most embarrassing
broadcast moment that was seen on the internet. Let this be a lesson not to post embarrassing videos on YouTube.
Management believed it was an air check Marty wanted radio
stations to see, when in fact, Marty's whacky cousin Skeeter
put it up there as a joke.
All in all I am happy with the way act one is going.
The play is beginning to come together. It's the broadcast
version of the "Odd Couple." The main characters are lively
and active. Chick McSorley is bitter that his Baseball careerwith the Red Sox ended due to injury. He arrives at WPME whenhis former broadcast partner, the legendary Ned Plummer finds him in a bar, drinking his life away. Ned saves his life and hires him as his broadcast analyst for the Portland Seadogs. Chick is the type of character you love to hate, and hate to
love. Personally I love complex characters and this guy is
complex, obnoxious. He will say anything to get a rise out
of his loyal listeners, no matter the FCC fine or the
suspension he receives from the Tinkle Broadcast network.
Marty Busby is a young upstart, whose forte is Basketball
because it fits his rhythm as a broadcaster. He feels
Baseball is too slow and holds him back. At the end of act
one, these two are put on the air together for a talk show
called, The Chicken Coop. Chick is not given a say on who is partner is and he's angry about that. Chick decides to
embarrass Marty by bringing up his YouTube video, which leads to an outburst by Marty.
I put the characters in the zaniest situations. The
Program Director holds the big meeting and loses control. TheOwner announces he's hired a Consultant. The Consultant
treats the staff like children. Chick's Producer, Renee
dresses in black and is an inept mess. The Receptionist, Abbyis Renee's fill in and when Renee messes up one final time,
the Program Director makes her Chick and Marty's producer
full time.
Act Two is in the works. Marty falls in love with Abby,
even though she's dating the Seadogs star Pitcher. The stationis under attack by outside influences, but outside influences
eventually save it. Marty is put under broadcast pressure
with hilarious consequences. One scene involves Abby's
boyfriend throwing a no hitter for the Seadogs. Marty doesn'trealize that mentioning a no hitter is a broadcast no no.
Marty jinxes it.
All in all the show is moving along quite nicely and I
have been working hard to finally finish this play. I hope
when it's done, I have a play I can be proud of and in future
see it staged.
Hi, my name is Peter Murray. I am a scriptwriter and I started this blog as a way of promoting my own writing, which is mostly plays, screenplays and television scripts. bMy background is unique. My father is a retired theater Professor and both my parents acted at The Barnstormers Summer Stock Theatre in Tamworth New Hampshire, which was founded by my Godfather, Francis G. Cleveland, who was the son of President Grover Cleveland. Having all that history within my family and a Godfather who started a theatre, it was natural that I became interested in theater. I attended Johnson State College in Vermont with the specific purpose of becoming an actor. However, scriptwriting took over. I have been writing plays since I was about twelve. I would see a Barnstormer production and say, I can do that. Yes I could do that, but in those early years, not so well. As time went on I became much more proficient with a good ear for dialogue, plot and character development. I have written a few plays. Two were produced in Vermont, a one act for First Night in Burlington called "KIng Stud," and another titled Crossing The Bridge. The latter was also taken to the Barnstormers and done at the professional level with my Dad directing. My other writing includes a few movie scripts. One is a trilogy I am working on called Derby Double. It's an action adventure sports series dealing with Soccer. Another script is called the Third Eye about a metaphysical detective(Currently trying to work that into a television series.) And currently I am working on a television series about my childhood, both here in New Hampshire and England, where I lived for five years. I call this series, "Letters from England." I have five episodes in the can and you can read them here.
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The Script is the thing 