Richard Evans needs boxes. He’s accumulated random notes and piles of scripts over the years, so his home office is getting a little too cluttered for his liking.
“I have them in boxes right now, you see, but if I have them in shallow boxes like this,” he said as he stroked the cardboard of his latest find, “they can fit under the bed in my writing shed nicely.”
Evans has been saving up his notes since he entered showbiz in the 1950s as a television character actor. Now, nearly 50 years later, the Clinton resident can claim among his titles to be an actor, writer, director and producer for film and stage. But it’s the writing that’s most important now.
Most recently, Evans directed and produced his movie “Harry Monument,” based on his play “Crime X 2.” “Monument” was taped on Whidbey with over local 100 locals participating. Almost two years into the project the film is now in post production and is headed for a Nov. 15 South Whidbey screening.
Writing for screen and film is a labor of love for Evans, as well as a casual career. For other island playwrights and screenwriters, scribbling and typing the lines for actors to perform on a stage or on a screen is a full-time living and a vocation.
And, somehow, this writing form has drawn more than its share of writers to Whidbey Island. Maybe it’s in the air or the views of calm inland waters, but whatever it is, there’s a lot of entertainment getting written.
The Godfather
Look for playwrights and screenwriters on South Whidbey and people in the performing arts scene begin to drop the name Lewis John Carlino. Known as “Lew” to many, the part-time Langley resident is a playwright, screenwriter and director for stage, film and TV. His lengthy resume includes an Academy Award nomination in 1977 for his co-screenplay work on the Hannah Green novel “I Never Promised You a Rose Garden.” Born in 1932 in New York, N.Y., Carlino is now world famous for his expansive work. Last February, the Whidbey Island Center for the Arts staged Carlino’s “Telemachus Clay,” an off-Broadway hit in the 1960s.
“Carlino is probably the most gifted American playwright to come out of the ’50s,” Evans said.
Evans said he heard that Carlino is preparing to direct “School for Scandal,” a play originally produced at Drury Lane Theater in London, May 8, 1777.
Success keeps the writer busy. This week, Carlino could not be reached.
The Rookie
While most people his age are struggling to write college essays, 20-year-old Jordan Albertson is busy writing and directing movies. The South Whidbey native recently signed to be a partner in the southern California-based film production company Oracle Films.
Last summer, Albertson snagged a stint as a production assistant on the Ron Sheldon directed film “Hollywood Homicide.” While working with stars such as Harrison Ford and Josh Hartnett, Albertson networked his way toward his production company venture.
The 2001 South Whidbey High School graduate said he “never did anything special” to prepare for the career path of his dreams.
“In high school I was always the kid who didn’t really want to do the assignments, but would go to the teacher and say ‘Hey, I’ll make you a movie’,” Albertson said.
That lack of “anything special” in high school meant running the camera on student film ventures, including the 2000 produced anti-drugs movie “Ruined Lives, the Dangers of Methamphetamines.”
During sis senior year, he filmed the 15-minute film “Spoonaur,” which he wrote and directed. In March Albertson took “Spoonaur” beyond its original digital camera shoot when he re-filmed in six days, this time in Panavision movie format and with a 50-person crew at a southern California high school.
Albertson is out to prove he’s not a wanna-be high school director. He is currently in pre-production for the $1.5 million film “The Standard,” which he wrote as a high school freshman and will direct this summer. He describes the film as a “character study through the period of a school day.” On board for the project is actor Isaiah Washington. During a business meeting, Albertson dropped the rough idea of “The Standard” on Washington, who immediately asked the young director, “How long would it take to get a script?” Two weeks later Albertson had a script and Washington signed on as a co-producer. He plans to shoot the film at various South Whidbey locations this summer.
“My movies are personal stories for me to make,” he said. “It’s important for me to tell a story. There are too many cheesy high school movies out today, and I want to bring teenhood back to the days of ‘Rebel Without a Cause’ and the ‘Last Picture Show,'” he said.
The Talented Ms. Moss
Lately, playwright Marjiann Moss has been dabbling in short-story writing in an attempt to fine tune her play scripts.
Dabbling for Moss has to fit between also working on various scripts and plays, writing and performing poetry both individually and collaboratively, and continuing to build her literary knowledge.
Moss began writing plays in the early 1980s when she got involved in developing theater groups on the island. These include her Puget Sound Playwrights Award-winning script “Moira’s Song,” which Moss started almost 20 years ago and retouched for the competition held at WICA in 1999.
Among her many non-stage writing credits, Moss helped establish Langley Mystery Weekend in 1984 and has remained a co-writer off and on through the event’s 13th season.
“It was great writing for it because it was non-linear and the order in which participants received clues depended on the information they already knew so you really had to think about how it was written,” Moss said.
In fact, much of Moss’ writing is difficult to pigeonhole. “Three Faces of We,” was a poetry collaboration between Moss, Chris Crotty of Langley and Christi Ruscigno of Clinton that was adapted for stage presentation at WICA’s grand opening ceremonies. “Galleleo’s Web” is a non-linear interactive video experience Moss began in 1991. She and videographer Daren Derstine taped 80 hours of video that Moss hopes one day to finish and distribute.
“It’d be nice since the footage we shot was so entertaining and its still a viable venture,” she said.
Not one to talk about her formal education, Moss admits to studying literature from a very young age.
“I’ve been a veracious reader and student all my life,” she said. “If you read you can find things that give you a kinship with the author, and you just don’t get that with today’s TV entertainment.”
Want to be that next big writer, director or producer or in the credit of the latest play? The best thing aspiring film and playwrites can do is sit down and write, according to Moss.
“Key secret if you have ideas for a play, movie or novel is to sit down, polish it and capture the perspective you want to share with your audience,” she said. “All the technical side of things can be learned, the hard part is getting the story down.
The Hustler
Back in Evan’s writing studio, the actor turned writer is all energy. He verbalizes more thoughts in a minute than most and, when he’s alone with his computer and a word processing program, he’s directing those thoughts into scripts.
Prior to settling down on Whidbey, Evans worked in Los Angeles, appearing in over 300 film and television projects and has scripted and directed over a dozen plays including “Club Dead,” “The Man Who Ate His Own Leg,” and “American Buffalo.”
Though he’s ventured into film, his heart remains in writing for theatre.
“When you write for film you have the input of the director, the producers and the production company,” said Evans who believes authors receive the most authentic rendering of their writing on the stage.
Evans said additionally, “Because I write for myself I have the luxury and can afford to alter and rework as I go.”
The South Whidbey arts scene and community support are to thank for the success of local writers, according to Evans.
“I don’t know of any other community that would be as receptive to my work which isn’t obscure but definitely not middle of the road,” he said. “I could never have accomplished in L.A. as quickly as I have here.”
