David Simpatico, Dramatist

davidsimpatico@yahoo.com

Well, it’s been quite a while since I last put something in my blog, and since I’m now in the Roosevelt Hotel waiting for my friends to pick me up for dinner, I thought I’d just say what a momentous summer it’s been for me.  Everything from the death of my father to leaving my day job to finally pursue writing full time, thanks to the guys at Disney and the successful tour of HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL.  Tom Schumacher, Steve Fickinger, Ken Cerniglia, Rick Elyce….these gents gave me the chance to take the step I needed to change my life. And my composer/partner Bryan Louiselle, the brilliant man behind the music for the tour, who created two great new songs, is a constant source of inspiration and knowledge: what he doesn’t know about musical theatre structure (and plain old dramatic structure) doesn’t exist. Forever in their debt.In October, one of my other writing partners, Antonio Mendez, and I stayed in Amsterdam for three weeks of magic. Fantastic.And on top of all that, my husband Robert and I celebrated out 20th anniversary, and yes, in straight years, that’s about 96 years!  He is the most exciting and intoxicating man I’ve ever met. And after 20 years, it is still getting better.  Guess I’m in love, Ma! More anon    some pics:        

The Secret of Life

4 Women, 2 Men

THE SECRET OF LIFE is a series of thematically interconnected monologues about people taking tiny, yet pivotal, steps forward in their lives. The very first piece, IRENE, has been published this year in the Applause anthology, BEST WOMEN’S MONOLOGUES OF THE MILLENNIUM. How’s that for a book title!?

Hope you enjoy.

the-secret-of-life4_95.pdf

Bad Blood

Full-length comedy/drama infused with magic realism

Cast size: 7 men, 2 women playing multiple parts

A Father visits a powerful psychic in order to call his son back from the dead to deal with unfinished business. With a structure inspired by Dickens’ A CHRISTMAS CAROL, this play uses liberal doses of magic realism to explore one man’s journey as he chooses between what he’s been taught, and what he truly wants: to love his son.

It has gone through many workshops and readings, and is looking for a production. Let me know what you think

bad-blood-final-master.pdf

Two high school girls discover the perfect diet…but at such a cost! Dark and funny, it goes where you least expect it to go.

This is the first movie I made, co-directed by Matt Brown. We had a blast and learned a lot in one weekend. This ain’t for the faint of heart, but I think it’s funny as hell.

Please note, no infants were harmed during the making of this film. Let me know what you think.

well, this could turn out to be an interesting outlet for warming up the juices in the morning. the creative ones, i mean. what is up with deniro as the gay pirate in startdust, half of the time he’s phoning it in and the other half he’s great because despite the fact that he’s phoning it in, he is still a gay pirate dressing up in ladies undergarments. glad he took the part since its not something i think he might normally do, but not all that satisfying.
this piece of exquisite art is by my sister in law tara, a cutout that houses tiny universes of silent curiouslity and secrets. i love it.

still getting the hang of blogging, does it just mean that i can pontificate or run on endlessly, like chatting about my lunch of cottage cheese and dried fibre yesterday, does that qualify as a blog? or should i write pithy self contained snppets, movie reviews, comments about herr bush, thoughts about theatre…im guessing a little of everything. but who reads this stuff? who even knows I am here, yelling into the wilderness? who cares?

hmmmmmmm

last summer at the world premiere of HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL, my stage adapation, up at Stage Door Manor. On my left is Bryan Louiselle, my brilliant partner, who adapted the score and wrote two new songs.

Ten variations on a Son coming out to his Father.

This is the second film I made with Matt Brown and Hot Pink Tux. This time we had two cameras and shot over several weekends in multiple locations. Our two actors, Bobby Funaro and Tim Eulich, were fantastic to work with. They worked wonderfully together, especially considering the intensity of some of the scenes.
Hope you enjoy. Let me know what you think.

Here is where I’ll post videos of projects I’ve worked on, updates on things I’m writing and other things that might be on my mind (movie reviews, etc.)

A ten minute musical comedy about creating a ten minute musical comedy in two days. This was part of the incredible Raw Impressions festival,which mixed and matched writers, composers and directors, gave us a cast on the spot and two days to write the piece, two days to shoot and a few more to edit. PennySeal Productions produced, everyone was fantastic to work with. Jeff Blumenkrantz wrote wonderful songs, and Lonny Price did a great job directing. All in all, a blast. Please let me know what you think of it.