Show Notes
Teacher and script consultant Pilar Alessandra is ending her inspiring and instructive podcast, On the Page, after 19 years and 1000 episodes. Ben Blacker administers Pilar's exit interview, discussing why she started the podcast, invaluable advice gleaned from the writers she's interviewed, the "drunk and naked" early episodes, how to write great dialogue, tips on pitching from her children, podcast as inadvertant autobiography, workflow, her favorite episodes, and more. You can listen to On the Page wherever you get your podcasts, and visit onthepage.tv to find out about Pilar's classes and script consulting. She knows her stuff!
You can watch the No Notes script read show until August 2nd. This is a new staged show in which great pilot scripts are adapted for the stage and performed by brilliant casts. Starring Yvonne Orji (Insecure), Shabana Azeez (The Pitt), Molly Quinn (Castle), Justin Kirk (The Burbs; Weeds), Cooper Tomlinson (Obsessed), Kira Kosarin (The Thundermans), Langston Kerman (Insecure; The Boys), Jessica Garcia (On My Block), Logan Miller (Escape Room; Chicago Med), John Clarence Stewart (Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist), Alex Song-Xia (Rick and Morty), Burl Moseley (Crazy Ex-Girlfriend), and LaNisa Frederick (Jury Duty Presents: Company Retreat). STREAM IT TODAY
THE WRITERS PANEL IS A COMPLETELY INDEPENDENT PRODUCTION. Follow and support the show by subscribing to Ben Blacker's newsletter, Re:Writing, where you'll also get weekly advice from the thousands of writers he's interviewed over the years, as well as access to exclusive live Q&As, meet-ups, and more: benblacker.substack.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
More from The Writers Panel
Whalefall director/co-writer Brian Duffield (Spontaneous; No One Will Save You) and author/co-writer Daniel Kraus (the Pulitzer Prize winning Angel Down) discuss the responsibility of tattooing a movie onto a book, making literal the surreal, the necessary big swing in the movie, being a "form slut," and more.
Joe Port & Joe Wiseman (creators, Eternally Yours; Ghosts) discuss the death and rebirth of their new show (thanks to Dead Pilots Society!), the "easy" eleven year path to getting it on the air, their comedy influences, and more.
Russell T. Davies (Tip Toe; Doctor Who; Queer As Folk) discusses building a story out of anger, his relationship with actors, his response to stupid notes, discovering writing, his unique process, empty staircases, and more.
Anthony King (Jury Duty Presents: Company Retreat; Rooster; The Afterparty) discusses worldbuilding in the real world, what's too funny for reality, lessons learned from Jury Duty that are applicable to traditional script writing, how the game was nearly blown up, and more.
Cassie Pappas (showrunner, Lucky; Silo; Griselda) discusses shooting in Vegas, movies that inspired the tone of Lucky, the emotional guts of the show, getting weird with the writers, showrunning as a "creative team sport," whether or not you need to live in LA to work in TV, and more.