Press Releases
Below are press releases regarding Mr. Loverde's various productions.
SANTA MONICA, CA., July 17, 1998 -- The traditionally conservative Catholic Church is taking a plunge into the unknown next weekend as it hosts Mergers and Acquisitions, a play abut love, sex, and relationships in the 90s. The play, penned by playwright and director Emmett Loverde, is sure to bring laughter as well as controversy to the church where he has been a member for most of the decade.
Emmett Loverde's writing experience is extensive and varied. He has written for computer and multimedia games and applications as well as descriptive blurbs that appear on the backs of videotape and laserdisc jackets. His passion, however, is for the stage and screen.
A storyteller from an early age, his career began at seven years old when he performed finger puppet plays with the "Sesame Street" characters to the sounds he would record off the television. But it was during his eighth grade performance as Riff in West Side Story that Emmett had his first truly transcendent experience and knew what he would do with his life: entertain. And entertain he will.
Performances of Mergers and Acquisitions will be at 8 p.m. on Friday, July 24, at 2 and 8 p.m. on Saturday, July 25, and at 7:30 p.m. on Sunday, July 26. Tickets are $8.00 apiece and parking is free. St. Monica's Church is located at 725 California Avenue, Santa Monica, one block North of Wilshire Boulevard between Lincoln Boulevard and Seventh Street.
Tickets may be purchased by mail from the address below (all checks must be made out to "St. Monica's"). Information is available by phone at (310) 207-4475 or via the Internet at <http://hometown.aol.com/ecloverde>. Elderly or handicapped seating is available.
Orders should be mailed to:
Mergers and Acquisitions
725 California Avenue
Santa Monica, California 90403
Hollywood, CA, August 27, 1998 -- After a very successful run in Santa Monica in July, UCLA Theater Arts alumnus (and former Daily Bruin scribe) Emmett Loverde's new romantic comedy Mergers and Acquisitions will open at the prestigious Hudson Backstage Theatre in Hollywood. The live show, a madcap look at love and commitment, premieres Sunday, September 13 for an extended run through December.
The long, strange journey that Mergers has taken to the Hudson is almost as twisted as Loverde's own writing career has been. The play, a collection of four short plays connected by recurring characters and overlapping stories, began life three years ago as a 25-page film script entitled Come As You Are about a businessman proposing to his girlfriend by making her a formal business presentation, complete with charts and graphs. "I never set out to make Come As You Are a one-act," Loverde laughed during a recent interview, "but the story was simply as long as it wanted to be. It rebuffed all my efforts to turn it into a full-length movie." The story also seemed to prefer the stage to the big screen. "Three characters, one room," Loverde said, "and dozens upon dozens of ways to play it. I'd much rather have this material be interpreted by many different actors than have performances locked onto film that may not be the best ones possible."
Loverde started writing companion pieces for his lone one-act in the style of Neil Simon's collection of three one-acts, Plaza Suite. He ended up with a total of four short plays, which varied in tone from bittersweet to outright farce. He named his "comic cycle" Mergers and Acquisitions and presented it as a staged reading in 1996 at St. Monica's Catholic Church in Santa Monica. That reading proved so successful that Loverde presented a slightly revised version a year later at The Playwrights Kitchen Ensemble's Monday night reading series at the Coronet Theatre. The cast included Scott Wolf, of TV's "Party of Five"; and Taylor Nichols, of the films Metropolitan, Barcelona, and The Last Days of Disco. Another smashing success.
Tired of watching his work performed merely as readings, Loverde approached St. Monica's Church about producing Mergers for four benefit performances. Thus Mergers finally had its world premiere in St. Monica's auditorium on July 24, 1998 before an enthusiastic audience of 161. Over 450 tickets were sold and over $3000 was raised for the church.
In spite of that production's success, Loverde insisted on tinkering with his script, cutting "excess material", inserting additional appearances for two popular characters, and entirely replacing one of the one-acts with a new one. "I just felt there was more we could do," he says.
Loverde believes the comedy in Mergers and Acquisitions will appeal especially to students and young adults. In one scene, a young man greets his blind date, pulls an egg timer out of his pocket, sets it for five minutes, and starts talking. She doesn't like this. She likes it even less when the timer goes off and he asks her whether she would like to go to bed with him. Amid her infuriated sputtering, he explains that "it's common knowledge that a woman knows how far she'll go with you in bed within five minutes of meeting you." And chaos ensues. "These stories are about communication, about listening to each other," he says. "About how, more often than not, two people want the same thing, but neither is putting it in a way that the other can understand. And about how an egg timer is rarely the best way to start a romance."
In the Fall of 1984, Loverde arrived at UCLA intending to be a film major. In 1986, he petitioned for UCLA's program and, to back himself up, applied to NYU's film program as a transfer student. UCLA turned him down and NYU accepted him -- but would not offer him enough financial aid. Humbled and frustrated, he resumed his studies at UCLA as a Theatre major (yet continued to make films and videos "on the sly" for independent study projects). He began writing for the Daily Bruin in 1987 mainly because he was unhappy with the paltry coverage that (as it was known at that time) the College of Fine Arts performances were receiving. He eventually became a Bruin Staff Writer for the "Review" section (which was renamed "Arts and Entertainment" during his tenure), covering Fine Arts events through reviews, interviews, and a weekly North-Campus-centered humor column called "The North Poll".
Since graduating from UCLA in 1989, Loverde's career path has taken him through countless (as in "hundreds") of jobs and residence in New York, Berkeley, Chicago, Washington DC, and finally back to Los Angeles (which he regards as home). In addition to his work for the stage and screen, he has written for computer games and programs, software instruction manuals, even the descriptive blurbs that appear on the backs of videotape boxes. He is even working on a novel that he began as an undergraduate.
Loverde maintains that his work usually derives from first- or second-hand experiences. He listens carefully to what his friends tell him about their rocky and often hysterically funny love lives, then shapes these into stories "that make sense to me," he says. "If a girl's blind date were to pull out an egg timer, what could he possibly say that would keep her from running screaming in the other direction? If I can learn how these people fall in love, maybe I can make sense of my own messy love life."
For Loverde, making sense of things has always been something he does through drama. "I can't help it," he laughs. "When I was five, I was making finger puppets. When I was thirteen, I played the Big Bad Wolf in a Spanish version of Little Red Riding Hood. These are signs." A blazing sign appeared during his first year at UCLA. "I rewrote a couple of Prince's songs from Purple Rain and threw together a sketch about how bad dorm food tastes. My Fraternity entered it in Spring Sing and we won first place. I figured I was onto something."
Loverde's professional career has included a stint co-writing with Larry Maraviglia two screenplays and a television project for George Hamilton, none of which has yet made it to the big or small screen. "We wrote Love at Second Bite for George -- the sequel to Love at First Bite," recalls Loverde. "That was funny stuff, full of jokes about Dracula getting old and his former victims now preferring to be terrorized by a younger, sexier vampire."
But most of the attention Loverde was receiving was for his stage work. In October, 1996, his comedy RSVP Regrets Only was published by Oregon's Grimpenmire Press. Grimpenmire closed up shop a year later and Loverde was left without a publisher. To rebound, he and co-producer Steve Sheeren filmed a "sample scene" from his feature length screen comedy Snacking.
In May, 1998, while Loverde was seeking potential investors for Snacking, his one act Good Business Sense was performed by the Ritz Theater of Southern New Jersey. Then in June and July, Gerald Castillo directed a staged reading of Loverde's comedy The Maginot Line at The Bitter Truth Theater in North Hollywood. Yet, for every success, Loverde has known countless failures. "If I had a dime for every time I was approached regarding a project that didn't take off," he laments, "I'd...well, I'm not a good enough writer to come up with a brilliant new way to finish that sentence, but you get my drift."
Mergers and Acquisitions will be performed at the Hudson Backstage Theatre in Hollywood every Sunday evening at 7 p.m. starting September 13, 1998. Tickets are $15.00 and are available by calling (213) 660-TKTS. The theatre is located at 6539 Santa Monica Boulevard between Cahuenga and Highland. More information is available at <http://hometown.aol.com/ecloverde>.
HOLLYWOOD, CA, AUGUST 27, 1998 -- Emmett Loverde's new romantic comedy Mergers and Acquisitions opens Sunday, September 13 for an extended run through December at the prestigious Hudson Backstage Theatre in Hollywood. The journey to the stage of this hysterically funny look at love and commitment has been anything but smooth and direct.
Mergers has been performed in various forms from coast to coast over the last two years, most recently in the auditorium of St. Monica's Catholic Church in Santa Monica last July. A theatre group, the Vigilante Theatre Company of Manhattan, has taped a portion of the play and will be cablecasting it in New York later this Fall. That same excerpt from the script was performed as a one-act last May by the Ritz Theater of Southern New Jersey. A year before that, The Playwrights' Kitchen Ensemble presented a staged reading of the entire script at the Coronet Theatre featuring a cast including Scott Wolf of TV's "Party of Five" and Taylor Nichols of the films Metropolitan, Barcelona, and The Last Days of Disco. And, two years ago, Mergers and Acquisitions was first presented in a staged reading in a living room at St. Monica's. Every step of the way, Loverde has been revising and polishing the Mergers script -- to the delight of larger and larger audiences.
Mergers is a collection of four short plays connected by recurring characters and intertwining lives.
The first play, called Love Fax, concerns a young man so befuddled by his impending engagement to a woman he does not love that he stumbles into a bar in his underwear. The lovely, lonely barfly he meets there proceeds to only befuddle him more.
In A Timely Maneuver, a young man greets his blind date, pulls an egg timer out of his pocket, sets it for five minutes, and starts talking. When the timer goes off and he asks her whether she would like to go to bed with him because "it's common knowledge that a woman knows how far she'll go with you in bed within five minutes of meeting you."
In Play How You Play, a friendly game of pool between two lovers goes haywire when she admits to him that she is actually a professional pool player, a fact that she's been hiding to protect his ego. Naturally, through the twisted logic that only exists between the young-and-in-love, this revelation leads to recriminations, accusations of infidelity, and other verbal foreplay.
And in Good Business Sense, a New York yuppie makes the boardroom presentation of his life: a proposal of marriage to his equally industrious girlfriend. But she wants flowers and violins, not charts and graphs.
Mergers and Acquisitions will be performed at the Hudson Backstage Theatre in Hollywood every Sunday evening at 7 p.m. starting September 13, 1998. Tickets are $15.00 and are available by calling (213) 660-TKTS. The theatre is located at 6539 Santa Monica Boulevard between Cahuenga and Highland. More information is available at <http://hometown.aol.com/ecloverde>.
HOLLYWOOD, CA, SEPTEMBER 6, 1998 -- Emmett Loverdeís new romantic comedy Mergers and Acquisitions opens Sunday, September 13 for an extended run through December at the prestigious Hudson Backstage Theatre in Hollywood. Mergers is a collection of four short plays connected by recurring characters and intertwining lives.
The first play, called Love Fax, concerns a young man so befuddled by his impending engagement to a woman whom he does not love that he stumbles into a bar in his underwear. Of course, the lovely, lonely barfly he meets there proceeds to only befuddle him more.
In A Timely Maneuver, a young man greets his blind date, pulls an egg timer out of his pocket, sets it for five minutes, and starts talking. When the timer goes off, he asks her whether she would like to go to bed with him because "it's common knowledge that a woman knows how far she'll go with you in bed within five minutes of meeting you." Uh, chaos ensues.
In Play How You Play, a friendly game of pool between two lovers goes haywire when she admits to him that she is actually a professional pool player, a fact that she's been hiding to protect his ego. Naturally, through the twisted logic that exists only between the young-and-in-love, this revelation leads to recriminations, accusations of infidelity, and other verbal foreplay.
And in Good Business Sense, a New York yuppie makes the boardroom presentation of his life: a proposal of marriage to his equally industrious girlfriend. Everything is perfect-including the ring for which his assistants shopped everywhere. But she wants flowers and violins, not charts and graphs.
Mergers and Acquisitions will be performed at the Hudson Backstage Theatre in Hollywood every Sunday evening at 7 p.m. starting September 13, 1998. Tickets are $15.00 and are available by calling (213) 660-TKTS. The theatre is located at 6539 Santa Monica Boulevard between Cahuenga and Highland. More information is available at <http://hometown.aol.com/ecloverde>.
Los Angeles area theatre-goers
Mergers and Acquisitions -- a new romantic comedy
Every Sunday at 7 p.m. at least through December 13, 1998
The Hudson Backstage Theatre, 6539 Santa Monica Boulevard, Hollywood, California 90038
This brilliant new romantic comedy starring Gregg Binkley, Amy Edlin, Tom Sean Foley, Emmett Loverde, Ferrell Marshall, Doug Mortenson, and Julia Murphy will capture the hearts of the audience and leave them on the floor laughing! It is the latest must-see by playwright and director Emmett Loverde, a stage veteran and graduate of UCLA's Theatre program.
All seats are $15 and can be purchased by phone at (323) 660-TKTS. Group sales ($10 apiece for groups of six or more) can be purchased at (310) 399-3868.
Go to <http:\\hometown.aol.com\ecloverde> for more info.
HOLLYWOOD, CA, SEPTEMBER 16, 1998 -- As a Theater Arts student at UCLA in the late '80s, Emmett Loverde never dreamed that he'd one day be at the vanguard of a new wave of stage comedy that's based on the classic stuff. "I never would have called Neil Simon and The Marx Brothers 'old-fashioned'," he says, naming two of his favorite inspirations. "But what's making audiences laugh today is far different." Loverde is currently demonstrating what he thinks is funny in his romantic comedy Mergers and Acquisitions, now playing Sundays at 7 p.m. at the Hudson Backstage Theatre in Hollywood.
Mergers combines the timeless quick repartee found in His Girl Friday and The Philadelphia Story with such modern situations as a New York yuppie so business-minded that he proposes marriage to his girlfriend using financial charts and graphs. "These are new situations handled in a tried-and-true style," Loverde says. "I'm more interested in what amuses than what shocks."
One of the things Loverde loves most about the stage is the chance to polish a script. "With a movie, you get one shot," he notes. "If the lines aren't right or the performances don't work, you've lost your chance." With Mergers, a collection of four intertwined love stories about young people meeting, bickering, and falling in love, Loverde says "we took our time finding the best dialogue, and the best ways to play it." The Hudson engagement is actually the fifth incarnation Mergers has had. Previous mountings include two staged readings in Los Angeles and two full productions last summer, one in Santa Monica and one outside Philadelphia. "Now," Loverde adds with a smile, "the show is stronger than ever."
Mergers and Acquisitions runs at the Hudson Backstage Theatre in Hollywood every Sunday at 7 p.m. at least through November, 1998. Tickets are $15.00 and are available by calling (323) 660-TKTS. The theatre is located at 6539 Santa Monica Boulevard between Cahuenga and Highland. More information is available at <http://hometown.aol.com/ecloverde>.
HOLLYWOOD, CA, OCTOBER 5, 1998 -- On the heels of enthusiastic reviews and strong ticket sales, Emmett Loverde's Mergers and Acquisitions, now playing Sundays at 7 p.m. at the Hudson Backstage, has been extended through December 13.
Last week, the Pepperdine University Graphic and the USC Daily Trojan each delivered glowing reviews of the romantic comedy, calling it "charming", "witty", "engaging", and "nothing short of enjoyable".
Graphic staff writer Gretta Moore had this to say: "The props used [in Mergers and Acquisitions] were sparse and of little taste -- a card table served as both bar booth and elegant dining for two. However, excellent acting and a script charged with wit and humor made up for the lack of visual aesthetics."
Trojan staff writer Jessica Emerson noted: "Acquisitions... [is] quite an engaging play for the budding writer, and features a cast of impressive young actors."
One scene in particular delighted both critics, a vignette called A Timely Maneuver in which "Loverde plays Reggie Blake, a character who at first seems loud and obnoxious, but turns out to be one of those sensitive 90s guys. He's meeting Jane Marwood (Amy Edlin) a snooty but attractive upper-class girl who acts appalled by the egg timer despite having set her own watch to time Reggie... The scene unfolds comically after Reggie asks Jane if she would go to bed with him and the scene offers a few hysterical insights into women's dating habits" (per Ms. Emerson). Ms. Moore commented about the same scene: "[In] Scene Two (my personal favorite)... Reggie casually explains that women -- within the first five minutes of meeting a man -- decide whether or not they will sleep with them. After much debate, Sarah explains what women really decide in the first five minutes: whether or not they could marry the man."
Encouraged by such strong critical responses and by rapidly growing ticket sales, the producers of Mergers and Acquisitions have extended the run at least through December 13, 1998. Performances are at the Hudson Backstage Theatre in Hollywood every Sunday at 7 p.m. Tickets are $15.00 and are available by calling (323) 660-TKTS. The theatre is located at 6539 Santa Monica Boulevard between Cahuenga and Highland. More information -- including links to the complete text of the actual reviews on the Graphic's and the Trojan's Web sites -- is available at <http://hometown.aol.com/ecloverde>.
HOLLYWOOD, CA, OCTOBER 15, 1998 - On the sale of enthusiastic reviews and strong ticket sales, Emmett Loverde's Mergers and Acquisitions, now playing Sundays at 7 p.m. at the Hudson Backstage, has been extended through December 13.
Last week, the Pepperdine University Graphic and the USC Daily Trojan each delivered glowing reviews of the romantic comedy, calling it "charming", "witty", "engaging", and "nothing short of enjoyable". Other publications planning to publish reviews of the play in upcoming issues include the LA Weekly, The Los Angeles Sentinel, and the Cal State Fullerton Daily Titan.
Graphic staff writer Gretta Moore had this to say: "The props used [in Mergers and Acquisitions] were sparse and of little taste -- a card table served as both bar booth and elegant dining for two. However, excellent acting and a script charged with wit and humor made up for the lack of visual aesthetics."
Trojan staff writer Jessica Emerson noted: "Acquisitions... [is] quite an engaging play for the budding writer, and features a cast of impressive young actors."
One scene in particular delighted both critics, a vignette called A Timely Maneuver in which "Loverde plays Reggie Blake, a character who at first seems loud and obnoxious, but turns out to be one of those sensitive 90s guys. He's meeting Jane Marwood (Amy Edlin) a snooty but attractive upper-class girl who acts appalled by the egg timer despite having set her own watch to time Reggie... The scene unfolds comically after Reggie asks Jane if she would go to bed with him and the scene offers a few hysterical insights into women's dating habits" (per Ms. Emerson). Ms. Moore commented about the same scene: "[In] Scene Two (my personal favorite)... Reggie casually explains that women -- within the first five minutes of meeting a man -- decide whether or not they will sleep with them. After much debate, Sarah explains what women really decide in the first five minutes: whether or not they could marry the man."
Encouraged by such strong critical responses and by rapidly growing ticket sales, the producers of Mergers and Acquisitions have extended the run at least through December 13, 1998. Performances are at the Hudson Backstage Theatre in Hollywood every Sunday at 7 p.m. Tickets are $15.00 and are available by calling (323) 660-TKTS. Groups of six or more can call (310) 399-3868 for 1/3 off (ask for Ora B. Nance). The theatre is located at 6539 Santa Monica Boulevard between Cahuenga and Highland. More information -- including links to the complete text of the actual reviews on the Graphic's and the Trojan's Web sites -- is available at <http://hometown.aol.com/ecloverde>.
HOLLYWOOD, CA, OCTOBER 29, 1998 -- Back Stage West Magazine published a review today of Emmett Loverde's stage comedy about love and commitment Mergers and Acquisitions, noting that the script "presents a fascinating extreme in the dating ritual."
Cast members singled out for accolades by BSW included Julia Murphy, whose work was called "snappy" and "skillful", and Loverde himself ("Loverde coolly naturalizes his character's laughs and his arguments...")
Mergers and Acquisitions is a collection of four loosely-connected one-act plays. The fourth play, called Good Business Sense, was granted an "Honorable Mention" in the Orange County Playwrights Alliance's first annual Page to Stage competition. Marilynn Bates, the competition's coordinator, noted in a letter to Loverde dated October 2nd that "it was voted [that the OCPA] grant honorable mention to you for your clever concept and good writing." The OCPA can be reached at P.O. Box 6927, Fullerton, CA 92834, <http://www.ocpaplaywrights.org>.
Cast members joining or re-joining Mergers and Acquisitions in the coming weeks include Jonathan Arkin, Michael Artura, Candace Duke, Lynne Donahoe, Gina Mandala, Taylor Nichols, and Meredith Oritt. Departing cast members include Amy Edlin, Tom Sean Foley, and Ferrell Marshall.
Mr. Nichols co-starred in Metropolitan, Barcelona, and The Last Days of Disco and frequently guest stars on TV's "Wings" and "News Radio". Mr. Artura's recent appearances include Apt Pupil (look for him in the trailer currently running on television) and TV's "Another World" and "Loving". Mr. Arkin's extensive, multi-national career on stage features numerous Shakespearean roles, including with the famed New York Shakespeare Festival in Central Park. Ms. Donahoe's lengthy resume includes the roles of Cosette in the U.S. stage tour of Les Miserables, Robert Altman's H.E.A.L.T.H., and a workshop version of Bram Stoker's Dracula directed by Francis Ford Coppola. Ms. Duke frequently appears on TV's "The Young and the Restless".
Mergers and Acquisitions plays every Sunday at 7 p.m. at the Hudson Backstage Theatre in Hollywood through December 13, 1998. Tickets are $15.00 and are available by calling (323) 660-TKTS. Groups of six or more can call (310) 399-3868 for 1/3 off (ask for Ora B. Nance). The theatre is located at 6539 Santa Monica Boulevard between Cahuenga and Highland. More information is available at <http://hometown.aol.com/ecloverde>.
HOLLYWOOD, CA, NOVEMBER 2, 1998 -- Emmett Loverde's play Mergers and Acquisitions will be given a special "pay-what-you-can" performance on Sunday, November 8, 1998 at 7 p.m. All patrons are asked to pay as much as they can afford for admission to the romantic comedy, which has been running at the Hudson Backstage Theatre in Hollywood since September 13.
Recognizing that many members of the play's target audience are on tight budgets, the producers have scheduled this one-time-only arrangement to accomodate them.
Patrons are asked to make reservations by calling (310) 207-4475. This new number replaces the old ticket service line, which was (323) 660-8587.
Mergers and Acquisitions plays every Sunday at 7 p.m. at the Hudson Backstage Theatre in Hollywood through December 13, 1998. Groups of six or more can call (310) 399-3868 for 1/3 off (ask for Ora B. Nance). The theatre is located at 6539 Santa Monica Boulevard between Cahuenga and Highland. More information is available at <http://hometown.aol.com/ecloverde>.
HOLLYWOOD, CA, NOVEMBER 11, 1998 -- The producers of the romantic stage comedy Mergers and Acquisitions, currently running at the Hudson Backstage Theatre, have announced a special "USC/Pepperdine Night" for this Sunday's performance, November 15, 1998. All University of Southern California and Pepperdine University students, faculty, and staff members will be admitted for $5.00 apiece on presentation of valid University identification. The ticket price is normally $15.00.
Patrons may reserve their tickets by calling (310) 207-4475.
This announcement comes on the heels of a series of positive reviews the play received by Back Stage West/Drama-Logue, the USC Daily Trojan, and the Pepperdine Graphic Weekly.
The Hudson Backstage Theatre is located
at 6539 Santa Monica Boulevard, a few blocks east of Highland,
at the corner of Hudson and Santa Monica Boulevard in Hollywood.
Valet parking is available. Curtain time is 7 p.m.
The play runs every Sunday evening at 7 p.m. through December
13. Reservations can be made by calling (310) 207-4475 from 10
a.m. to 10 p.m. Half-price public rush is available ten minutes
prior to curtain; inquiries should be made in person at the time
of the performance. A special rate is available for groups of
six or larger by calling Ora B. Nance at On The House, 310-399-3868.
More information about the play and the performers can be found
at <http://hometown.aol.com/ecloverde>.
HOLLYWOOD, CA, NOVEMBER 2, 1998 -- Taylor Nichols, co-star of two of independent filmmaker Whit Stillman's films, the Oscar-nominated Metropolitan and the acclaimed Barcelona, will be returning this weekend to a role he originated in workshop performances of Emmett Loverde's Mergers and Acquisitions, which has been playing since September to critical acclaim and enthusiastic crowds at the Hudson Backstage Theatre.
Mr. Nichols' recent big- and small-screen appearances also include Stillman's The Last Days of Disco, "Norma Jean and Marilyn", The American President, and Congo. His face is well-known to nighttime soap and sitcom fans who've enjoyed his winning turns on "ER", "News Radio", "Wings", "The Larry Sanders Show", and "Chicago Hope". Mr. Nichols was co-star and associate producer of the independent film The Next Step.
Mr. Loverde and Mr. Nichols teamed up in 1996 and again in 1997 for two workshop productions of Loverde's romantic comedy Mergers and Acquisitions. Loverde cast him as "Barth Braniff", an uptight yuppie who attempts to propose to his longtime girlfriend by way of a full-fledged business presentation, complete with charts, graphs, and proposed names for the babies (of which he predicts the couple will produce 2.6). The final workshop took place in April, 1997 in front of a crowd of over 250 at L.A.'s Coronet Theater as part of Dan Lauria's famed Playwrights' Kitchen Ensemble series.
Mergers and Acquisitions plays two more Sundays, December 6 and December 13, at 7 p.m. at the Hudson Backstage Theatre in Hollywood. Groups of six or more can call (310) 399-3868 for 1/3 off (ask for Ora B. Nance). Industry comps are available by calling Brenda Sherry at (310) XXX-XXXX. The theatre is located at 6539 Santa Monica Boulevard (at the corner of Hudson) between Cahuenga and Highland. More information is available at <http://hometown.aol.com/ecloverde>.
SANTA MONICA, CA, JANUARY 7, 1999 -- St. Monica Church in Santa Monica, the Catholic parish which debuted Los Angeles playwright Emmett Loverde's romantic comedy Mergers and Acquisitions in the summer of 1998, will present a "sneak preview" of Loverde's latest play on Friday, January 15 at 8 p.m. The reading will take place in the Cantwell Auditorium on the St. Monica parish campus. The new comedy, Santa's Letters, will be given a full production in the Auditorium next summer.
Santa's Letters asks "What would Santa Claus do if a child wrote asking him not to come?" A little boy named Edward, only eleven years old, makes this plea, adding "there's too much yelling at my house and I don't want you to hear it." Eddie's sad request makes Santa and his wisecracking elf Vinnie resort to hilarious antics to discover the source of the yelling and bring peace to Eddie's loving but troubled family.
On January 15, Santa's Letters will be read before a live audience by professional actors. The objective of the reading, says Loverde, "is to give everyone -- actors, author, designers, producers, and, of course, the audience -- ideas for the full production -- a combination sneak preview and test screening!" He adds with a laugh, "It's also a wonderful chance to interest people in working on the play next summer!"
Admission to Santa's Letters is free, and reservations are recommended though not required. St. Monica's Church is located at 725 California Avenue, one block north of Wilshire Boulevard between Lincoln Boulevard and Seventh Street. There is free parking on the St. Monica's campus. Information and reservations are available at (310) 207-4475 or via the Internet at <http://hometown.aol.com/ecloverde>. Elderly or handicapped seating is available, and persons interested in getting involved with next summer's production of Santa's Letters will be able to sign up at the performance.
Santa's Letters is non-religious in nature, and membership in the St. Monica Parish Community is not required for involvement in the project.
LOS ANGELES, CA, January 6, 2000 -- The New York International Independent Film and Video Festival will premiere Emmett Loverde's comic satire of film festivals called Snacking on Sunday, February 6, 2000 at 7 p.m. at Le Bar Bat (311 W. 57th St., NYC).
Snacking depicts the arrival of a group of pompous filmmakers and performers at "The Bitter Leaf Film Festival", a low-rent affair at a broken-down summer camp in the mountains of Southern California. What sets the Bitter Leaf Festival apart? All of its entries cannot have cost more than $500 to make.
This opens the door to such glories as Black, an 'art' film which is just that: black. No picture. A bit of music. Some dialogue in an unidentifiable language. Subtitles? Yes; they, too, are black.
Or The Death of Love, the new piece of masteration from the master behind Turtles from Hell. (Maybe it's called "In Love with Death"...or "For Love of Death"...or "My Dead Lover"...)
What about The Trouble with Myrtle, "the heart-breaking account of a middle-aged woman's struggle with incontinence"? Isn't it about time the story got told once and for all?
Screenwriter, actor, director, playwright, editor, camera operator, stage manager, sound editor, stunt double...Emmett Loverde has done them all. (Okay, maybe not stunt double.)
A storyteller from an early age, his career began at seven years old when he performed "Sesame Street" finger puppet plays using soundtracks he'd recorded off the television. But it was as Riff in West Side Story in eighth grade that Emmett finally understood what he would do with his life: entertain.
He is a native of Chicago and grew up in Berkeley, California. He received a bachelors in Theater, Film, and Television from UCLA. He has written extensively for stage, screen, television, and computer/multimedia games and applications. He has even written the descriptive blurbs that appear on the backs of videotape and laserdisc jackets.
In 1996, his stage comedy RSVP Regrets Only was published by Oregon's Grimpenmire Press. Also in 1996 he directed a staged reading of his comedy Mergers and Acquisitions in Santa Monica, California. The following April, Mergers and Acquisitions was given a staged reading by The Playwrights' Kitchen Ensemble in Los Angeles. The cast featured Scott Wolf, of TV's "Party of Five". In 1997 Mr. Loverde directed and appeared in a staged reading of his comedy The Maginot Line in Santa Monica.
1998 was quite busy: Mr. Loverde's stage comedy Good Business Sense was performed as part of an annual festival of new plays produced by the Ritz Theater Company of New Jersey; his comedy Come as You Are was produced for cable television by New York's Vigilante Theater Company; The Maginot Line was given a staged reading by The Craft Group's Theatre of the Ear Ensemble at the Bitter Truth Theatre in North Hollywood; and Mr. Loverde himself directed two full productions of Mergers and Acquisitions, one in Santa Monica and the other at the prestigious Hudson Backstage Theatre in Hollywood.
In 1999, Mr. Loverde focused on his body of film work. He completed Snacking (premiering at NY Film & Video) and completed shooting/began post-production of his comedy about phone wackos Cranky Call and entered pre-production/casting of a new comic fantasy called Professor Terwilliger Kernagan, Noted Futurist. He looks forward to completing both new projects by Summer 2000.
Mr. Loverde's Web address is <http://hometown.aol.com/ecloverde>.
The New York International Independent Film and Video Festival runs from February 5 through 15, 2000, kicking off at Madison Square Garden for an evening of celebration with the industry's most promising and prominent film and videomakers. The Festival will host over 300 new films, videos, artists, sculptors, and performing artists.
The September 1999 NYIIFV Festival featured such films as Gerge Bogdanich's Yugoslavia: The Avoidable War; Bill Fishman's romantic comedy Desperate But Not Serious starring Christine Taylor, Paget Brewster, Claudia Schiffer, John Corbett and Max Perlich; Merchants of Venus starring Michael York; and its Latin Film Series included Dos Corazones, Los Secretos, Pasa Un Angel, and Los 3 Cielos.
Previous NYIIFVFs screened Why Did We Laugh, the Sam Kinison documentary; The Definite Maybe starring Ally Sheedy, Roy Scheider, Al Franken, and Teri Garr; and Luciano Saber's Placebo Effect.
San Francisco, CA, January 25, 2000 -- A week and a half before its premiere at The New York International Independent Film and Video Festival, Emmett Loverde's comic satire of film festivals Snacking is being added to the smash film site IFILM.COM.
IFILM.COM is part of a new breed of Web site that shows short and feature-length films online and free of charge to anyone with a connection to the Internet -- including such television-based services as WebTV.
The site's popularity has exploded following high-profile articles in such entertainment bibles as Entertainment Weekly and Premiere magazine -- and the word is that Hollywood is trolling the site and others like it in search of the next generation of filmmaking talent.
The New York International Independent Film and Video Festival runs from February 5 through 15, 2000, kicking off at Madison Square Garden. The Festival will host over 300 new films, videos, artists, sculptors, and performing artists. Snacking will be shown as part of the Festival on Sunday, February 6, 2000 at 7 p.m. at Le Bar Bat (311 W. 57th St., NYC).
Snacking depicts the arrival of a group of pompous filmmakers and performers at "The Bitter Leaf Film Festival", a low-rent affair at a broken-down summer camp in the mountains of Southern California. What sets the Bitter Leaf Festival apart is that none of its entries can have cost more than $500 to make.
This opens the door to such glories as Black, an 'art' film which is just that: black. No picture. A bit of music. Some dialogue in an unidentifiable language. Subtitles? Yes; they, too, are black. Or The Death of Love, new from the master behind Turtles from Hell. (Maybe it's called "In Love with Death"...or "For Love of Death"...or "My Dead Lover"...) What about The Trouble with Myrtle, "the heart-breaking account of a middle-aged woman's struggle with incontinence"?
Writer, actor, and director Emmett Loverde <http://hometown.aol.com/ecloverde> is delighted that both the online and the film festival worlds have embraced his acidic little fable, but is also a tad puzzled. "The scary thing is that most of the zany characters in the film are based upon real people and wild films they actually made," he laments. "I didn't go that far beyond the edge of reality."
Some of Mr. Loverde's written work is currently available online at MightyWords.com.
Anyone interested in comedy and anyone who takes themselves way too seriously
Snacking -- the film festival comedy
Any time you're on the Internet and/or Sunday, February 6, 2000 at 7 p.m.
<http://www.ifilm.com/films.taf?film_id=71026> (or search ifilm.com) and/or Le Bar Bat (311 W. 57th St., NYC; 212-307-7228; <http://www.lebarbat.com>)
This hilarious satire of film festivals and the people in them will have audiences shaking with laughter -- particularly a film festival audience. A great chance to see work from exciting new filmmaker Emmett Loverde (<http://hometown.aol.com/ecloverde>).
Go online to <http://www.ifilm.com/films.taf?film_id=71026> (or search ifilm.com) and/or for tickets and information, call 212-777-7100 or go to <http://www.nyfilmvideo.com>.
Press queries about the Festival: 212-387-0651. Past press coverage of the NYIIFVF has been provided by E! Entertainment, New York Magazine, The New York Post, Time Out New York, Index Magazine, The Daily News, Pittsburgh Post Gazette, The Miami New Times -- even Soap Opera Weekly.
<<- - - - This Issue of ZENtertainment
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ScreenStyle.com -- The Screenwriter Store -- is pleased to present Emmett Loverde's new short film SNACKING.
SNACKING is a hilarious send up of film festivals and Hollywood and all the characters looking to "make it in the business". You can watch SNACKING on IFILM.com via: http://www.iflim.com/films.taf?film_id=71026 and on ShortBuzz.com using: http://www.shortbuzz.com/films/snacking.html.
<<- - - - - - - - - - - - - - MUSIC - - - - - - - - - - - - - ->>
BIZKIT & CYPRESS TOUR FOR FREE WITH NAPSTERLIMP BIZKIT, CYPRESS HILL, and a mystery third act will perform at least a month's worth of free concerts around the country, at intimate 3,000-5,000 seat venues.
NAPSTER.COM is sponsoring the tour, which will be stopping in Chicago, Dallas, Minneapolis, Denver, Detroit, Boston, Seattle, New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.
"We believe that the Internet and Napster should not be ignored by the music industry as tools to promote awareness for bands and market music," said BIZKIT's Fred Durst.
"We could care less about the older generation's need to keep doing business as usual; we care more about what our fans want, and our fans want music on the internet."
LIMP BIZKIT's next album has been retitled "Chocolate Starfish And The Hot Dog Flavored Water," and is now scheduled for release in August.
CYPRESS HILL are currently starring in a "So You Wanna be a Superstar" television special airing late nights in most major markets, in promotion of the band's new double album "Skull & Bones."
http://www.limpbizkit.com
http://www.cypressonline.com
http://ww.napster.com
METALLICA DISCUSS LAWSUIT
METALLICA band members Lars Ulrich, James Hetfield, and Jason Newsted will chat online at ARTISTDIRECT.COM and YAHOO! this Tuesday, at 8pm ET, about the lawsuit they've filed against NAPSTER.COM.
The band has dropped USC, YALE, and the UNIVERSITY OF INDIANA from the lawsuit now that their schools have blocked or are controlling access to the site.
http://www.metallica-online.com
http://www.artistdirect.com/metallica
http://chat.yahoo.com
Etc.
Los Angeles, CA, September 17, 2001 -- "Santa's Letters" is the catchy title of Los Angeles filmmaker Emmett Loverde's new take on the legend of St. Nick which debuts next month at the Burbank International Children's Film Festival (www.burbankfilm.org) in Burbank, California.
Santa's Letters asks "What would Santa Claus do if a child wrote asking him not to come?" A little boy named Edward, only ten years old, makes this plea, adding "there's too much yelling at my house." Eddie's sad request spurs Santa and his wisecracking elf Vinnie on to hilarious antics to discover the source of the yelling and bring peace to Eddie's loving but troubled family.
A Web site has been set up to release information about the film at www.santas-letters-movie.com.
Loverde believes Santa's Letters is truly unique in the arena of independent film because of its family orientation. He had this to say in a recent interview:
Q: What do you mean by "family film"?
Emmett Loverde: No sex, no violence, no swearing. Okay, two kisses. But my meaning of "family film" goes deeper. This is something that parents can share with their kids -- and talk about afterward. I don't think parents will simply want to drop their kids off and pick them up afterward -- I think they will enjoy "Santa's Letters" even more than their kids hopefully will.
Q: Why launch a project like this from the independent arena?
EL: I got tired of waiting. I've been working as a playwright and filmmaker for many years, slowly building up a resume and a pile of skills. I was ready to make a feature. Since no one was offering me anything I wanted to do, I did it myself.
Q: But "indie" films seem so edgy and adult-oriented...
EL: Then it's time "indie" film lived up the true meaning of the word. Santa's Letters is every bit is indie as anything else out there: we made it all by ourselves; we didn't get anybody's permission except SAG's; we paid for it ourselves. We aren't using it to sell action figures or trading cards or racing equipment or quartz watches. We even fulfilled most of the Dogme 95 requirements (but the "found props" item was a kicker -- where are you going to "find" an elf suit?)
Q: So naturally this is a Christmas film.
EL: It is and it isn't. The movie depicts what Santa does the rest of the year as well. Did you know he coordinates deliveries with the Easter Bunny, or uses the Tooth Fairy for reconnaissance, or that he keeps Bigfoot and The Abominable Snowman on retainer "for special projects"? In a theatrical release I'm sure the movie's best chance of earning would be around Christmas time, of course. But I'm hoping programmers will disregard the holiday pigeonhole and show the film outside of December.
Q: Will audiences accept a new take on the Santa legend?
EL: The closest thing I've ever seen to Santa being human was in "The Year Without Santa Claus" when it showed him wanting to take a year off. Santa needs to be more real to me than that. And I think a lot of people share my feeling.
Ever since I was little I wanted to know whether Santa got upset sometimes, or tired, or forgot any of us. How could he hit all those houses in one night? Did he read our letters himself or did his people take care of all that? And did he ever encounter a child who didn't think they deserved anything this year?
It's about more than Santa. Much more. But the persona of Santa Claus gives me someone to talk to. Someone to ask questions of. I liked what the editor of the New York Sun told Virginia O'Hanlon, but I wanted to hear Santa put it in his own words. Those words, as I heard them, appear in "Santa's Letters".
Santa's Letters is the story of ten-year-old Edward Krieger, who doesn't want Santa Claus to stop by this year because there's too much yelling at his house.
Claus himself writes back: "Ed, you threw Santa Claus for a loop. The last time somebody told me not to come, the guy's name was Scrooge. I had to send out three of my best people to work him over."
Thus begins an innocent correspondence. But Mr. Claus is a busy man, and Edward is busy himself, growing up, beginning to notice a certain Miss Shannon Lunt... and helping his family through a rough time.
Through letters, Santa inspires Eddie to bring Christmas to his family and friends all year long... even when that means doing something yucky like telling his big sister that he loves her. Of course, Santa picks up a few pointers along the way from his young protege as well.
But as Eddie's family continues to struggle with loss and new hopes, Eddie asks one more Christmas wish of The Fellow In The Red Suit. This time Eddie needs a real miracle.
Length: 100 minutes
Origin: Digital Video
Country: USA (filmed in Los Angeles)
Budget: Under $500,000
Written and Directed by Emmett Loverde
Produced by Lisa Otto
Executive Produced by Emmett Loverde
Music by David Grossman and Erich Izdepski
Starring: Joe Greco, Bill Mendieta, Jonathan Arkin, Mary Laina,
Sally Ann Smith, Tom Schanley, Rena Heinrich, Jillian Crane, and
Andrew Green.
Readers are encouraged to visit the film's Web site at www.santas-letters-movie.com. The site includes an online press kit and tons of crucial information including synopses, behind-the-scenes info, still photos, logos, etc. Mr. Loverde's own Web site, www.emmettloverde.com, has examples of his other writing and film work, including links to two of his comedy shorts that can be seen for free online: Snacking and Cranky Call. He is also a playwright, with several pieces available for reading at Playscripts.com.
SANTA MONICA, CA, November 21, 2005—The Rough Draft Theater Ensemble of Santa Monica will present a bill of original one act plays entitled "Spotlight: Freedom" on Friday and Saturday, December 16 and 17, 2005. The bill features two world premieres: "Spotlight" by Emmett Loverde and "The Placement" by Kevin Rush. The theme of the program is the embracing of certain American freedoms and values and how those may be at risk in the current political environment of this country.
"Spotlight" takes place during a U.S. Senate race as the two opposing candidates and their staffs, supporters, and loved ones attempt to manipulate the media coverage of the race to favor one candidate over the other. The tricks each team employs to grab the spotlight range from the subtle to the nasty and even to the shocking as this riveting and at times hilarious story unfolds. In the end the victor must ponder the ways they squandered their values and the loyalty of others in the race to the top.
"The Placement" is about a schoolteacher who faces charges that he is not exposing his students to the amount of commercial advertising that his school system mandates. As he rebuffs these accusations, he must also contend with a girlfriend who works as a "conver-placement specialist": a person paid by sponsoring firms to interject name brands into her daily interaction with others. In such an environment, the teacher is forced to question his own ideals and values.
Both plays will make extensive use of video technologies in an effort to accentuate and comment on the pervasiveness of the news media in our daily lives.
Performance dates and times: Friday, December 16 at 8 p.m. and Saturday, December 17 at 8 p.m.
"Spotlight: Freedom" will last approximately one hour and forty-five minutes including intermission. A donation of $7 per person is requested. Reservations are suggested (310-399-3362 or bhtjr214@hotmail.com) and advance tickets are available through Plays411.com. Performances will be held in the Cantwell Auditorium of St. Monica’s Church in Santa Monica, 725 California Avenue, 90403.
More information is available at the Rough Draft web site: http://emmettloverde.com/rufdraft/rough-draft.htm or http://roughdrafttheater.com. Author info: emmettloverde.com and Ktrush@yahoo.com.
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