Clinging to the Iceberg
Friday, March 17, 2017 at 8:00 pm
Saturday, March 18, 2017 at 8:00 pm
Adventures of an Irish writer in Hollywood
Celebrate success in honor of St. Patrick
Emmy Award winning screenwriter and playwright (see bio below) RON HUTCHINSON presents stories from the soon-to-be-book of how a lad from County Antrim, Ireland, became the writer for Ben Kingsley, Samuel L. Jackson, Marlon Brando, Robin Williams, Brian Dennehy and Halle Berry.
Presentation directed by Kevin O'Brien.
There will be a talk-back following the performance and an "Irish Reception."
Clinging to the Iceberg in the News
Press release: Screenwriter Clings to Iceberg at Arts on the Lake
About the Event
Born in Ireland and now resident in Brooklyn, RON HUTCHINSON is an Emmy-winning writer for features and television whose career in Hollywood includes exclusive deals at HBO, Sony and Dreamworks as well as working for ABC, CBS, NBC, Showtime, AMC and Twentieth Century Fox and many independent producers. Among his credits for original scripts are MURDERERS AMONG US – THE SIMON WIESENTHAL STORY starring Ben Kingsley; DEAD MAN OUT and AGAINST THE WALL, starring Samuel L. Jackson; THE BURNING SEASON with Raul Julia; THE TUSKEGEE AIRMEN with Lawrence Fishburne and THE JOSEPHINE BAKER STORY with Lynn Whitfield. He co-wrote or re-wrote a large number of projects including THE ISLAND OF DOCTOR MOREAU with Marlon Brando; FLIGHT OF THE PHOENIX with Hugh Laurie and JAKOB THE LIAR with Robin Williams. Recent screenplays include one based on corruption in the pharmaceutical industry, currently shooting in Dublin and Montreal. For Samson Films, producers of ONCE, he has written about the last witch trial to be held in Ireland, due to shoot in 2017.
He is also an award-winning playwright and was Writer In Residence at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre. His plays have been produced there and at the Royal Court Theatre, the Royal National Theatre, the Goodman Theatre in Chicago and the Manhattan Theatre Club and worldwide. His comedy based on the production of Gone with the Wind, MOONLIGHT AND MAGNOLIAS has had over sixty productions internationally and in February 2017 his play about Beau Brummell is being revived in London. A revival of his Irish play SAYS I SAYS HE is slated for the summer of 2017 and his play about Tango, FLYING INTO DAYLIGHT, receives its foreign language premier next year.
He has also worked extensively for the BBC and recently recorded a series of plays for their radio division with Kathleen Turner. For several years he taught screenwriting on the staff at the American Film Institute in Los Angeles and has also led workshops on writing for the screen and stage worldwide.
Oberon Books, the publisher of his plays, is publishing later this year his memoir about his thirty years in Hollywood, where he worked with those named above and many more including the directors John Frankenheimer, Brian Gibson and Steven Spielberg and the actors Elizabeth Taylor, Michael Caine, Brian Dennehy and Halle Berry. As well as insights about the often black comedy involved in a successful career in Hollywood, the book will also deal with the practicalities of a writing life and how to constantly nourish the springs of your own creativity, in whatever field you choose to express yourself.
This reading at Arts on the Lake is the irreverent but true material from which the book was taken. The reading both offers the writer a first-hand audience reaction and gives the audience a window into what Tinsel Town is like, under the surface, seen from the point of view of someone who figured out how to make a living there.
Hutchinson's great hero was the screenwriter Ben Hecht, who authored such movie classics as SCARFACE, HIS GIRL FRIDAY and re-wrote GONE WITH THE WIND. Hecht also figured out how to survive in Hollywood with humor and without compromising himself and "it’s a nice thought that his farm, at Nyack, is less than fifty miles from this venue."