Plowing Up A Snake

PUAS Takes on New Life!

2012-01-18T11:55:00.000-08:00

PLOWING UP A SNAKE is in pre-production. We are working on the final revisions to the shooting script as we prepare to shoot THIS YEAR.

More info SOON. For now I have to return to the script revisions!

Logo above by Artist Adam Karolian.

2009-01-19T06:29:00.000-08:00

Pop the champagne: I've hit FADE OUT!

The intensive revision of PLOWING UP A SNAKE is complete! Now for the tedious copy edits and the review of continuity in the rewrites. And in a couple weeks: the new draft will be sent off to a couple other production companies that have requested it.

Hopefully soon we can boast: look for PLOWING UP A SNAKE in a theatre near you!

Thank you one and all for the helpful feedback that has made this draft rock.

Thank you for Jumping In

2008-10-10T08:09:00.000-07:00

Last night we enjoyed a fabulous debut of the Screenplay Reading Series presented by the New Hampshire Film and Television Office at Red River Theatres in Concord, NH--all thanks to the energetic and entertaining readers, an enthusiastic audience, a tremendous director, a first-rate support staff, and one very nervous writer. I couldn't have asked for a better stage reading of my adaptation of Merle Drown's fascinating novel, PLOWING UP A SNAKE.

Thank you, One and All, for your support.

Cheers,

Dana

(Odd angles are my game; the one above features a span of the brand-spanking new bridge in Henniker that, unfortunately, once again allows cars across the Contoocook River in what used to be a quiet walking spot. But the designers did build-in a wooden sidewalk along the bridge to somewhere special, so I guess all is forgiven.)

Plowing Up Nervous Energy

2008-10-07T08:26:00.000-07:00

I won't even be on stage and yet I'm nervous as we approach the time of the reading: this Thursday, Oct. 9, 7 p.m., at Red River Theatres, presented by the New Hampshire Film & Television Office.

Thanks to all our actors:

Eric Doucet
Shelley Westenberg
Joe Sampson
Alex Picard
Aaron Wiederspahn
Tim Dennis
Anne Halsey Clark
Marc Pelletier
Bryan Nutter

And to our director:

Adam Jones

I'd be remiss not to thank:

Connie Rosemont
Van McLeod
Matthew Newton
Merle Drown
Jack Scovil
Tanya Darling
Susan Piper

And in deep water if I didn't give a shout-out to:

Pat Drown
Mary-Catherine Jones
Jan Myskowski
Abby Myskowski
Lori Roukey
Lisa Winant
Leo Myskowski
Mom

I'll have my homework cut-out for me after the reading as I revise and rework the script; thanks to everyone for helping to shape the next draft.

See you in a couple days!

Cheers,

Dana

Join us for a Stage Reading!

2008-09-09T13:06:00.000-07:00

October 9: Screenplay Reading Series Kick-Off. Presented by the New Hampshire Film and Television Office in partnership with Red River Theatres. Award-winning New Hampshire screenwriter Dana Biscotti Myskowski's latest motion picture script, PLOWING UP A SNAKE, will be read live by actors before an audience. Q&A to follow. Look for details at Red River Theatres and at New Hampshire Film & Television Office.

Tickets on sale now; seating is limited: order here!

Some of the players so far:

Adam Jones, DGA, of No Smoke Films, will direct the reading
Merle Drown, Novelist
Dana BIscotti Myskowski, Screenwriter

Watch for more information coming soon!

(Photo above of a Hillsborough, NH farm taken by Jan Myskowski.)

"Drag," a micro-fictionalized, recast excerpt of the screenplay adaptation PLOWING UP A SNAKE

2008-09-09T06:27:00.000-07:00

"Drag" by Artist Lisa Rae Winant

Image used by permission of the Artist

11 x 17.5/oil on panel

It's an early-autumn day like any other in upstate New Hampshire: chilly, breezy, and fragrant. Well, fragrant if you happen to enjoy the scent of wood smoke billowing from every chimney in the village.

"You don't smoke," Clay admonishes his cousin's widow.

"Not those stale, nasty cigarettes Hatch likes," Marjorie responds. "But a smooth, carefully hand-rolled cigar..." She pauses as she takes a drag, "...is like the gentle caress of an accomplished lover."

A corner of Clay's mouth rises, though in truth he's uncomfortable hearing a woman speak so bluntly, so seductively. It is, after all, the mid 1950s and Clay's been a one-woman man in a small town all these years. Until now. But what’s adultery stacked up against the multiple murders that have recently plagued this sleepy hamlet?

He settles back into his chair and swallows his scotch--nearly choking on it. As he struggles for air, he manages to sputter, "Soda...there's no soda in it."

"There's supposed to be soda in it?" Marjorie asks.

Clay wonders if she's hurt by his reaction. Guessing she is, he says, "No, no. Scotch this good doesn't need soda." He sips gingerly the second time around.

And as he and Marjorie settle into their coy game, outside the razor-thin windows the first snow begins to fall, bringing with it an appearance of unearned innocence and silence echoing the eternal silence that has already frozen their river-bound valley town.

(A micro-fictionalized, recast excerpt of the screenplay PLOWING UP A SNAKE, an adaptation by Dana Biscotti Myskowski of Merle Drown's novel of the same name.)