JAZZLAND, an animated musical feature

Written by Charles Leipart & Scott Crockett
Story by Charles Leipart, Scott Crockett & Tamara Tunie
Animation art by Scott Crockett
Original songs by Eric Scott Reed and Charles Leipart

The song is in you. But it takes an adventure to find it.

It’s Depression Era Harlem on a hot July Sunday morning. Mahalia and her Gospel Singers praise the glory of “Harlem On A Sunday”—while in the back parlor of Mrs. Joplin’s Boarding House, Alice, 12 years old, sits alone at the piano with her deceased Mama's special music book. Alice lives with her older sister Della, 20, a piano teacher. Alice watches the world beyond her window--with so many questions about herself she cannot answer. She is about to take a fall into a hidden and wondrous world of jazz music where she will bring a new harmony to her struggling community and discover the beautiful song within herself.

  • Project Type:
    Screenplay
  • Number of Pages:
    85
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • First-time Screenwriter:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Writer Biography

Awards: 2016 Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival, 1st Prize One-Act Play, Cream Cakes in Munich. 2015 Arch & Bruce Brown Foundation LGBT History initiative Award for his play, A Kind of Marriage; The Kleban Award for Librettist; New York Musical Theatre Festival (NYMF) 2010 Excellence in Writing Lyrics; Three-time Finalist for the Fred Ebb Foundation Award in Songwriting. Winner of the Global Search for New Musicals, Cardiff, Wales, 2005. His musical Frog Kiss received the most Citations for Excellence at NYMF 2010, regional premiere at Virginia Stage Co.,VA, 2013. Swimming at the Ritz, an intimate portrait of Pamela Churchill Harriman, toured the UK in 2010/2011, American premiere at New Jersey Rep, NJ, 2015; Enchanted April, a new musical romance, with music by Richard B. Evans, world premiere, April 2016, Pacific Coast Repertory Theatre, CA. His adaptation of Helene Hanff’s comic memoir, Underfoot in Show Business, received its world premiere at the Devonshire Park Theatre in Eastbourne, UK, May 2008, directed by award-winning BBC director, David Giles. His original musical, Me and Miss Monroe, featuring Rachel York as Marilyn, was produced in an industry workshop by AMAS and Chase Mishkin, 2011. Charles is a former Fellow of the Edward F. Albee Foundation. A native of Chicago, a graduate of Northwestern University’s School of Speech, a member of the National New Play Network’s New Play Exchange. Charles lives and writes in New York City and is a member of The Dramatist's Guild and ASCAP.

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Writer Statement

Concept Art & songs from the score of JAZZLAND can be accessed at this Dropbox link:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/jifa88oilfhlkcx/AACev7hucMNDTckGUpwrW63ca?dl=0