Giving Thanks (The Go To Girl)

Gary's writing accomplishments include award-winning features and short screenplays. As well as the teen TV pilot Rosarito Weekend and 1-hour drama pilot, 1-11 South St.
His produced short films; Diamond Confidential, Just Three Words, and Reason have all been honored internationally with festival awards.

Giving Thanks was first presented to a sold-out audience as a one-act in a collection written by Gary. The piece has long been a favorite reminder of the days when he wrote mostly romantic comedies.
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The real world wasn’t working for me so I decided to create a new one. Limited only by my imagination.
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After optioning several Romantic Comedies, I was asked to write a horror film. I had never written one, so I wrote a romantic comedy… and killed everyone.

I was commissioned by Playboy to write a summer “romp”, After handing in my first draft, they sent it back with a note telling me how much they loved it, but didn’t have the talent smart enough to deliver the dialogue.
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I have created whole new worlds of hopelessly romantic, emotionally challenged, relatable characters with depth, that have collected several film festival laurels and critical acclaim.

I was always drawn to two types of stories, Romantic comedies and character-driven films featuring the “Underdog”. My earliest influences were Musical comedies and Abbott and Costello movies.

As I matured so did my characters. I discovered plays by Neil Simon, David Mamet, and Landford Wilson. Although it was my comedy writing teacher, Denis Leary, who unlocked my love of dialogue writing.

You can see the changes in my whimsical “love-struck” characters from earlier stage plays, Crossroads, and Giving Thanks, to the critically acclaimed Happy Christmas Merry Chanukah and eventually the emotionally broken and complicated characters of the award-winning screenplay Somewhere To Run.