Richard Lasser

I am a produced playwright/librettist, script consultant and an award-winning, professional screenwriter-for-hire. I wrote the libretto for a composer who found me on the DGA noticeboard, and you can read about it at our website www.WhenWeGetThereTheMusical.com. The play premiered off-Broadway, starring Q. Smith (Hannah in Broadway’s current production of “Come From Away.”)

Another DGA composer hired me on the same job board to pen his libretto as well. And an opera composer hired me to write the libretto for his opera prior to that.

My full length play, “The Impeachment Trial of George W. Bush” premiered in San Francisco and was later produced for public television in Washington. I was hired to write the full length drama, “Happy Flowers” for a Chicago producer.

When I’m not...

I am a produced playwright/librettist, script consultant and an award-winning, professional screenwriter-for-hire. I wrote the libretto for a composer who found me on the DGA noticeboard, and you can read about it at our website www.WhenWeGetThereTheMusical.com. The play premiered off-Broadway, starring Q. Smith (Hannah in Broadway’s current production of “Come From Away.”)

Another DGA composer hired me on the same job board to pen his libretto as well. And an opera composer hired me to write the libretto for his opera prior to that.

My full length play, “The Impeachment Trial of George W. Bush” premiered in San Francisco and was later produced for public television in Washington. I was hired to write the full length drama, “Happy Flowers” for a Chicago producer.

When I’m not writing, I serve as a script consultant/dramaturg for scores of playwrights and screenwriters who I’ve met on the DGA website, or who have signed up with me through a Hollywood screenwriting school.

I have written six produced feature films, (3 of them winning Best Picture) the most notable being “Walking With the Enemy” (starring Academy Award Winning Best Actor Ben Kingsley). Prior to that, my feature film script “The Tricks of Love”, won Best Picture at the Monaco International Film Festival and 3 major acting awards, including Best Supporting for Natasha Lyonne (“Orange is the New Black”).

26 different producers, theater companies and production companies have hired me to write, rewrite or polish their feature-length scripts.

Following please find my c.v.

I hope we can work together.
Cheers,
Richard A. Lasser
310 990 5941
[email protected]

Resume – Credits
IMDB links:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1103773/
http://pro.imdb.com/name/nm1103773/

Produced Plays
“The Impeachment Trial of George W. Bush,” San Francisco, May 2008.
Unproduced Plays
“When We Get There”
“Bald”
“Chuck Thaws Out”
“Happy Flowers”
Produced Feature Film Writing Credits:
1. 'The Chosen Few', feature-length psychological thriller, produced by I VU Pictures. Writer and Co-Producer
2. “The Counting House”, feature-length psychological horror, produced by RAI Cinema, Italy. Writer. A writer-for-hire project.
3. “The Tricks of Love, a feature-length romantic comedy by Mutressa Movies. www.mutressamovies.com
4. “The Obedient Son”, short, war drama, Liberty Studios.
5. “I Scream”, short, dark comedy. Late Bloomer Films. Writer and Director. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOYj-NUo-R8
6. “Walking With the Enemy”, writer, Liberty Studios
7. “The Shift of the Ages, writer, PQubd Films
8. “Amazon Queen”, International Film, Writer
9. “Heroes of the Golden Mask”, feature-length animation. Writer.
10. “Miranda’s Victim”, feature length historical drama, Writer, Executive Producer
In Pre-Production
1. Mondo Motion Pictures shooting “Made in France” a bittersweet love story. shooting in Paris. 2023, Writer
2. “The Flight”, based on the novel. A writer-for-hire project.
Awards:
1. “The Tricks of Love”, Best Picture, Monaco International Film Festival, 2008
2. “The Chosen Few” Award of Excellence-Feature Category, Berkeley Film Festival, 2002; Official Selection Vancouver Island Film Festival, 2002
3. Chesterfield Writers Awards – Semi-Finalist
4. New Century Writers Awards – Finalist for “Young Love”
5. “Bedroom City” Official Selection for IFP Market 2006, No Borders Section.
6. “Amazon Queen”, Best Picture, Barcelona Film Festival
Education, Training and Background:
B.A. University of Virginia, Double Major in English Honors and Russian Language and Literature
Postgraduate work, UCLA, Russian Studies
Robert McKee’s Story Structure graduate
John Truby’s Screenwriting graduate
Author of two books, (Great Vegetables From the Great Chefs and Great Desserts From the Great Chefs, for Chronicle Books. (under the pseudonym Baba S. Khalsa), numerous articles for The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Food and Wine Magazine

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Scripts

You Don't Know My Andrea

Written by by Richard Lasser

Cast Size
8—12
Genre
biography,
docudrama/historic,
drama

This play is a powerful exploration of trauma, resilience, and caregiving, following the parallel journeys of Andrea Greer and Andrea Opalenik, two women whose lives are shattered by severe brain injuries. ​ Andrea G.’s sister, Jessica, and Andrea O.’s husband, Richard, struggle to navigate the emotional, financial, and physical toll of caregiving while advocating for their loved ones’ recovery. Through...

This play is a powerful exploration of trauma, resilience, and caregiving, following the parallel journeys of Andrea Greer and Andrea Opalenik, two women whose lives are shattered by severe brain injuries. ​ Andrea G.’s sister, Jessica, and Andrea O.’s husband, Richard, struggle to navigate the emotional, financial, and physical toll of caregiving while advocating for their loved ones’ recovery. Through flashbacks, hallucinations, and moments of lucidity, the play delves into themes of love, loss, family, and the failures and triumphs of the healthcare system. It is a poignant story of survival, hope, and the enduring strength of human connection.

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When We Get There

by Richard Lasser

Cast Size
4—6
Genre
drama,
musical,
period,
political

It was the idea of Dawn Jacks—an African American teenager—that she; her mother, Mary Jacks; Terrance Witt; and Rose Shapiro, the Jewish widow who Mary and Terrance work for; pile in Rose’s 1960s Buick and drive to Selma, Alabama to join Dr. King’s march from the Edmund Pettus Bridge to Montgomery, the state capital. After Rose’s husband, Nathan, a diamond merchant and racketeer, passed on, his employee Terrance...

It was the idea of Dawn Jacks—an African American teenager—that she; her mother, Mary Jacks; Terrance Witt; and Rose Shapiro, the Jewish widow who Mary and Terrance work for; pile in Rose’s 1960s Buick and drive to Selma, Alabama to join Dr. King’s march from the Edmund Pettus Bridge to Montgomery, the state capital. After Rose’s husband, Nathan, a diamond merchant and racketeer, passed on, his employee Terrance, a WWII Army vet, remains loyal to and employed by Rose as her chauffeur/handyman. So does Mary, Rose’s maid, in a home located the solidly White, middle-class town of Ridgewood, New Jersey. Gassed up, sandwiches and drinks packed, Green Book at the ready, and hearts full of hope, the foursome heads South even as America, particularly the South, remains hostile to its Black and Jewish citizens. Terrance takes the wheel. Rose rides shotgun, dozing and clutching the purse strings. Excited, Dawn encourages optimism, and Mary sings to cover her trepidation. Encounters with racists—a White gas station attendant and a state trooper—reveal the dangers of “traveling-while-Black-with-a-Jewish-White-woman-in-the-back-seat.” Only Dawn’s quick thinking saves them from jail. Arriving in Selma, the four join hands and head into the march. Offstage, multiple tear gas bombs explode. Stench and smoke fill the stage. Sounds of police dogs attacking, billy clubs smashing heads, screams and chant-like prayers are heard. Injured, the four run for their lives. This day will live in infamy as Bloody Sunday.

Act II opens as the four—injuries oozing blood, dazed, disoriented—stumble back to the car. Any unity found facing a common enemy is short-lived. A vicious blame game ignites. When Mary reveals that Dawn is Nathan’s daughter, Dawn nearly wrecks the car. “You slept with my husband,” Rose screams. “‘Slept with’…sounds so genteel,” Mary intones. “It didn’t feel like I had a choice.” Rape by today’s definition. Again, Dawn quells an emotional tsunami. The show ends as a new, if fragile, understanding of what a family—and just maybe what a country—can be.

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Happy Flowers

by Richard Lasser

1
Cast Size
7—10
Genre
drama,
political

A family’s long-buried secrets come to the surface in a battle to hold on to a Chicago neighborhood retail flower shop in gang-ridden Humboldt Park. The shop, Happy Flowers, is an extension of its flamboyant and mercurial manager, ANDRE. But when his father, VITO, is diagnosed with a life-threatening heart condition, he and the boys’ stepmother, KATHLEEN, decide to bring in Andre’s older brother, DOMINIC – a...

A family’s long-buried secrets come to the surface in a battle to hold on to a Chicago neighborhood retail flower shop in gang-ridden Humboldt Park. The shop, Happy Flowers, is an extension of its flamboyant and mercurial manager, ANDRE. But when his father, VITO, is diagnosed with a life-threatening heart condition, he and the boys’ stepmother, KATHLEEN, decide to bring in Andre’s older brother, DOMINIC – a successful real estate developer – to ensure the continued success of Happy Flowers. Andre and Dominic haven’t seen much of each other over the years and were never very close. Andre deeply resents Dominic and his wife, WHITNEY’s, decision to transform a neighborhood flower shop into a nationwide “McFlorist” empire. Set against the backdrop of endemic gang violence, the result is a violent clash of wills that unearths the family’s long buried secrets and ultimately brings the store down. But Happy Flowers rises, Phoenix-like, forming a new beginning, restoring hope to the neighborhood.

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