Community
Service
Winner of Theatre Palisades 7th Annual Playwrights
Festival, 2016
Marine
Corps Heritage Foundation
for Distinguished Play Dealing with US Marine Corps
Heritage, 2016
You are
invited . . .
To the New
York Off-Broadway Production
of Lance's 10-Minute,
One-Act Play
TAMING OF THE MALE
CHAUVINIST
by Lance Johnson
Directed by Pati Amoroso
A cantankerous New York City corporate executive meets
his match in an unflinching magazine writer struggling
in a man’s world, knowing that a hard-hitting series on
him is her ticket to a long-sought promotion to editor,
a rarity for a woman in 1947. Could it be love at first
interview for this archetypal male chauvinist of the
1940s who finally meets a woman who stands up to him in
a male-dominated society? Both are molded by this rigid
ethos of the time that’s unrelenting until gender
equality is finally addressed in the 1960s.
OFF BROADWAY PRODUCTION
Shattered! Deception, Denial & Truth features an array
of creative stories written by extraordinary and
boundless dramatists. Each tale explores the various
ways adversity is challenged, confronted, manipulated
and suppressed. Presented by Blue Pearl Theatrics and
Michael Andrews Productions, Shattered! is a compilation
of confrontation, survival and love, featuring dramatic
and comedic pieces by playwrights Lance Johnson, Brett
Busang, Shehzad Ghias, Michael Andrews and many more.
Join us after the performance for
complimentary wine and cheese during our meet and greet
with the actors and directors.
For more information please visit:
www.BluePearlTheatrics.com
Email - info@bluepearltheatrics.com
WHEN
Saturday, July 23, 2016 from 2:00 PM to 4:30 PM (EDT)
and 7:00 PM to 8:30 PM.
Sunday, July 24, 2016 from 7:00 PM to 8:30 PM.
WHERE
The DeSotelle Theater (Times Square
Arts Center) - 300 West 43 Street #301, NY, NY 10036
Winner Theatre Palisades’
7th Annual Playwrights Festival, 2016.
As part of the award Lance's
Community Service was showcased at a
staged reading at the theater in Pacific Palisades, CA.
Chosen for an Off-Broadway production Lance
Johnson's ten-minute, one act play, Taming of the Male Chauvinist
was produced at the DeSotelle Theater
(Times Square Arts Center) in New York, 300 W. 43rd St. Directed by Pati
Amoroso. Learn more at
www.BluePearlTheatrics.com.
Marine Corps Heritage Foundation honored
Community Service "for a distinguished play or
screenplay...dealing with U.S. Marine Corps heritage."
He was honored at a black tie dinner at the National Museum
of the Marine Corps in Quantico, VA and “an engraved
brick was placed in Semper Fi Park adjacent to the
National Marine Museum to honor play and playwright.”
Learn more on the
Heritage Foundation Facebook page.
The essay
below was Lance's response to several newspapers who asked
for information on the play his process as a playwright.
Lance will be pleased to write something similar for the
needs of other media or adapt this one.
I am
honored to have my
stage play, Community Service, selected for the 7th
Annual Palisades Playwrights Festival. It was showcased as a
staged reading at Theatre Palisades in Pacific Palisades,
CA, on Tuesday April 19, 2016.
Community Service is an
ensemble play with a touch of Miracle on 34th Street,
a dash of It's a Wonderful Life,
and a pinch of How to Succeed in
Business.
An
irascible judge in a rundown 1947 New York City courtroom
sentences six people of diverse backgrounds to perform
community service together in Central Park.
Actual 1940s radio
commercials, music, and news broadcasts add to the colorful
blending of Runyonesque humor, early Broadway nostalgia, the
era’s lingo and dress styles, and themes as pertinent today
as they were in those emerging post-war years.
The play received the
Marine Corps Heritage Foundation’s 2016 award "for a
distinguished play or screenplay...dealing with U.S. Marine
Corps heritage." It was presented at a black tie dinner at
the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Quantico, VA and
included a monetary prize and “an engraved brick will be
placed in Semper Fi Park adjacent to the Museum to honor
play and playwright. ”
The idea for
Community Service play was originally inspired by the
court-ordered people in orange suits picking up litter along
our California freeways and streets. I thought, “What a
wonderful story that would make—about people from all walks
of life reduced to the same common denominator irrespective
of wealth, education or social status.”
I chose
1947 because it was a
pivotal year in which we had finally recovered from WWII and
the Great Depression and were jettisoned into the abundant
culture we have today. Famed historian David McCullough
claims our younger generation is historically illiterate. I
agree, especially when young women today have little or no
idea of the struggles of women of the past who have opened
doors for them today. In Community Service, three
women strive to break free from those culturally restraining
bonds of decades past similar to ones my mother struggled
with and even my wife decades after the 40s.
My Community Service
play explores other cultural issues of
post-World War II, too. It touches on the importance of
helping returning war vets, be it 1947 or today, and puts a
spotlight on PTSD.
W
riting
a stage play is not as easy as most people think, given all
the review and refinement steps it must go through. I worked
on this one for six years. The first step is to have a
“table read” where selected individuals, sometimes friends,
gather around a dining room table and read the script aloud.
“Many times what is on paper comes out differently when
spoken,” he says.
The next step is
to have a staged reading by actors. It has had four, along
with critiques from other playwrights and directors who’ve
read the script. Theatre Palisades, like many other
theatres, has a Playwrights Festival each year to showcase
talented playwrights whose plays are selected for a
reading. Then, with more revisions, the play will hopefully
receive a full production. Naturally I hope it evolves into
a film, too, just like many of my favorite movies like
Casablanca
and A Few Good Men
-----
After a 26-year career as a corporate president, Lance
Johnson retired and took up acting and writing. He wishes he
had done it earlier. He has an Ivy League MBA, studied at
Oxford University, and has taught and authored award winning
books on American culture titled What Foreigners Need to
Know About America From A To Z . Learn more about it at
www.AmericaAtoZ.com)
and find it on
Amazon.
The former
military officer has appeared in movies, stage plays (best
actor nominations), national commercials and TV. He
performed in Theatre Palisade’s The Best Man by Gore
Vidalin
which the Palisadian-Post said he was “outstanding
as…ex-president Art Hockstader.” He says that accolade
belongs to director Sherry Coon who “squeezed out of me the
last ounce of a practical Midwestern president who believed
there were no ends, only means.” She also directed the
Community Service
staged reading. Of all the theaters where he has performed,
Theatre Palisades remains his favorite because of its
friendly family atmosphere.
Local Author Wins Palisades Theatre
and Marine Corps Award
Glendale, CA--Lance
Johnson’s new play, Community Service, won Theatre Palisades’
7th Annual Playwrights Festival. As part of the award, a staged
reading with costumes, movement, and sound track will be performed
on Tuesday, April 19, at 7:30 p.m. at the Theater in Pacific
Palisades, CA. Wine and goodies will be served at 7 p.m. as part of
the celebration. A $5.00 donation or more for admission is requested
to help with their many charity events and reservations are advised.
(www.TheatrePalisadees.com)
Community Service
has been honored several times
including a 2016 award from the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation
"for a distinguished play or screenplay...dealing with U.S. Marine
Corps heritage." Lance will be honored at a black tie dinner at the
National Museum of the Marine Corps in Quantico, VA and “an engraved
brick will be placed in Semper Fi Park adjacent to the Museum to
honor play and playwright.” He was an officer in the Army Reserves
for thirty years including active duty and helping high schoolers
gain admittance to West Point. Community Service touches on
the importance of helping returning war vets, be it 1947 or today.
In this delightful ensemble play, an irascible judge
in a rundown 1947 New York City courtroom sentences six people to
perform community service in Central Park. It reminds theater goers
of Miracle on 34th Street with a dash of
It's a Wonderful Life and a
pinch of How to Succeed in Business.
Actual 1940s radio commercials, music, and news broadcasts add to
the colorful blending of Runyonesque humor, early Broadway
nostalgia, the era’s lingo and dress styles, and themes as pertinent
today as they were in those emerging post-war years, including
women’s inequality and workplace discrimination, men’s inept
communication of feelings, father-son generational conflicts,
retirement woes, and neglect of war veterans.
Lance Johnson has appeared in movies, stage plays (best actor
nominations), national commercials and TV, including a lead American
role in a 28-part China TV production. He performed in Theatre
Palisades’ The Best Man by Gore Vidal in which the Palisadian-Post
said, “Lance Johnson is outstanding as…ex-president Art Hockstader.”
He
is also the author of the award-winning book What Foreigners Need
to Know About America from A to Z, endorsed by ambassadors from
China to the US, and the US To China. It was also selected by
American university hosts of Fulbright scholars as recommended
reading and is now available in China and Ukraine. The book is the
result of his interest in travel and politics. He traveled or lived
in 85 countries and 49 of the 50 states. His passport is fatter than
a pocket-sized paperback book and his understanding of his own
culture increased as he learned more about the cultures of others
The above volumes are also
available on Amazon in Austria,
Canada, France, Germany, Italy,
Japan, Spain, and the United
Kingdom.
Equation of life:
Knowledge + Understanding + Acceptance =
A Better World for All.
~
Lance Johnson
Available at Vroman's and other fine
brick-and-mortar book stores
and at
Harvard and other university
bookstores--both on campus and online.
Other
Recommended Books for
Grammar and Accent Reduction:
The Frugal Editor was named best business book by USA Books News and Reader Views Literary.
The Next Generation awarded the book a finalist medal and Carolyn's promotion campaign for this same book was given its top marketing award.
The second edition in e-book format was a
finalist in the Next Generation Indie Book
Awards for e-books. And Dan Poynter's Global Ebook Awards
gave it a nod for the 2nd edition e-book. It
was also named #1 on Thornton Publishing's Top Ten List
of books that assure a professional product
for self publishers.
To write
or even speak English is not a science but an art.
There are no reliable words. Whoever writes English
is involved in a struggle that never lets up even
for a sentence. He is struggling against vagueness,
against obscurity, against the lure of the
decorative adjective, against the encroachment of
Latin and Greek, and, above all, against the
worn-out phrases and dead metaphors with which the
language is cluttered up. ~ George Orwell, British
author 1903-1950
Quotes that reflect the importance of America A to
Z's content are found at the beginning of each
chapter of the book.
Hint: When writing
sentences, we generally spell any number less than
10, and use numerals above them. For example, “Lost
in the jungle for nine days, I could not wait to
return to my group of 10 explorers.” In some
high-brow (highly cultured or intellectual) works,
some publishers spell out numbers up to one-hundred.
(There‘s that American individuality thing
again.)
What
Foreigners Need to Know About
America from A to Z is also 
