ScreenPlayLab capitalizes the P in ScreenPlayLab so everyone remembers we're here to PLAY, that we're having fun creating comedy and upbeat family content.

What's ScreenPlayLab?

ScreenPlayLab is a 2,500-member Hollywood association with the mission of nurturing artists developing upbeat commercial motion pictures and television. Since our launch in June 2005 we've been hosting events on a more-or-less weekly basis. We host mixers, workshops, screenings, and events that present an industry VIP who talks about his or her career and offers tips to writers, actors and filmmakers.

What are ScreenPlayLab's Results?

Dozens of actors and many writers have signed with an agent after getting a referral from another ScreenPlayLab member.

For example, Jim McCaffree, who's a regular in ScreenPlayLab's workshop readings, is one of the actors referred to an agent. When Jim joined ScreenplayLab he had no agent and was not in SAG. Jim had to join the union recently because he's working on shows such as CARPOOLERS. He signed with the Sanger Talent Agency a few months ago.

Many artists have met with executives after being introduced at ScreenPlayLab. One screenplay workshopped at ScreenPlayLab got a greenlight to be a $20M movie. What can't be measured are friendships and sense of community that's been nurtured.

What does ScreenPlayLab Cost?

Membership is free. Events are free.

So what's ScreenPlayLab's Funding?

Funding? Hah, hah, hah! You're funny! There's no funding. ScreenplayLab is our personal gift to the Hollywood artist community. Gabrielle and I donate our time, energy and money to make it work.

There's no corporation. No bank account. What makes it possible is the generosity of our theaters, speakers, and actors who are all helping us for free. We've been presenting events weekly for years without any financial support.

Past speakers you may know:

• Comedy Central VP of current programming Zoe Friedman
• ABC TV Movies director Ray Ricord
• MTV Films VP of development Luke Ryan
• Nickelodeon head of animation Peter Gal
• DreamWorks Animation creative exec Karen Foster
• The Cartoon Network creative exec Heather Kenyon
• JUST SHOOT ME writer-producer Marsh McCall
• MY COUSIN VINNEY writer-director Jonathan Lynn
• The Robert Evans Co. creative exec J. Sikura
• ICM executive story editor Christopher Lockhart

Photos from our early days at The Writers Store

Screenwriter Joan Maltese goes over pages with casting director Gabrielle Pantera and actor Sofia Dylan Bombay.

Actors Eugene Boles, April Wade, and Julie Ness discuss their parts with casting director Gabrielle Pantera

April Wade, Robin Rowe and Michelle Manteris

How ScreenPlayLab happened:

In 2005, my writing partner Gabrielle Pantera and I were writing an adaptation of a comedy bestselling novel and decided to test the laughs with actors in front of an audience.

My co-writer Gabrielle is a casting director, had cast many readings at the Strasberg Institute. The Writers Store heard about our plan and invited us to meet there as a way to promote their store. That event was so empowering that by popular demand we've held events ever since. We soon added speakers.

After half a year at the Writers Store in Westwood, we moved to Raleigh Studios in Hollywood. Not just Raleigh, a great number of theaters host us. The Hollywood Playhouse, the Fine Arts, the Gleason, Write Act, the Lillian, and ACME have all helped us.

Our Sunday event format:

Our usual weekly events are on Sundays from 3-6pm. We have a 1-hour workshop reading with actors and writers and audience feedback, followed by a 90-minute talk with a VIP speaker. We meet in the lobby for a half hour before and after each event. Before, to sign people in. Afterwards, because most speakers stay to chat with audience members. We typically overflow a 40-seat theater for our Sunday events.

Our weeknight events:

Sometimes we schedule special weeknight events for speakers unavailable on Sundays. A recent weeknight speaker was ABC Disney Fellowship director Frank Gonzalez. ScreenPlayLab filled a 200-seat theater at the Hollywood Playhouse to hear him.

Selected screenplays are cast ahead of time then workshopped in a theater in front of a live audience. The guided feedback session that follows asks two questions: what to keep and how to improve it. Criticism, particularly "constructive" criticism (really a list of complaints), is not allowed because it kills the creative energy in the room. If the writer is based in Hollywood he or she is typically present. Some writers see the workshop later as video.

We workshop features, sitcoms and light dramas. With screenplays we workshop the first thirty pages and sometimes workshop later pages some other day. TV scripts may be pilots or writing samples for existing shows. Writers pay a small fee to submit up to 30 pages, the most we read at one time. Comedies or upbeat light dramas only. Features and TV screenplays. We don't do dark and edgy. No dramas. No horror. We look for commercial material, not film festival fare. Our casting director casts the roles with working actors from her database of hundreds of actors.

Our audience includes filmmakers, screenwriters and actors. Most ScreenPlayLab events are free and open to the industry and the public with RSVP. There's no charge to actors. Screenwriters pay a small fee to submit pages. Writers whose scripts are not selected for reading get notes. Our host theaters donate space making it possible to hold events for free.

What does it cost to join ScreenPlayLab?

• No membership fee
• Most events are free for the audience
• For actors cast in a reading it's a free workshop/showcase
• Writers are charged a small fee to submit pages

How should screenplay feedback be presented?

• Checklist for Feedback

As an actor how should I prepare for the reading?

• Checklist for Actors

Most of our events are free. There are no membership dues to join. Writers pay a small fee to submit a script. ScreenPlayLab is possible thanks to its contributors and volunteers.

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Founders

Gabrielle Pantera [IMDB]		Robin Rowe [IMDB]

Robin Rowe Bio

Robin co-wrote the comedy romance screenplay THE CORSET DIARIES with Gabrielle Pantera. He wrote the original feature animation comedy FIRE BEAR. He's currently writing a martial arts comedy feature.

Robin writes as a journalist for POPULAR MECHANICS and other magazines. He's a producer at the Comic Strip Network. He was a technologist at DreamWorks Animation. He helped build the robotic studios at NBC-TV Chicago and was a technical director for broadcast news at a mid-market NBC-TV station.

Gabrielle Pantera Bio

Gabrielle co-wrote the low budget comedy A MORE PERFECT UNION with New York speech writer Jason Haber. She co-wrote the comedy romance screenplay THE CORSET DIARIES with Robin Rowe. She wrote the screenplay THE GLAD GAME, based on the beloved best-selling classic novel POLLYANNA. She wrote a GREY'S ANATOMY spec. She's currently writing a chick flick comedy TV movie.

Gabrielle works at Irish DreamTime, Pierce Brosnan's production company that has a deal with MGM. She's a casting director for RisingCast. Gabrielle was a literary critic for four years for the national magazine ROMANTIC TIMES. She was president of a chapter of Romance Writers of America.

Gabrielle Pantera misses her father who died a painful premature death from lung cancer. She begged him to quit smoking, but he didn't. Please don't smoke.

Screenplay was launched by Robin and Gabrielle

ScreenPlayLab is not a business. It's something we do for fun and to make the world a better place. We've been meeting more or less weekly ever since ScreenPlayLab launched in May of 2005. Typical events have a live audience of 30 to 40 people. Some events have a lot more. We have the most ambitious film industry events program in Hollywood. Our membership doubled to 1,900 between mid-2006 and mid-2007. To get on our list people RSVP for an event or send an email to ask personally.

ScreenPlayLab History

Gabrielle Pantera and Robin Rowe moved to Hollywood in 2003 for a project with DreamWorks Feature Animation. After Gabrielle optioned the bestselling novel The Corset Diaries, and she and Robin began writing the adaption, they realized they needed a venue to test comedy screenplay pages.

At first, the sessions were readings only, but that sometimes drew an audience of critics or bitter unemployed writers bringing down the energy in the room. Positive nurturing industry speakers were added as an inducement to draw an upbeat audience. Over time it's become self-selecting, that there are so many positive people in the room that it draws more positive people.