THEATRICAL

Who: Writer

What: Reading of a workplace comedy pilot, “River Ride”

Where: Los Angeles, CA

When: August, 2024

Why: A fellow writer, Amy Dellagiarino, and I decided to mount a back-to-back reading of our pilots with the same actors. The night was presented by Naked Angels Los Angeles, since we’d both originally had pages read at the cold-read series, “Tuesdays@9” in Los Angeles. With the help of actor Paul McKinney, and the donation of the Moving Arts Theater by Dana Schwartz, we produced a night of two pilots that coincidentally both took place in Florida.

River Ride is a workplace comedy set in a very popular Florida theme park at a not-to-popular exotic river-themed boat ride. It’s based on my time working at The Jungle Cruise in Walt Disney World in my mid-20s, one of the first jobs I ever had. One of the main characters, Chris, wishes desperately to work at the new ride, Robocolypse, but is instead sent to the under-appreciated River Ride. I actually wanted to work at The Jungle Cruise, but was instead sent to work at The Enchanted Tiki Room and Magic Carpets of Aladdin. I would soon go on to train at The Jungle Cruise as well, finding it an exciting, if not exhausting, attraction to work.