Dan Shea | Screenwriter & Playwright

I’m Dan.

Hey folks. You’ve landed at the web page of Dan Shea, writer and actor. That’s me, on the left, lookin’ all sepia-toned.

Various meanings of that question are at the heart of my Men of a Certain Age spec, I Feel Like Havin’ Me Some Ribs. This script is the Winner of the 2011 Expo Screenplay TV One Hour Teleplay Competition and was a runner up in the hour-long teleplay category of Creative Screenwriting Magazine’s 2011 AAA Screenplay Competition. I’m really proud of this...

Grand Prize Winner

I won the Grand Prize in Creative Screenwriting Magazine’s 2011 AAA Screenplay Contest for my feature spec, Shiny Penny.

Shiny Penny (feature)

Feature Spec, Magic-Realism, Dramedy, Awesome

Winner of the 2011 Creative Screenwriting Magazine AAA Screenplay Competition

Shiny Penny is a nightmarish but beautiful modern-day fairy tale that channels a Tim Burton or Guillermo del Toro aesthetic. When fairies, giants and a bloodthirsty wooden puppet violently smash through a sick college student’s reality, she turns to a bitter, reclusive writer for help. To save her, he must resurrect his belief in the raw force of imagination, learn to nurture someone else again, and ultimately sacrifice his selfish cynicism—and maybe even his life—to save hers.

Dialogue Sneak-Peek

They drive.

PENNY: Should I be concerned that I’m talking to a puppet?

PINOCCHIANNA: You should be concerned that a puppet is talking to you. Hearing voices is a bad sign.

Penny glares at Pinocchianna.

PINOCCHIANNA (CONT’D): Just kidding! Look. Penny, you’ve finally come back to the living.

Pinocchianna waves a dismissive hand at the world around her.

PINOCCHIANNA (CONT’D): Not these idiots. But the real living. It’s not like you’re seeing things that aren’t there. You’re just seeing things that are.

PENNY: But how… how did you… you know. Come to life?

PINOCCHIANNA: I didn’t “come to life.” It’s not like that. It’s more like… I always was. I was alive before you even put me together. I mean, you know that, really, deep inside you, where you turn your brain off. You “saw” me alive in those pieces; that’s why you put me together. It’s just that now…

Pinocchianna rolls down the window.

PINOCCHIANNA (CONT’D): …now, you’re seeing the real life. Jeez. Look at ‘em. Walking around, totally unaware of what’s inside them. The power. The vision. (yelling at a businessman) NICE COMB-OVER, POINTDEXTER!

PENNY: Can they see you?

PINOCCHIANNA: Not the real me.

PENNY: I think you’re not real. I think you’re some sort of hallucination caused by my deep and severe trauma of losing my mom.

Pinocchianna reaches over and tugs hard on Penny’s skin.

PENNY (CONT’D): Ow!

PINOCCHIANNA: Trauma-induced hallucination, huh?

Pinocchianna notices Penny’s now vividly-flushed flesh.

PINOCCHIANNA (CONT’D): Ooh. What’s this?

PENNY: Skin?

PINOCCHIANNA: Skin, huh. Sweet.

Pinocchianna tugs on Penny’s skin.

PENNY: Chill out! It doesn’t come off.

PINOCCHIANNA: We’ll see about that.

PENNY: You’re a scary little shit, aren’t you?

Box of Betty (feature)

Feature Spec, Action/Comedy

A tragic, mid-western widower who just can’t let go takes his wife’s remains on the romantic trip to Italy she always dreamed of, but when he meets a beautiful, international thief who’s marked for death by a heartless and lovesick assassin, and his wife’s ashes are mistaken for a kilo of smack, he finds himself in an unpredictable whirlwind of hilarious action and burgeoning love.

The P.A.N.D.A. War (feature)

Feature Spec, Young Teen Coming of Age Rom-Com

When eighth-graders Neil and Molly compete for a prestigious school award, they not only discover they really like each other…but also that there are some “trophies” can’t be put on a mantle.

About Dan

I write screenplays and stage plays. My feature spec, Shiny Penny, won the 2011 AAA Screenplay Competition sponsored by Creative Screenwriting Magazine. My teleplay spec for Men of a Certain Age won the 2011 Expo Screenplay One-Hour Teleplay Competition (that script was runner-up in the AAA Screenplay Competition’s television category as well). I am the winner of the Jerome Johanning Playwriting Memorial Award and the Joel Climenhaga Playwriting Award (for Garbagemen of the Old West), the Imaginary Academy Screenwriting Scholarship (Groznjan, Croatia), and was a Post Road Literary Review “Recommended Playwright” (for Killing El Cid and Rimshot).

In addition to writing, I am an actor and former stand-up comic from Chicago, having performed in numerous plays and venues there, including playing the comic lead in the world professional premiere of The Frogs by Stephen Sondheim and touring with the world-famous The Waveland Radio Playhouse (“world,” in this case, meaning “mostly drunk comedians”).

I have an M.A. in Theatre from Kansas State University and an M.F.A. in Playwriting from Ohio University. I have taught and created theater for students from grade schools to colleges to prisons.* After working as a full-time professor for a decade, I’m ready to do what I do best: Write with unrivaled heart and humanity.

Thanks for visiting, and please feel free to contact me if you have any questions about me and/or my work.

Write hard and finish.

Dan

*I should note that is not a route of matriculation I endorse.