Lynwood Shiva Sawyer
I was born a vagabond spirit and have yet to learn the meaning of “comfort zone.” My life has been and continues to be sui generis.
All that follows is a standard literary CV for an extremely non-standard career.
*****
In high school, I was an editor of the underground paper, The Charlotte Inquisition, the first in the South to join the Underground Press Syndicate and was a principal in the First Amendment precedent-setting case: Inquisition v. City of Charlotte.
My full-length play, December Never Yields, a family drama produced by Charlotte's First Light Stage Company, was notable for being reviewed by The Charlotte Observer's drama critic the evening the backer of a play she had trashed purchased a full-page ad in The Observer. The backer reviewed her with the same level of vitriol she had reviewed his play, to wit. "For those who have had the misfortune to meet Miss R*, she has the girth of dancing whale. Fortunately, the boards held."
Needless to say, Miss R. was in not in a jovial, generous mood when she saw my play, and unleashed her fury (with admittedly some justification) upon my poor play and me.
A former member Mystery Writers of America and the UK Crime Writers, I wrote “The Tattered Rose” (Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine 500th First Story) and co-wrote the literary mystery, An Uncertain Currency [trade paper-back], a.k.a. Other Arms, Other Eyes [eBook]. My romantic thriller, Windswept (a page turner even before I heard about Page Turner Awards!), is slowly garnering a readership looking for not only a roller-coaster ride with unexpected twist and turns, but a story with identifiable characters and acerbic social observation.
In the Park, directed by Marianna Dean [currently directing the feature, Breaking Gravity], won the 2017 LA Independent Film Festival Best Comedy/Dramedy Award. My produced feature films include the cult classic, Space Avenger, (one of the world’s last true three-strip dye-transfer Technicolor films) Spy (the one with Vinnie Pastore [The Sopranos]). Currently, I have three feature films in preproduction by EQ films of Norwich, England, details of which can be seen on IMDB Pro.
FADE IN:
TITLE CARD: “BASED ON TRUE EVENTS”
INT. PRIMARY SCHOOL - AUDITORIUM - EVENING
Curtains closed. On the left of the stage is a Christmas tree draped with child-made ornaments.
PARENTS, LAUGHING, CHATTING, begin to take their seats.
At the back, ANNA KENNEDY (late 30s), slim. Her dress is unfashionable; her hair hastily done up.
She glances at her watch. Looks back over her shoulder and grimaces.
She spots two empty seats and forces her way through the crowd. She moves with the frustrated grace of someone struggling with responsibilities they never anticipated.
A bell RINGS. The lights dim.
Anna pushes her way down a row of disgruntled parents.
ANNA
Excuse me. Excuse me.
Anna pauses to observe a HUSBAND tenderly kissing his WIFE in the row ahead.
A PARENT behind her HMPHS.
ANNA
Oh. Sorry.
The curtains open to a cardboard stable and inn. At the back of the stage stands a CHORUS of children (8-9) wearing cardboard STARS.
Anna settles into her seat. She drapes her coat on the seat next to hers.
Parents APPLAUD. Some take pictures.
Anna joins in the APPLAUSE, but her smile is one of apprehension.
NARRATOR (O.S.)
In a little town in Bethlehem--
Anna glances at her watch, looks desperately over her shoulder at the entrance door. Takes a deep breath.
NARRATOR (O.S.)
-over 2000 years ago, a miracle was born.
STAGE
“WISE MEN” #1 and #2 watch “WISE MAN #3” (8-9) point to a cardboard star dangling above.
PATRICK (O.S.)
(from the wings)
A star so mighty and oh so bright--
WISE MAN #1
That’s my line!
Anna’s son, PATRICK (8), bright-eyed, dressed as a shepherd, darts across the stage. Although it might not be immediately apparent, Patrick has Asperger’s Syndrome.
Anna covers her face with her hands.
ANNA
Patrick?
PATRICK
I wonder where it leads.
WISE MAN #2
I wonder where this leads!
Anna shoots straight up and scuffles past GRUMBLING parents.
ANNA
Sorry. Excuse me. Sorry.
She reaches the aisle and hurries toward the stage.
MR. BELL (40s), square glasses, stocky, Christmas jumper, steps out from the wings and tries to grab Patrick, who slips away.
MR. BELL
Patrick, get back here!
Anna rushes up the steps.
MR. BELL
Control your son, Mrs. Kennedy!
Anna crosses the stage and pulls Patrick into the wings.
STAGE WINGS
B.G., play continues. Wise Man #1 wipes tears from his eyes.
ANNA
Patrick! We discussed this.
PATRICK
They’re forgetting their lines.
ANNA
They're pausing for dramatic effect.
WISE MAN #2
(on stage)
What-- What-- Uh--
PATRICK
What a beautiful star!
ANNA
SHH!
MR. BELL
Quick, change! Next scene!
The Wise Men rush off. "JOSEPH" and "MARY" hurry on stage.
JOSEPH
We have travelled for so many nights.
Mr. Bell accosts Anna.
MR. BELL
This is the last straw, Mrs. Kennedy.
ANNA
Mr. Bell, please! He just doesn’t understand.
Patrick wanders onto-
STAGE
Mr. Bell rushes out.
MR. BELL
Stop that shepherd!
PATRICK
At last we have arrived in Bethlehem.
Patrick takes Mary’s hand, but she breaks free of his grasp.
MARY
Let go of me, stupid head!
PATRICK
We’re supposed to hold hands!
MARY
Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!
Anna storms onto the stage.
ANNA
Don’t call him that!
She notices the irritated parents.
ANNA
S-sorry. Sorry...
She drags Patrick offstage as Mr. Bell raises his hands to the chorus.
MR. BELL
"Catch a falling star and put it in your pocket. Never let it fade away..."
AISLE - MOMENTS LATER
Anna marches Patrick towards the exit. She tries to ignore the parents' judgmental stares.
Patrick slows down, glances back towards the stage.
PATRICK
But Mummy!
A WOMAN, sitting in the aisle seat, holds up Anna's coat.
WOMAN
Excuse me.
Anna grabs the coat with one hand and Patrick’s hand with the other.
ANNA
Come on.
EXT. NETHERTON STREET - EVENING
A winter evening on a suburban street. Christmas tree lights visible in many windows soften the streetlights’ eerie orange glow.
The KENNEDY HOUSE is an end-of-terrace home “in need of some modernization.” The adjacent house to it is covered with scaffolding.
SUPER: “HILLINGDON, WEST LONDON 1997”
PUSH FOCUS INTO:
INT. KENNEDY HOUSE - KITCHEN - THE SAME TIME
Dirty dishes in the sink. Pots on the stove. Bowl filled with potato peels. An unmopped puddle of milk.
Anna sets a plate of turkey dinosaurs before Patrick.
ANNA
Taa-daa!
Patrick pushes the plate away.
PATRICK
I already ate.
ANNA
That was lunchtime.
PATRICK
You’re supposed to say beginning with “D”.
ANNA
Name a dinosaur beginning with “D”.
PATRICK
Diplodocus.
ANNA
Now eat your dinner... Angelo?
She lifts the table cloth.
BENEATH THE TABLE
ANGELO (5), wide-eyed, chubby, non-verbal, sits beside an overturned jar, his hands and face covered in purple jam. He holds his beloved BLUE BRICK in one hand and chews on a pair of underpants held in the other.
PATRICK (O.S.)
I ate three more dinosaurs!
Anna tries to take the underpants away from Angelo. He holds onto them even more fiercely.
ANNA
Angelo! Daddy's bum has been in those.
Anna drops the tablecloth as Patrick pushes his plate away.
PATRICK
We’ve got to do “E”.
ANNA
“E.”
PATRICK
Eoraptor.
Simultaneously, a kitchen timer BUZZES, the washing machine BEEPS and the phone RINGS. Anna looks around, frazzled.
PATRICK
Answer it, Mummy.
She picks up the phone. Listens.
Smoke billows out of the oven. The smoke alarm SCREAMS.
ANNA
(into phone)
We’ve never been in a car accident!
PATRICK
Mummy, it hurts my ears!
Anna SLAMS the phone down.
She yanks the oven door open. Grabs a kitchen towel and uses it to pull out a tray with a smoking roast chicken.
She opens a window. Flaps the smoke with the towel. The smoke alarm stops.
She cuts off the washing machine. Switches off the kitchen timer.
SEAN (late 30s), Anna’s husband, tall, dark hair, in a business suit, enters with a briefcase and a bouquet of roses.
PATRICK
Daddy’s here!
SEAN
Hi, Patrick.
(to Anna)
How was the play?
He leans in for a kiss and proffers Anna the roses. She averts her cheek and does not accept the roses. Sean lays them on the table.
ANNA
Eat, Patrick.
SEAN
Sorry I missed it. The firm is about to snag a VERY major client.
Sean opens a cupboard door.
ANNA
Under the sink.
Sean pulls out a vase from under the sink, shoves the flowers into it and sets the vase on the table. He indicates the smouldering chicken.
SEAN
Was that my dinner?
The chicken flickers into flame.
ANNA
Shiiiii--
(catches herself)
Sugar!
Anna dumps water on the smouldering chicken.
Sean shakes his head and exits through the back door into the garden.
PATRICK
Daddy didn’t have any dinner.
ANNA
When you’re grown up, you can skip dinner. Till then, EAT!
PATRICK
Beginning with F.
ANNA
Trust me. You don’t want me to say anything beginning with F.
Anna stares through the window at-
EXT. KENNEDY HOUSE - BACK GARDEN - THE SAME TIME
Sean wheels a 1930s Ariel motorcycle into a shed.
Comments
Hear Me Roar Synopsis
Raising one autistic child would challenge any Mum but raising two would overwhelm the most resolute mother and strain the strongest of family relationships to the breaking point.
Yet this is the situation in which Anna and Sean Kennedy, young parents with two autistic children – Patrick, a high functioning boy with Asperger’s Syndrome, and his younger brother, the non-verbal autistic Angelo – find themselves in 1997.
The simplest tasks – grocery shopping or visits to the park – become major trials. Onlookers inevitably misinterpret Patrick’s or Angelo’s outbursts as bad mothering by Anna, when, in fact, the exact opposite is the case.
The Kennedy’s circumstances worsen when their one island of respite, Patrick’s school, expels him due to the lack of social development caused by his autism.
Sean tries to connect with Anna and the kids but finds both difficult. He’s more comfortable working on his “beauty” – a vintage Ariel Red Hunter motorcycle.
Anna is left to her own devices to find Patrick another institution. Desperate after 26 schools reject her applications, she sets up a support group for other parents with autistic kids.
Anna’s home-schooling efforts prove a disaster. When even specialist educators cannot deal with her kids, Anna discovers an abandoned building formerly used as a school. She decides she has no choice but to obtain the building herself and set up an institution to provide children like Patrick and Angelo the support they need.
With no business or administrative experience, much less that of founding a groundbreaking educational institution, Anna’s quest seems doomed for failure, especially when the support group she created casts her aside. Its members have been too traumatized by shame and past failures to risk anything beyond a “go-slow” approach.
Anna is not a woman easily discouraged, but every setback makes it more difficult for her to rebound.
After her kids have a meltdown in a local shop, Anna meets Zita, who instantly warms to the beleaguered Mum and becomes her confidante and supporter, boosting Anna’s spirit at her moments of greatest self-doubt.
A local Councilor, Mrs. Turner, appears very supportive of the project, and at an initial meeting, the Councilors set a deadline for Anna to raise the sum necessary to purchase the building.
Anna approaches potential sponsors and even appears on a radio show.
Unbeknownst to Anna, Mrs. Turner has developed an unethical symbiotic relationship with another developer, Peter Karras. Only later does Anna discover Mrs. Turner’s seeming support for the proposed school is actually a cover to deflect other developers’ interest in the property.
Anna’s single-minded obsession causes increasing tension between her and Sean, especially when Sean is tasked with overseeing a project for his firm’s major client. When Anna takes out a second mortgage behind Sean’s back, he has had enough. He stalks out and moves into his office, where his boss discovers him sleeping on the sofa.
Anna forges ahead on her own. Right when her situation seems to be shifting in a positive direction, Zita dies.
Now Anna is alone with Patrick and Angelo, her husband gone, her mentor gone, her project approaching a state of collapse.
The stress has overwhelmed Sean. He fouls up a project for the firm’s major client. The firm fires him. That night he ends up in a local park, his office belongings in a cardboard box. Sitting alone on park bench, observing another mother with her children, Sean has an epiphany about how wrong his focus in life has been.
He returns home to a shattered Anna. He sells his “beauty” and dedicates himself to establishing a deeper connection with the kids and Anna and promising to help realize her vision.
Karras makes an incredibly temping offer to the Kennedy’s to abandon their quest. He offers to move the family to a Borough where the local authority would provide Patrick and Angelo the educational attention they need.
On the eve of the final council meeting vote, despite Anna’s entreaties to Sean that needs rest for the meeting the following day, Sean remains awake, studying law books and photocopies.
When Anna goes to the council auditorium, Sean is nowhere to be found – he is in the county records office, researching title deeds.
Without his support, Anna feels ill-equipped to singlehandedly confront the councilors. Nevertheless, before they can vote, Anna is determined to have her say. She starts uncertainly about her own children, and unnerved by Mrs. Turner’s reprimands, she is about give up. But then she notices the support group in the back giving her thumbs up.
Thus inspired, she delivered an impassioned plea on behalf of all children like hers whose needs are not being met, and finishes by mentioning the costs, social and financial, that such an institution would ultimately save the council.
Although swayed, the councilors are not fully convinced.
They are poised to cast the final vote in favor of Karras when Sean rushes in with a copy of the original will, which bequeathed the property with the abandoned school. The will includes a covenant mandating that the property be used exclusively for education in perpetuity.
He gives it to Anna, who hands it with a triumphant flourish to the council members.
Mrs. Turner glances at the copy, and observes that it is the ORIGINAL will, not the AMENDED one, with a codicil nullifying the covenant. She resumes the procedures for a vote.
Despite attempts by Mrs. Turner to shut her up, Anna addresses the councilors with a fervor that surprises everyone, even Anna herself. “Do you sanction mediocre cookie cutter flats, and by your timidity, condemn hundreds, maybe even thousands of children, to live lives of desperation, isolation and institutionalisation? Maybe my school won’t turn our unique kids into Einsteins or Mozarts, maybe not even into what we consider normal, but I beg you, vote with your hearts, not your pocketbooks. Generations of children will thank you that your courage allowed them to develop into the best possible versions of themselves they could be.”
Anna passion belief lease the audience is spellbound and the councilors chastened.
Despite Mrs. Turner’s admonitions, the councilors vote to give Anna her school.
Even Anna cannot believe that after such a long struggle, she has finally won.
Community volunteers and corporate sponsors rehab the building, Hillingdon Manor School goes from strength to strength until it becomes the largest of its kind in Europe, all due to the vision and determination of one beleaguered Mum who had nowhere else to turn.
Compelling premise
This sounds like it's got a lot of heart. Best wishes!