WRITERS’ROOM

T here’s a room on the first floor of the Writers Guild office that you’ve probably never been to.

But it’s where Darth Vader lives. So does Dorothy Parker. The Hollywood blacklist is there, along with records of the 2007 writers’ strike. It’s the Writers Guild Foundation archive, and it’s the best new thing around.

Though the Foundation’s Shavelson-Webb Library has collected a variety of non-script items through-out the years, its archive didn’t officially begin until August 2011, when archivist Joanne Lammers was hired with the support of the WGA. Since August, Lammers has been tirelessly processing box after box of material that—much like the 30,000 scripts in Shavelson-Webb—was donated by members and members’ families.

The results have been impressive thus far. In ad-dition to Lawrence Kasdan’s original notes for The Empire Strikes Back and Dorothy Parker ’s handwrit-ten application to the Screen Writers Guild, the ar-chive has copies of the House Un-American Activities Committee report, a rare copy of Red Channels that recommended writers that should be blacklisted; Bob Hope’s notes for his appearance at the 1972 Repub-lican National Convention; the typewriter on which Robert Bloch wrote Psycho; tons of photographs; and a digital hard drive packed with materials from the 2007 strike.

“The loose meaning of archivist is keeper of memory,” said Lammers. “I look at my job as preserv-ing the vital history of the WGA.”

Right now, most of the materials are stored on specialized archival shelves in the Foundation of-fices. But the future will bring an online component, where historians and enthusiasts can peruse mate-rials digitally. Lammers plans to go live by the end of 2012, with possible exhibit themes to include the early days of the Guild.

New goodies show up every day, but Founda-tion staff is hoping to expand the collection beyond what’s currently there, to include more works by women and minority writers as well as items from the postwar era—about 1946–1960—from which his-torical WGA artifacts are rare (donations are encour-aged, by the way).

Most of all , the Foundation wants the archive to be accessible to those people who have a healthy fascination with Hollywood history, and to promote the often unsung role of writers in the industry.

“I don’t want to hide things in a tomb,” Lammers says. “Archives used to be about locking up collec-tions to preserve them. I want people to be able to touch and explore and learn about these materials and to be inspired to write themselves.”

—KEVIN OTT

6 W G A W W R I T T E N B Y J A N U A R Y 2 0 1 2

The Hidden VaultMarathonersThe clock ticks while these extremists type.

Writers have two enemies: time and themselves,” says writer David Alex Kurtz. A two-time quarterfinalist in the Nicholl competition,

Kurtz knows that too much time can be paralyzing, especially for new writers working without a deadline. And as that time passes, a writer’s ever-present self-loathing only grows stronger.

To battle both foes, he created a challenge weekend: three days writing at a cafe, from opening to closing, among marathoners who would act as a writing group for one another. When someone got stuck, they could tap another participant for a quick brainstorm outside, “something cafe etiquette normally frowns upon,” he notes.

That first event, five years ago, saw six marathoners. The number doubled the following year. Kurtz has since become vice president of the Scriptwriters Network, a 25-year-old nonprofit that provides seminars and panels on craft for the local community. Now the free marathons take place under the Network’s auspices, and are open to all.

The latest one takes place over a September weekend at Bricks and Scones Café in Larchmont. Ten people are raring to go at the 7:30 a.m. start time. By the end of the day, about 45 have shown up, a number that stays consistent over the weekend. They range from novices to working Guild members. Some engage in conversation, while others hunker down in front of their screens, only coming up for coffee or a peanut butter & nutella panini.

One British woman asks those around her how to translate various idioms into American slang. Jason Tucker helps his neighbor Lazara Gonzalez with character description for over an hour. After a dinner break at a nearby restaurant, Gonzalez returns the favor, bringing back a large order of pork-fried rice for all the writers around her.

Script consultants come by for a couple of hours each day to give free 10-minute sessions to interested scribes. An agent at Larchmont Literary Agency offers to read any script that’s started and completed within the three-day period.

Christine James is visiting from Toronto, trying to learn as much about the industry as she can before her visa runs out. Like Tucker, she learned about the marathon from meetup.com. By late evening Sunday, she’s lost track of how many hours she’s put in. She is one of five people who hand the agent a first draft.

When asked if he had also finished a script in that time, Guild member Micah Wright laughs heartily. “I wish I could be one of those people,” says Wright, chair of the Guild’s videogame writers caucus and vice-chair of the American Indian writers committee. He’s happy to have written 30 pages of a new project. This is his second marathon.

“You can become myopic in your writing if you’re not talking to other people,” Wright says. “For an unstaffed writer, of any kind really—videogame, feature, TV movie, or writing on spec—it’s good to be around other writers occasionally.” In classic solitary creature fashion, he adds, “I wouldn’t want to do it every day.”

Kurtz is delighted to observe the interaction around him. “Fun is a word writers seldom use talking about their work, and it’s a shame,” he says. “This event helps rediscover the allure, romance, impulsiveness, and sheer joy of writing. It seems to be working pretty well.”

The next marathon is tentatively scheduled for January 28 - 30. Check scriptwritersnetwork.org for location and to RSVP.

—Lisa Rosen

ARCHIVIST JOANNE LAMMERS REVEALS A TREASURE TROVE.