Kal Wagenheim
Millburn NJ
TRANSLATES: Spanish to English
Kal Wagenheim (born in Newark, N.J.) is a journalist (formerly with The New York Times and currently editor of Caribbean UPDATE monthly newsletter), author and translator of eight books, and ten plays and screenplays. His biography of Babe Ruth was a Playboy Book Club selection and was adapted for an NBC-TV film. His plays, "Bavarian Rage," "We Beat Whitey Ford" and "Coffee With God" have been produced off-off-Broadway. "Coffee With God: has been acquired by Dramatic Publishing Co. and is being produced by schools nationwide. His poetry and fiction have been published in online literary magazines www.jerseyworks.com and PulpLit.com. He has also taught creative writing at Columbia University and The State Prison in Trenton NJ. Member: PEN American Center and The Dramatists Guild of America. Film producers may access his screenplays on the website www.inktip.com.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Plays and Screenplays
BAVARIAN RAGE. Adolf Hitler alive? A wannabe ?dream team? of lawyers eagerly interviews their hoped for ticket to fame, an elderly man who may?or may not?be The Fuhrer. Film rights! Book deals! Interview with Larry King! It?s a bonanza! There are surprises galore in this edgy madcap comedy of shifting identities. ?Funny and somehow touching?you write with a sure comedic hand.? ? Eli Wallach. ?I loved it. It was so wacky I roared.??Lee Coppola. Full-length play was finalist, 2001 New Century Writer Award for a Stage Play. Semifinalist 2001-2002 National Arts Club Playwrights First Competition. One-act version presented May 1997 at the Annual Off Off Broadway Original Short Play Festival (Harold Clurman Theatre, NYC). Staged readings: The Deptford Players, NYC (Nov. 2001) , the Abingdon Theatre Co., NYC (July 2002), the Stage 3 New Play Festival, Sonora CA (Nov. 2003), HRC Showcase Theatre, Hudson NY (Oct. 2004), The Theater Project, Cranford NJ (Nov. 2005). Screenplay was semifinalist in 10th Annual Writers?s Network Screenplay & Fiction Competition and quarterfinalist in the 2002 Fade In Magazine competition. A full-length play (cast: 5 males, 2 females) and screenplay. (WGAE 115643-00).
COFFEE WITH GOD. A man is seated in a diner, enjoying a bagel with cream cheese and a cup of coffee, when God, carrying a laptop computer, sits next to him and orders the same. Their conversation ranges from playful (finding parking in Manhattan) to heartbreaking (why loved ones die all too soon). A one-act play. Published in 2007 by Dramatic Publishing. Tel: 800-448-7469. Web: www.dramaticpublishing.com. Email: plays@dramaticpublishing.com. Performances: First Annual Chester Horn Short Play Festival, American Theatre of Actors, NYC (June 22-26, 2005); Generic Theatre Summer Festival, Norfolk VA (July 15-17, 22-24, 2005); Gettysburg (Pa.) College 44th One-Act Festival (Nov. 18, 2005; Illustrious Theatre Co., Warwick NY (Feb. 24-26) and Sussex NJ (March 10-11, 2006). Jersey Voices Festival, Chatham NJ Playhouse (performed July 28-29,Aug 3-5, 2006). Minnesota State High School League Play Festival, Austin MN (Jan. 20, 2007). Staged readings: Stray Dawg Theatre Co., Belfast, Northern Ireland (April 23, 2006); Poco Loco Players God Play Contest, New Mexico (Nov. 2005), Villagers Theatre, Somerset NJ (Feb. 27, 2006). WGAE#1055260. Cast: 4 (2 males, 2 females).
THE HYDROGEN THING. Three scientists in different parts of the world are murdered in apparently random events. All three are pioneers in a new hydrogen fuel cell technology that will end the world?s dependence on oil. Becky McLean (a young college professor) and her boyfriend Michael Stern (a journalist) stumble upon the plot (concocted by a deranged scientist and corrupt stockbroker) and are pursued by the killers in this quirky comic thriller. Semifinalist: 10th Annual Writer?s Network Screenplay & Fiction Competition. Quarterfinalist, Austin Film Festival, 2002. (WGAE#R07663-00). Screenplay
FISH DIE BY THE MOUTH. Johnny Faustino, a building contractor frustrated by his inability to obtain business in a corrupt industry, enters into a pact with a mob figure and magically prospers at first. The scheme collapses, and Johnny is caught in a squeeze between his murderous partners and the FBI, which threatens him with prison unless he testifies. A modern take on a classic legend. (Semifinalist, Script Magazine Open Door Contest, October 2000; Quarterfinalist Fade In 2000 Awards.) (WGAE #130583-00). Screenplay
DEATH AT WEEHAWKEN. This historical drama probes a two-centuries old mystery: what passions compelled the Vice President of the United States (Aaron Burr) and the former Secretary of Treasury (Alexander Hamilton) to engage in a fatal duel? Touching upon themes that resonate today, it is a tale of sex, jealousy, corruption, bare knuckle politics, and a scandal-hungry press, culminating in the deadly encounter, in 1804, on the west bank of the Hudson River. (Semi-finalist in the 1999-2000 Playwrights First competition sponsored by The National Arts Club. Screenplay was a quarter-finalist in the 2001 New Century Awards competition.) Staged reading, The Theatre Project at Union County College, NJ, Nov. 10, 2002. (WGAE#125702-00) A full-length play, also available as screenplay.
THE KING OF TANGO. The life and death of legendary tango singer-composer Carlos Gardel (1890-1935), whose music -- six decades after his death in a fiery plane crash -- is still popular throughout Latin America, Spain and France. This biopic showcases his genius and explores the complex, elusive man behind the legend . (WGAE#093063-00). Screenplay ( also available in Spanish, title: Es un soplo la vida).
LEVINE! LEVINE! This tragi-comic drama chronicles the meteoric rise and fall of brash millionaire and aviation pioneer Charles A. Levine. His brief fling with fame, as the first trans-Atlantic air passenger, two weeks after Lindbergh's historic solo flight, was celebrated with joyous Yiddish songs. Semifinalist, 2004 Dorothy Silver Playwriting Competition. Staged readings: The Theater Company, Union County College, Cranford NJ (Nov. 2003) and Innovative Stages, Westchester County NY (April 2004). A full-length play and also available as a screenplay. (WGAE#I1027-00)
LUCKY FOR ME. Violence and drugs surround Charles ?Lucky? Dumas, an African-American teenager, growing up on the gritty streets of the inner city. His hardworking mother (a waitress in a diner), and his father (in prison for murder) struggle to keep him on the straight and narrow. Lucky survives a number of crises, including a failed romance, gang rumbles, and the death of his two closest friends. In a rousing finale, he delivers an emotional, inspiring valedictorian speech at his school. Despite the odds, he seems on his way to success. Screenplay adapted, with his written permission, from the novel by Eugene Thomas. Quarterfinalist, 12th Annual Writers Network Screenplay & Fiction Competition, 2005; Quarterfinalist, 2005 Fade In Magazine Awards. WGAE#I20668
MOTHER?S DAY IN HELL. Two Jersey mobsters (Jewish & Italian), a brothel madame (African-American) and Britain?s Lord Cornbury, the corrupt, cross-dressing first governor of New Jersey (1706) -- all long dead -- have bribed the Devil and his underlings and live in comfort in the VIP Lounge of the New Jersey Wing of Hell. They are joined by a Latino mobster (just killed in a mob war) and plan to develop a Vegas-style casino. Life is good, but Mother?s Day is coming, and they are anxious and weepy for another glimpse of their beloved moms. One-act play. Cast: 6 (4 males, 2 females). Staged reading: April 21, 2007 by The Theater Project at Union Couny College, Cranford NJ.
THE LIBERTINE LIBRETTIST. The adventures of Lorenzo Da Ponte, Mozart's "libertine librettist." Jew, defrocked Catholic priest, fugitive from justice, brilliant poet, friend to Casanova, grocer, bookseller, teacher, loving husband and father, querulous complainer, tireless seeker of glory. Da Ponte's 89-year life span takes us to Venice, Vienna, London, and ends in New York, where he founds the city's first opera house. (Winner, 4th Annual Empire Screenplay Contest, 2000 . Quarterfinalist 2002 Scriptalooza Screenwriting Competition, 2001 New Century Writer Award & 2000 Cinestory Screenwriting Award .) (WGAE #084754-00). Screenplay.
PURPLE HEART. A young man interviews his great-uncle Murrey, who was wounded in World War I, and found himself sharing a bomb crater with a wounded German soldier for several terrifying hours, with haunting results. Cast: 2 or 3 males, 7 pages.
TRAGEDY IN LAFAYETTE SQUARE. Washington DC.,1859. Was it premeditated murder or temporary insanity when an enraged Congressman, Dan Sickles, shot and killed Philip Barton Key in Lafayette Square? Key (a prominent lawyer and the son of the composer of The Star Spangled Banner) was involved in a passionate affair with Teresa Sickles, the wife of the Congressman. The nation is gripped by the ensuing ?trial of the century,? which raises issues of a double standard, as Sickles is revealed to be an adulterer himself. (Finalist, 2001 New Century Writer Award. Quarterfinalist, 2001 Script Magazine/Shooting Gallery Open Door Contest.) (WGAE#R00278-00 ). Screenplay
WE BEAT WHITEY FORD. One-act play. Two former high school baseball teammates -- one black, one white -- meet twenty years later at Newark Airport, and seek to bridge the racial/class gulf that separates them. This is a moving, often funny, tale of friendship, of race relations in America, and of the chasm between youthful dreams and reality?between what we want and what we get. ?A nice clean?honest play?before it?s through, you might feel a few emotions welling up.? ?Jerry Tallmer, The Villager. Presented June 2007 at The Snapple Theatre, NYC, Sept. 2000 at PSNBC@HERE; April 2000 at Pulse Ensemble Theatre, W. 42d St.; July 1998 at Synchronicity Space, Soho. Short story format was quarterfinalist in 7th Annual Writer?s Network Screenplay & Fiction Competition (2000).
WEGOTDATES.COM. Selma, sweet and ditzy, applies for a job at an Internet ?personals? service and is hired by Ernie, the cynical office manager. They gradually fall in love, while several dozen New Yorkers (performed by a cast of four) act out ads they?ve placed, searching for love, friendship and adventure. Slapstick comedy with a generous dollop of heartfelt sentiment. (WGAE#140935-00) One-act play
NATIONAL BANANA WEEK. A clueless Number 43 and VP Cheney discuss major issues, including how to pronounce ?nuclear? in this very short White House comedy. Staged reading, The Theater Project, Cranford NJ, March 2007. Cast: 6 (2 males).
Jersey Tales: Three of the one-act plays listed above (?Coffee With God?, ?We Beat Whitey Ford? and ?Mother?s Day in Hell? are based in New Jersey and can either be performed individually, or together to provide a full evening of theatre.
Books include:
THE SECRET LIFE OF WALTER MOTT. A new serio-comic novel set in the late 1950s. Walter Mott, a shy bachelor, lives secretly in his office at the Security Insurance Co., in a bid to save money and retire early. Dramatizes the conflict between the yearnings for freedom and security. (65,000 words. Now being submitted to agents and publishers).
BABE RUTH: HIS LIFE & LEGEND. (1974) A Playboy Book Club selection. Adapted for an NBC-TV film (1991). "Graceful and anecdotal and uncommonly readable ... Wagenheim's richly detailed narrative has the power to touch off both guffaws and tears" -- Roger Angell, The New York Times. Available as audiocassette, on-line from E-Reads.com and in paperback from Olmstead Books/LPC Group.
CLEMENTE! (1973) A biography of the first Latino Hall of Fame baseball star. American Library Association Selection as One of the Best Books of the Year for Young Readers. "The classic stuff of sports tragedy, the athlete dying young...the man beyond the ball field," Roger Kahn, The Chicago Tribune. Available on-line from E-Reads.com and in paperback from Olmstead Books/LPC Group.
THE POND. (1999) A translation (from the Spanish) of La Charca, the 19th century novel by Manuel Zeno-Gandía. "A classic of Latin American fiction (in) a modern and colloquial translation" -- The Nation. Published by Markus Wiener, Princeton NJ.
THE SEVENTH MIRACLE. (2000) A translation (from the Spanish) of El Septimo Milagro, a memoir by Jorge I. Klainman, a Polish Jew who survived the Holocaust. A moving story of triumph over adversity. Available online and as a paperback from www.xlibris.com.
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