WRITING
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I Am That Man
a one-hour original cable/streaming teleplay Christopher De Paola
Four white militia are shot while capturing a Mexican family crossing the El Paso border illegally. When the family's motives for crossing are suspect, Kira must untangle a web of dark rogue players before they execute a plan to use brown bodies as means to a disastrous end.
Recognition:
- Quarterfinalist, 2021 BlueCat Screenwriting Competition, Pilot Category
- Semifinalist, 2020 WeScreenplay TV Pilot Competition
- Quarterfinalist, 2020 ISA: Emerging Screenwriters TV Pilot Competition
- Top 12%, 2020 Nashville Film Fest
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Bad Usage
a one-hour original cable/streaming teleplay by Aaron Carter & Christopher De Paola
When William Fly leads sailors in a mutiny, he discovers his new ship is owned by a wealthy capitalist set on eradicating pyrates. On land, a religious leader attempts to protect those very same pyrates from persecution. As forces collide, Fly enters a maelstrom of commerce, politics and religion that will spark the American Revolution.
Recognition:
- Quarterfinalist, 2019 Screencraft Pilot Launch TV Script Competition
- 2nd Round, The 2019 Orchard Project Episodic Lab
Fault
a half-hour original cable/streaming teleplay by Christopher De Paola
A dark comedy exposing the absurdity of wealth, class, race, and the sport of tennis...
Tommy Nolasco is mentally falling apart, sliding towards the precipice of self-destruction… and that’s just on the tennis court. Searching to fill a void, he agrees to coach a talented young white girl who dreams of crushing the first and only dominant black athlete in the sport - but the strings attached may expose life-altering mistakes from Tommy's past.
Recognition:
- Fellowship, The 2019 Orchard Project Episodic Lab
- Top 20% (aka Second Rounder), 2019 Austin Film Festival
Westworld, ep. "c6"
a one-hour spec script by Christopher De Paola
Three female first-time guests are roped into an unexpectedly thrilling adventure in Sweetwater. Dolores searches for the grey wolf, the key to the truth about her visions. Maeve, with some grand manipulation, executes a great escape from her prison.
Recognition:
- Top 20% (aka Second Rounder), 2017 Austin Film Festival
- Quarterfinalist, 2017 Scriptapalooza Television Writing Competition
The Color Wars
a one-hour original cable/streaming teleplay by Christopher De Paola
What if we could genetically erase skin pigment? After an injection that can alter this basic code of life is discovered, Marc Roman is charged with implementing the government's mandated injections. But a Catholic priest inciting faith-based terrorism, and a female black market drug dealer stand in his way. With the country plunging deeper and deeper into paranoia and fear, all three share an unknown secret that sets them on a collision course which will leave only one standing.
Recognition:
- 2nd Round, 2018 Sundance Institute Episodic Lab
- Top 30%, TV Writer: People's Pilot 2017
- Semifinalist, 2017 ScreenCraft Pilot Launch TV Script Competition
- Top 20% (aka Second Rounder), 2017 Austin Film Festival
- Semifinalist, 2017 WeScreenplay Diverse Voices Pilot Competition
Conquest
a one-hour original cable/streaming teleplay by Christopher De Paola
The Aztec Empire... one of the most advanced civilizations in history... ruled over by those descended from the gods. Civility can make the thirst for power greater than any gods...
In a civilization where kings spring forth from gods and hearts are literally ripped from the flesh in religious ceremonies, a peasant Aztec teen with unnatural powers embarks on a treacherous plot to manipulate an empire into believing he is destined to sit on the throne.
Recognition:
- 2nd Round, The 2019 Orchard Project Episodic Lab
- Semifinalist, 2017 BlueCat Screenplay Competition
Top 47 out of 1030 submissions
- Top 25, 2016 Austin Film Festival/AMC One-hour Pilot Competition
From Matt Dy, Competition Director: "Out of a field of 1,469 submissions in this category, your script was selected
by our team of readers as 1 of 25 that we deemed worthy to send to AMC for consideration..."
- Quarterfinalist, 2016 Final Draft Big Break Screenwriting Contest
The Lamentable Rise of Tomas Andreas
a full-length play by Christopher De Paola
A titan will rise... in this superhero origin story based on Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus.
The Drug War is over, and Col. Tomas Andreas returns home after defeating the last remaining cartel. Hailed as a war hero, the people want him as their new President. But those already in power will do anything to keep it. As his family is violently mutilated, and abandoned by the institutions that gave him life, Tomas seeks his own justice by hunting down those responsible for the atrocities on his family... one by one.
The Imagine Man
a full-length play by Christopher De Paola
The dream of home ownership is as American as apple pie. But what happens in a country where buying and selling real estate is illegal? There are rumors of a man who knows how to work the system; a man who can help you find the house of your dreams. His name is Daniel. That’s all you can know. Do you trust him...?
Reading: Saturday Series, Chicago Dramatists 2009 (Dir: Meghan Beals McCarthy)
Workshop: Ignition Festival- Emerging Artists of Color, Victory Gardens 2008 (Dir: Henry Godinez)
Streets Come Knocking
a full-length play by Christopher De Paola
Robbie is a Hispanic kid saving up to start his own business. John is a black ex-con trying to stay straight. When Robbie takes boxing lessons from John, their worlds intertwine, and friendship blurs the line between survival and helping those you care about most.
Many Voices Project, Chicago Dramatists 2006 (Dir: Edward Torres)
Reading: Readers Theater, Victory Gardens 2006 (Dir: Edward Torres)
Workshop Production: 2006 Seabury Quinn Playwrights’ Festival (Dir: Melissa H. Grande)
Watchdog
a full-length play by Christopher De Paola
Images are perceptions of reality. As an image consultant, Irisa Torrez helps people transform their past and present selves. When two ethnic clients appear in her office, Irisa accepts their request to battle Hernán Cortés and 500 years of history in order to create the image of the future.
Workshop Production: Otterbein College, 2006 (Dir: Dennis Romer)
Staged Reading: 2005 Seabury Quinn Playwrights’ Festival (Dir: Dennis Delaney)
Elements of Form
a full-length play by Christopher De Paola
Agustín Cadena believes that as an educated Hispanic he has a responsibility to stay loyal to his culture by promoting a cultural nepotism. As curator of a major art gallery attempting to keep a team of volatile artists working together productively, Agustín’s cultural devotion is tested.
Reading: 2004 Seabury Quinn Playwrights’ Festival
The In-Betweener
a full-length play by Christopher De Paola
From his days as a struggling actor working retail, to his days as the owner of a successful construction company, Mark Roman inadvertently sets out on a journey that uncovers a cultural gap no one wants to address- language. Mark finds himself caught between a perception and a reality. Both force him to come to terms with where his place is as a Hispanic in society, and if or how he can do anything to change the state of things around him.
Reading: Manhattan Theatre Club, NYC 2003
What I Knew Then
a one-act play by Christopher De Paola
Mr. Mitchell is a lonely man who attempts to rekindle a friendship with Robert, a handyman who used to work for him. As Robert hangs a chandelier in Mr. Mitchell’s study, a mystery begins to unfold revealing the truth as to why these two men have not spoken in years.
Production: Doppelgang Productions, Clamente Soto Vélez Theater, NYC 2002
The Dialogue Between Men & Women
a one-act play by Christopher De Paola
Kevin attempts to gain some insight into the female psyche by narrating his adventures in the dating world. As he does so, Kevin’s clouded philosophy towards male-female relationships begins to become clear… but it may cause his own undoing.
Production: The Theater Studio, NYC 1999 (Dir: Betsy Curley)
Workshop: INTAR Theater, NYC 1999 (Dir: Jesse Mertz)
Reading: Florida Institute of Technology, FL 1999 (Dir: Frank Guttiere)
Dirty
a 10-minute play by Christopher De Paola
A routine date by an escort service gets twisted when 300 glasses of water are introduced.
Production: New Theatre, FL 2012 (Dir: James Carrey)
Recovered
a 10-minute play by Christopher De Paola
As the hours of a curfew tick away in a war-torn country, two unlikely men help a father exhume his son’s body.
Many Voices Project, Chicago Dramatists 2007
Téa & The Lion
a 10-minute play by Christopher De Paola
A fantasy-play in verse based on the painting Pygmalion and Galatea by Jean-Leon Gerome.
Reading: Soho Playhouse, NYC 2001