Lance Lee

Orpheus Rising is a sparkling immersion in adventures of great beauty, danger, and the unexpected, with a climax that will move anyone to a sense of joy. A daring retelling of the Orpheus legend in modern guise, Sam and his father, John, set off to rescue Sam's lost mother, Madelyn, from "The Far Land of Fear" and "Dread City", a startling, imaginative view of the afterlife. A fantasy set in terms of Sam's 10 going on 11 imagination, they are joined by Lepanto, a very wise Elephant who likes to dance, dressed in Edwardian elegance, through a series of adventures with a most unexpected ending. Children will enjoy the sheer inventiveness of the story-telling, and adults the unexpected depths of Sam and his father's journey to the completion oftheir hearts' desire... Lee is also a poet whose output has been called "visionary" "vibrant" "a voice beyond epoch" variously compared to Browning, Auden, and in its freedom, Neruda. A playwright too, he has brought characters to life as diverse as Rasputin and the last fox in Los Angeles... His texts of screenwriting and drama remain popular in their fields as well.

Orpheus Rising is a sparkling immersion in adventures of great beauty, danger, and the unexpected, with a climax that will move anyone to a sense of joy. A daring retelling of the Orpheus legend in modern guise, Sam and his father, John, set off to rescue Sam's lost mother, Madelyn, from "The Far Land of Fear" and "Dread City", a startling, imaginative view of the afterlife. A fantasy set in terms of Sam's 10 going on 11 imagination, they are joined by Lepanto, a very wise Elephant who likes to dance, dressed in Edwardian elegance, through a series of adventures with a most unexpected ending. Children will enjoy the sheer inventiveness of the story-telling, and adults the unexpected depths of Sam and his father's journey to the completion of their hearts' desire... Lee is also a poet whose output has been called "visionary" "vibrant" "a voice beyond epoch" variously compared to Browning, Auden, and in its freedom, Neruda. A playwright too, he has brought characters to life as diverse as Rasputin and the last fox in Los Angeles... His texts of screenwriting and drama remain popular in their fields as well.

Praise for Elemental Natures "Lance Lee's Elemental Natures draws together in one inspiring new volume a powerful selection of works ... These attest to the far-reaching intelligence and perceptive insights of a remarkable talent-from Lance Lee's respect for the classical tradition to the vigor of all-consuming human love to the welfare of planet earth as well as our common awesome as well as awful experiences. In living with these works, I could not help coming away with a sense of poetic maturity and mastery." -Tom Tolnay, editor and publisher, Birch Brook Press, US "Elemental Natures draws from a career spread over thirty years ... Our complexities and place in the world are central in his work, while "Late Spring" brings his difficult father marvelously to life as Lee investigates himself, his family, and mixed gentile and Jewish background. Here is a poet writing with the richness of the Romantics who looks hard at reality and expresses himself with passion and honesty, pulling the reader in." -Myra Schneider, Lifting the Sky, UK "Elemental Natures is a beautiful accomplishment, an expanse of poems born of one man's 'life-wish'-unsettling, full-blooded, tender-that shows life's energy pressing up against the margins of mortality with a vibrant, sensuous intelligence ... He offers a way to share and celebrate multiple aspects of being alive within the vitality of art itself as well as within our great archetypal myths, which he makes uniquely intimate and essential." -Pamela Stewart, Infrequent Mysteries, US

Praise for Elemental Natures "Lance Lee's Elemental Natures draws together in one inspiring new volume a powerful selection of works ... These attest to the far-reaching intelligence and perceptive insights of a remarkable talent-from Lance Lee's respect for the classical tradition to the vigor of all-consuming human love to the welfare of planet earth as well as our common awesome as well as awful experiences. In living with these works, I could not help coming away with a sense of poetic maturity and mastery." -Tom Tolnay, editor and publisher, Birch Brook Press, US "Elemental Natures draws from a career spread over thirty years ... Our complexities and place in the world are central in his work, while "Late Spring" brings his difficult father marvelously to life as Lee investigates himself, his family, and mixed gentile and Jewish background. Here is a poet writing with the richness of the Romantics who looks hard at reality and expresses himself with passion and honesty, pulling the reader in." -Myra Schneider, Lifting the Sky, UK "Elemental Natures is a beautiful accomplishment, an expanse of poems born of one man's 'life-wish'-unsettling, full-blooded, tender-that shows life's energy pressing up against the margins of mortality with a vibrant, sensuous intelligence ... He offers a way to share and celebrate multiple aspects of being alive within the vitality of art itself as well as within our great archetypal myths, which he makes uniquely intimate and essential." -Pamela Stewart, Infrequent Mysteries, US

"Seasons of Defiance".

Lance Lee's resources belong to the priviledged but his genius is in creating poetry for those with the slightest lingering wish for the beauty that can still infuse life. This collection also includes his poems such as: "Stonehenge"; and "Winter Solstice".

What makes a film "work," so that audiences come away from the viewing experience refreshed and even transformed in the way they understand themselves and the world around them? In The Death and Life of Drama, veteran screenwriter and screenwriting teacher Lance Lee tackles this question in a series of personal essays that thoroughly analyze drama's role in our society, as well as the elements that structure all drama, from the plays of ancient Athens to today's most popular movies. Using examples from well-known classical era and recent films, Lee investigates how writers handle dramatic elements such as time, emotion, morality, and character growth to demonstrate why some films work while others do not. He seeks to define precisely what "action" is and how the writer and the viewer understand dramatic reality. He looks at various kinds of time in drama, explores dramatic context from Athens to the present, and examines the concept of comedy. Lee also proposes a novel "five act" structure for drama that takes account of the characters' past and future outside the "beginning, middle, and end" of the story. Deftly balancing philosophical issues and practical concerns, The Death and Life of Drama offers a rich understanding of the principles of successful dramatic writing for screenwriters and indeed everyone who enjoys movies and wants to know why some films have such enduring appeal for so many people.

Writing successful screenplays that capture the public imagination and richly reward the screenwriter requires more than simply following the formulas prescribed by the dozens of screenwriting manuals currently in print. Learning the "how-tos" is important, but understanding the dramatic elements that make up a good screenplay is equally crucial for writing a memorable movie. In A Poetics for Screenwriters, veteran writer and teacher Lance Lee offers aspiring and professional screenwriters a thorough overview of all the dramatic elements of screenplays, unbiased toward any particular screenwriting method.Lee explores each aspect of screenwriting in detail. He covers primary plot elements, dramatic reality, storytelling stance and plot types, character, mind in drama, spectacle and other elements, and developing and filming the story. Relevant examples from dozens of American and foreign films, including Rear Window, Blue, Witness, The Usual Suspects, Virgin Spring, Fanny and Alexander, The Godfather, and On the Waterfront, as well as from dramas ranging from the Greek tragedies to the plays of Shakespeare and Ibsen, illustrate all of his points.This new overview of the dramatic art provides a highly useful update for all students and professionals who have tried to adapt the principles of Aristotle's Poetics to the needs of modern screenwriting. By explaining "why" good screenplays work, this book is the indispensable companion for all the "how-to" guides.

This unique, comprehensive introduction to screenwriting offers practical advice for the beginning writer, whether college student or freelancer. Based on their experience as professional writers and as teachers in a large, successful screenwriting program at California State University, Northridge, the authors provide a progression of assignments at manageable screenwriting lengths for beginners. They lead students through development of a premise, treatment, stepsheet, and, finally, miniscreenplay-essential elements in writing a longer script.A major feature of the text is the use of many example scenes from contemporary and classic American films, such as On the Waterfront, Kramer vs. Kramer, The Godfather, The Graduate, Tootsie, and more. Other scenes are drawn from international films and dramatic literature. The criticism of these scenes invites students to develop their own comparative models, while simultaneously providing exposure to the central analytical terms of good dramatic writing.The authors also place screenwriting within the larger tradition of dramatic writing in order to put the beginning writer in touch with the wealth of art, experience, and practical ideas the drama contains. They provide an up-to-date, practical discussion of marketing and copywriting a screenplay, with addresses of relevant professional societies. Most importantly, they never offer an ill-advised shortcut or restrict students to only one way of thinking about a character, situation, or scene. In The Understructure of Writing for Film & Television, the student's thought and creativity are central.