Ep427 - David West Read, Screenwriter ‘Schitt’s Creek’ & Showrunner ‘The Big Door Prize’ by Creative Principles Podcast

“I don’t know what made me want to be a writer, but I loved doing it a very early age,” says screenwriter David West Read. “I started making movies with my friends when I was in elementary school. I would have them over for sleepovers, then hand out out scripts.” Back then, the parodies were Jurassic Pork and David Read’s A Christmas Carol.

“It’s something I gravitated towards. I thought for a long-time about doing something more stable and secure, something with a clearer path through University, but it was the thing I kept coming back to and the thing in my free time that brought me the most joy. I don’t know why we’re drawn to the things we’re drawn to, but I’ve been drawn to writing for performance for as long as I can remember.”

If one were to only examine Read’s IMDb page, it looks like he came out of nowhere to land a job writing 28 episodes on Schitt’s Creek and then a showrunner credit for The Big Door Prize, but that’s certainly not the case. “I studied at NYU Tisch School of the Arts and then Julliard for playwriting.” One of the plays he wrote back then as a student, his teacher, who he somewhat apprenticed for, shared it with an agent and it was produced Off-Broadway.

“[Theater] was so immediate. When you’re just starting out writing, the idea of writing a TV show or making a movie, it seems so out of reach. With stage writing, you can bring a few actors together, have them read it for a group of friends, and it already feels like a performance. It already feels closer to the finish line.” Read’s second play, The Performers, about the backstage at the adult film awards, went straight to Broadway. Read was still a student at the time.

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