Screenplay Awards
Da Doo Waas©
The JoJo Mama and the Voodoo Queen©
The JoJo Mama and the Voodoo Queen©
What happens when the military industrial complex’s design of the ultimate fighting creature escapes, multiplies rapidly and enslaves humans? A barren earth forces the conquerors to invade a planet where beings communicate in music and who just may be Earth’s saviors.
Winner L.A.A.F. 2022
Silver Award for first time animation screenwriter feature. www.laafest.com
The JoJo Mama and the Voodoo Queen©
The JoJo Mama and the Voodoo Queen©
The JoJo Mama and the Voodoo Queen©
SCABS©
The JoJo Mama and the Voodoo Queen©
Picnik©
Top Finalist New Feature Version
RIFF 2023
(Richmond International Film Festival)
Winner Best Shot Screenplay
Oaxaca International Film Festival 2018.
Winner Best TV Series
Portland Comedy Film Festival 2018.
Winner Best Short Screenplay
Atlanta Comedy Film Festival 2018
Picnik©
Genie Says, WHAT?
Picnik©
Winner Best Screenplay 2021
Irvine International Film Festival
Semi-Finalist
Coverfly Drama 2023
Genie Says, WHAT?
Genie Says, WHAT?
Genie Says, WHAT?
For the Stage
Reposition© comedy full-length.
JoJo Mama and the Voodoo Queen©, comedy full-length.
JoJo Mama and the Voodoo Queen©, comedy full-length.
Man comes into the agency and requests the agency take his multi-million advertising account. The man resembles a stereotypical accountant but claims he is the devil.
Recently revised.
Illustration by Len Bethel.
JoJo Mama and the Voodoo Queen©, comedy full-length.
JoJo Mama and the Voodoo Queen©, comedy full-length.
JoJo Mama and the Voodoo Queen©, comedy full-length.
Comedy based upon a mother’s love of an eccentric daughter immersed in art, greed and prejudice.
Received Panelist Favorite Award from the late Michael Warren Powell at the Last Frontier Playwriting Festival.
Hearing Art© drama full-length.
JoJo Mama and the Voodoo Queen©, comedy full-length.
SOS (Swans of Stratford)© comedy, full-length.
Vincent Van Gogh's masterpiece is featured in my new play, Hearing Art. Quarterfinalist, ScreenCraft Stage Play Competition 2023.
The play was read in August by the talented actors under the direction of the talented director, Danielle Wirsansky at White Mouse Productions, Florida State University.
SOS (Swans of Stratford)© comedy, full-length.
SOS (Swans of Stratford)© comedy, full-length.
SOS (Swans of Stratford)© comedy, full-length.
An aspiring writer discovers there is more comedy in relationships than on stage when he takes eight strong, passionate women to Canada’s Stratford Festival during a ten year search for love.
WFLO© comedy, full-length.
SOS (Swans of Stratford)© comedy, full-length.
WFLO© comedy, full-length.
Men in a support group share two problems: their inability to sustain healthy relationships with women and career frustration. They purchase a bankrupt radio station in a small Alabama town and convert it to a self-help, talk format.
Recently revised.
Terrarium Earth© musical comedy, full-length.
SOS (Swans of Stratford)© comedy, full-length.
WFLO© comedy, full-length.
Madcap spoof of advertising, incorporating ASL (American Sign Language) highlights gender bias, racial inequality and the marketing of esoteric products.
Music transcribed, Buffalo Guitar Quartet.
80% Lesbian© comedy.
What's-Her-Name& Pete© comedy.
What's-Her-Name& Pete© comedy.
Father and daughter argument over his weekly blog that includes his daughter's declaration she may be "80 Percent Lesbian." 20 min.
What's-Her-Name& Pete© comedy.
What's-Her-Name& Pete© comedy.
What's-Her-Name& Pete© comedy.
Traveling salesman checks into a famous NYC hotel to encounter the ghost of a famous poet. 30 min.
Some of the Ten Minute Plays
Parscription©
Parscription©
Parscription©
After a vasectomy, a man who does not read his prescriptions, takes a prescription to a pharmacy to be filled. Comedy. Performed October 2023 Florida State University, White Mouse Productions.
ML and Leo©
Parscription©
Parscription©
What happens when ML sees her portrait for the very first time. Curtain Call Playhouse selected it as part of an eight play production in May. Comedy. Five to six minutes.
Performances :
Willow Theatre Boca Raton, Fl.
Charlotte Burrie Center Pompano Beach, Fl. Sunrise Civic Center Theatre Sunrise, Fl.
Manhole©
Parscription©
Romans 8:32©
Three supervisors, two diggers and an overly curious homeowner. Three Anglicans above, two Hispanixs below and if you question city hall, you go to jail. Comedy. Spanish and English.
Romans 8:32©
Bob Meets Sigmund & Dali At the Chattahoochee Social©
Romans 8:32©
A devoted husband of 32 years, desperately tries to obtain pain medicine for his terminally ill wife. Drama. Reading May 23, 2022 during the dramatist Guild Gulf Coast Footlights and in March 2022 during the DG Florida Panhandle Footlights .
Bob Meets Sigmund & Dali At the Chattahoochee Social©
Bob Meets Sigmund & Dali At the Chattahoochee Social©
Bob Meets Sigmund & Dali At the Chattahoochee Social©
What happens when Bob runs into Sigmund and Dali at a mixer and a deceased U.S. President is thrown into the conversation. Comedy.
Fortune Kooky©
Bob Meets Sigmund & Dali At the Chattahoochee Social©
Bob Meets Sigmund & Dali At the Chattahoochee Social©
Performed at Tampa Bay Theatre Festival 2017. Comedy. “ If you are familiar with the concept of a “found poem,” you will appreciate Lee Kitchen’s theatrical application of this idea in his clever short, FORTUNE KOOKY. After ten years of visits to Chinese restaurants, 95% of his dialogue is culled from the signature dessert. The story’s premise is simple, but there are immediate escalations and reversals that would make this play fun and challenging for its actors. Looking for a good short play for your festival? “Stop searching forever. Happiness is just next to you.” Greg Burdick, Playwright.
SCABS© (1st ten-min.play)
SCABS© (1st ten-min.play)
SCABS© (1st ten-min.play)
Strike at the hottest Latin Soap Opera forces the hiring of scab writers, actors, director, producer and makeup artists who really don’t speak Spanish. Comedy.
Shylock Texting©
SCABS© (1st ten-min.play)
SCABS© (1st ten-min.play)
Actor in Shylock costume, debates with an English professor. Reality vs, theory. Comedy. Read at the SEC Conference, 2018.
Nashville Taxi©
SCABS© (1st ten-min.play)
4th Quarter Pick-Up©
Inebriated couple party until 2 am. They hail a musician cabbie who drives them home. He’s had weirder passengers, maybe not. Comedy.
4th Quarter Pick-Up©
4th Quarter Pick-Up©
4th Quarter Pick-Up©
A man pretending he is a sports buff tries to pick-up a woman at a bar. She is a sports nut. Comedy. Performed 2019 Tampa Bay Theatre Festival.
Screenplays and Film (most recent first)
JABOBS©
Shakespeare's Suits©
Dog Gone Heaven
NEW! Dramedy. Humor laden in mischief bonds teens from different economic backgrounds into adulthood as they struggle to break from prejudice and dysfunctional families.
Dog Gone Heaven
Shakespeare's Suits©
Dog Gone Heaven
NEW! Comedy short animation.
Logline: Dog Gone Heaven©
Will a deceased ex-husband, convinced he’s going to hell, discover dogs are more than man’s best friend?
Shakespeare's Suits©
Shakespeare's Suits©
Shakespeare's Suits©
REVISED! COMEDY.
What happens in this farce when Richard I, Richard II and Richard III return to modern time to sue William Shakespeare? Comedy.
Picnik©
Da Do Waa © animation
Shakespeare's Suits©
Drama. It’s the turn of the century when seven African American tenant farmers who rent from an aged Civil War vet are accused of ax murdering the vet and three family members. White suspects avail but a vigilante frenzy draws thousands to the town intent on multiple lynchings. An unsolved mystery based on true events.
Winner Best Screenplay at the recent Irvine International Film Festival.
Da Do Waa © animation
Da Do Waa © animation
Da Do Waa © animation
What happens when the military industrial complex’s design of the ultimate fighting creature escapes, multiplies and enslaves humans? Animated Sci-Fi with Music.See the Five Minute Storyboard Pitch on Vimeo or IMDb. Permission required.
SCABS©
Da Do Waa © animation
Da Do Waa © animation
New Feature Version .
A strike at the hottest Latin Soap Opera forces the hiring of scab writers, actors, director, producer and makeup artists who really don’t speak Spanish. Comedy.
Top Finalist at recent Richmond International Film Festival.
REPOSITION © screenplay
The JoJo Mama and the Voodoo Queen©
The JoJo Mama and the Voodoo Queen©
Recently completed as screenplay.
A man comes into the agency and requests the agency take his multi-million advertising account. The man resembles a stereotypical accountant but claims he is the devil.
.
The JoJo Mama and the Voodoo Queen©
The JoJo Mama and the Voodoo Queen©
The JoJo Mama and the Voodoo Queen©
A comedy based upon a mother’s love of an eccentric daughter immersed in art, greed and prejudice. Comedy. Winner Best Screenplay, May 2023 Austin Comedy Film Festival.
The Doll Man (El hombre muñecas )©
The JoJo Mama and the Voodoo Queen©
The Doll Man (El hombre muñecas )©
A grieving, cartoonist husband unknowingly transforms his deceased wife’s muslin dolls into zany Samaritans who talk to each other but not to Doll Man, while discovering friendship, culture, and trouble in Mexico. English and Spanish. Comedy.
Genie Says, WHAT?
The Audition (Bronco's Dolls Go to Hollywood)© Film
The Doll Man (El hombre muñecas )©
Created for the Easterseals Film Challenge. We filmed and edited the short, in four days, per the contest rules, thanks to our talented editor and camera person, Robert Proctor.
Youtube link: https://youtu.be/XvU2AIfWZWE
The Audition (Bronco's Dolls Go to Hollywood)© Film
The Audition (Bronco's Dolls Go to Hollywood)© Film
The Audition (Bronco's Dolls Go to Hollywood)© Film
More Work and Testimonials
Commutin' Train, Forty Years Earlier
Commutin' Train, Forty Years Earlier
Commutin' Train, Forty Years Earlier
Misnomer by Henry
Click on the photographs in Blogs (above) for narratives. I was twenty-two. Submitted the poems when I was 25 with three published in Writer's Digest and five in the Buffalo News. On of the earlier photographs accepted by The Sun.
Commutin' Train, Forty years Later
Commutin' Train, Forty Years Earlier
Commutin' Train, Forty Years Earlier
First Session with Dr. Misnomer
Click on Blog photograph April 2 nd.
The cockroach is now the therapist. Several of the new narratives or poems, feature therapy sessions with Dr. Misnomer, often about the work or writing created on the opposite page, from many years ago.
On the drawing board
Online With God, G-Mail, The Ultimate Icon
Online With God, G-Mail, The Ultimate Icon
Work in progress:
New screenplays (Peyton and Pat's Story) , The Home (comedy, futuristic) Da Do Was's and of course, the Chicken series.
Joints (formerly Long Walk Back). Draft of cover above. Fiction surrounded by a memoir.
Online With God, G-Mail, The Ultimate Icon
Online With God, G-Mail, The Ultimate Icon
Online With God, G-Mail, The Ultimate Icon
See recent review in DOWNLOAD Section from the Apalachee Review, issue 67.
"Brilliant! Short stories in email format." Dr. Xue (Tianhai). Tianjin Foreign Studies University.
to Online With God Paperback on Amazon
"There are so few humorists left. But if you are looking for one, then I can assure that you can find one in Mr.Cucina and his excellent book Online With God (G-Mail} The Ultimate Icon.His e-mails from God to characters ranging from Foghorn Leghorn to Steven Spielberg are guaranteed to cause you to chuckle or smile (the true humorist's goal). Get it today. I promise you that you will not be disappointed and you will recommended to your friends. " CV, Amazon Post.
- Also see http://gmailthebooks.com
About Lee Kitchen
Playwright
Screenplays
Screenplays
https://newplayexchange.org/users/12288/lee-kitchen
Six full-length plays, seven completed screen plays, fourteen short plays.
Participated in the Dramatist Guild Song Writer Circle and Master Playwriting class. Worked with other lyricists and composers on four songs. An incredible experience.
Screenplays
Screenplays
Screenplays
https://filmfreeway.com/rkitchen
Picnik, a drama, received best feature screenplay at the recent Irvine International Film Festival.
Completed new spin off of The Audition titled The Doll Man. It is more GP friendly and hopefully more humorous to a broader audience.
The Audition (Bronco's Dolls Go to Hollywood)
"That short screenplay is t
https://filmfreeway.com/rkitchen
Picnik, a drama, received best feature screenplay at the recent Irvine International Film Festival.
Completed new spin off of The Audition titled The Doll Man. It is more GP friendly and hopefully more humorous to a broader audience.
The Audition (Bronco's Dolls Go to Hollywood)
"That short screenplay is the weirdest thing I’ve read in awhile and I mean that as a compliment because it doesn’t seem to be just an exercise of the writer’s mind but just so darn funny and an interesting story. It is really funky and funny." From nationally recognized novelist and short story writer, April .
Completed Sci-Fi writing course via Sundance Collab Course with Philip Eisner as mentor/instructor.
Completed a Sundance Collab course for TV writing. The experience (fabulous) helped me extend The Doll Man (El hombre muñecas )
into a sixty-minute pilot thanks so much to the outstanding instructors/leaders of the course (Brian Shin, Angela La Manna and Liz Nord) --veteran TV writers.
Writer
Screenplays
Writer
In defense of what sounds egotistical : Chose the name of the website as Leekitchenwriter because online search for the name, Lee Kitchen, generates a slew of restaurants. Some appear quite good.
Published Online with God as a self-publishing experiment and it is available via Amazon.
Link to Online With God Paperback on Amazon
Please
In defense of what sounds egotistical : Chose the name of the website as Leekitchenwriter because online search for the name, Lee Kitchen, generates a slew of restaurants. Some appear quite good.
Published Online with God as a self-publishing experiment and it is available via Amazon.
Link to Online With God Paperback on Amazon
Please read the review from the Apalachee Review.
Located on DOWNLOAD below.
Updates
Line Drawing from Commutin' Train, Only on a Sunday Afternoon
Line Drawing from Commutin' Train, Only on a Sunday Afternoon
Line Drawing from Commutin' Train, Only on a Sunday Afternoon
I used to take my daughter, Lisa, to Central Park on Sundays. On the return train back to the Bronxville Station (we actually lived in Yonkers, a fourth floor walkup) a vendor would walk up and down the aisles. I don't think he had a license. Who knows? He would yell out, "Ice Cream! Ice cream! There will be no more food served on this train."
Line Drawing from Commutin' Train, Only on a Sunday Afternoon
Line Drawing from Commutin' Train, Only on a Sunday Afternoon
SCABS was developed into a feature screenplay. Awards were for the short screenplay.
REPOSITION was also recently completed from a revised stage play into a feature screenplay. Both completed during during the past nine months.
Writing Commutin' Songs on rental guitar.
Writing Commutin' Songs on rental guitar.
Illustration from commuting and business characters.
Writing Commutin' Songs on rental guitar.
Writing Commutin' Songs on rental guitar.
Writing Commutin' Songs on rental guitar.
Took me a ride on a commutin' train
everyone looked alike and dressed the same...(More in manuscript, Commutin' Train). Song also used in first play, Terrarium Earth. Fourth-story walkup in Yonkers (Bronxville Station) when I worked for JWT, then the world's largest ad agency.
Mikel Fair awarding Best TV Series Pilot for SCABS
Portland Comedy Film Festival 2018
Mikel Fair Director of the Portland Comedy Film Festival presenting the award for SCABS to Rebeca and Hutch for me.
Scenes from The Audition and poster for The JoJo Mama
Resume, Background and Laurels
Background
Background
Background
Began career at J. Walter Thompson Advertising in New York and Chicago. Joined The Mentholatum Company as Marketing Director and member of the Executive Committee. Obtained MBA from University of Buffalo at nights while working as Marketing Director at the Mentholatum Company. After receiving my MBA, I left corporate world to write full-time. Worked with the late NYC agent Glen Cowley on humor manuscript, MBA Guidebook. Negotiating with Little Brown for advance when comparable book hit market. Learned a lesson: sent entire manuscript to several publishers a year before signing with agent.
Started business, Freelance Network working with freelancers in North America. Joined a client, Greater Buffalo Press, later Sullivan Graphics and then American Graphics.
Left corporate world again to write (a creative-non-fiction historical novel) that is now a screenplay, Picnik. Worked with the late Toni Mendez in NYC on humor book, Political Folksay with artist Steve Sweny. Wrote first play that received recognition, JoJo Mama & The Voodoo Queen. Taught at colleges and universities while writing, leaving academia July 2016 to write full-time.
Education
Background
Background
- BS and MA Journalism, University of Alabama.
- After leaving corporate world again, participated in the Alabama Writer's Project (Poetry and Short Story Courses) studied under Marlin Barton (O'Henry Prize Winner) and poet, Peter Huggins.
- Moved to Tallahassee and participated in classes with Bob Shacochis and Janet Burroway at Florida State University.
- Attended workshops at Last Frontier Conference and Dramatist Guild in New York and LA.
- MBA degree in Buffalo when I simultaneously developed humor manuscript, MBA Guidebook, while attending classes.
- Participated in Dramatist Guild Master Playwriting Course 2018.
- Completed Roland Tech's Songwriting Circle 2018.
- Completed Sundance Collab Basic TV Writing Course and Sci-Fi Writing Course 2020 and 2021.
Service
Background
Languages
Board member of The Peyton Tuthill Foundation. Provides scholarships to students who've lost a family member to homicide. www.peytontuthillfoundation.org
Instructor for study abroad programs for FSU in Spain, London and China. Later, program director for Tallahassee Community College study abroad programs in Tianjin, China. Traveled to China for over ten years.
Honorary Professor Tianjin Foreign Studies University
Languages
Associations
Languages
Some ASL, minimal Mandarin and elementary Spanish
Associations
Associations
Associations
Dramatist Guild, Playwrights Guild of Canada.