Spotlight on Art
Austin 2025
Broom Maker© selected as a FINALIST at October's Austin Writer Conference and Film Festival, Stage Play Competition. Thank you Austin.
WFLO: Comedy
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WFLO-Comedy.
“A raucously clever, deeply human Southern satire... WFLO crackles with wit, compassion, and fearless commentary. Lee Kitchen’s play doesn’t just entertain—it challenges, enlightens, and delights. A bold triumph of regional storytelling.”
- Jeffrey van Davis – former reviewer for Mulligan Stew NPR Chicago
Comedy
A disappointment as a student and unable to carry on his family’s hundred year old craft, a young Chinese entrepreneur overcomes cultural and political hurdles as he learns how to master the art of
Quánxī (泉溪)(gwan-shee) only to realize the practice of I help you, you help me gets hilariously out of hand.
Earth: Musical Comedy
Stage reading in front of audience courtesy of FSU's White Mouse Productions February 2024.
Reposition: Play
A madcap view of advertising, incorporating ASL (American Sign Language) highlights gender bias, racial inequality and the marketing of esoteric products. Extraterrestrials who are bored, decide to turn on their terrarium and watch a program, Earth, circa 2020, a day in the life of an advertising executive and his DEAF wife. The play spoofs the monotonous life of commuters, the goings-on inside an advertising agency’s creative process complete with paranoia and mayhem and ultimately challenges the age-old dilemma, wealth vs. happiness.
Hearing Art: Drama
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. See the five minute teaser and more information in a section below Ten Minute Plays.
SOS: Comedy
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.
80% Lesbian: Comedy
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.
Hearing Art: Drama
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.
Who's Who & Pete
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.
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Traveling salesman checks into a famous NYC hotel to encounter the ghost of a famous poet. 30 min.
Quick-Scene Highlights
Prescription Humor
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.
Stage Spotlight
Five to six minutes.
Performed: Willow Theatre Boca Raton, Fl.
Charlotte Burrie Center Pompano Beach, Fl.
Sunrise Civic Center Theatre Sunrise, Fl.
City Secrets
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.
Love & Faith
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 .
Art & Laughter
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 Fun
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.
Strike Back
Shakespeare Today
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.
Shakespeare Today
Shakespeare Today
Actor in Shylock costume, debates with an English professor. Reality vs, theory. Comedy. Read at the SEC Conference, 2018.
Nightlife Tales
Inebriated couple party until 2 am. They hail a musician cabbie who drives them home. He’s had weirder passengers, maybe not. Comedy.
Sports & Humor
Sports & Humor
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.
Behind the Scenes with Filmmakers
Culinary Stories
Epic Food Adventures
Epic Food Adventures
Epic Food Adventures
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
Soulful Recipes
Epic Food Adventures
Epic Food Adventures
Winner Best Screenplay
Austin Comedy Film Festival
May 2022.
Foodie Films
Epic Food Adventures
Top Finalist New Feature Version RIFF 2023
(Richmond International Film Festival)
Winner Best Short Screenplay
Oaxaca International Film Festival 2018.
Winner Best TV Series
Portland Comedy Film Festival 2018.
Winner Best Short Screenplay
Atlanta Comedy Film Festival 2018
Tasty Tales
Genie Says, WHAT?
Winner Best Screenplay 2021
Irvine International Film Festival
Genie Says, WHAT?
Genie Says, WHAT?
Genie Says, WHAT?
Screenplays and Film (most recent first)
Jus Mayonnaise©
Jus Mayonnaise©
Jus Mayonnaise©
Series Logline
She struggles against abuse, poverty, and an orphanage while he’s forced into becoming the teenage care giver for a family homeless and in disgrace. From the Great Depression to Civil Rights, how a couple fights injustice and a nemesis from the past to make a difference.
Pilot Logline
Two teens from different sides of the track battle poverty, alcohol, incest, and religious persecution meet for the first time as they struggle to protect their siblings and struggle for a better life.
JABOBS©
Jus Mayonnaise©
Jus Mayonnaise©
Dramedy: White teens in the sixties bond through humorous pranks riling authorities as they journey to adulthood. On the other side of town, a young Black teen struggles against all odds . A story of how the ones voted most likely to succeed, don’t and how losers become winners .
Dog Gone Heaven
Jus Mayonnaise©
Shakespeare's Suits©
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©
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©
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
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©
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
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©
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 )©
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?
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
More Work and Testimonials
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
First Session with Dr. Misnomer
Click on Blog photograph
April 2nd.
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
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
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
Meet Lee Kitchen
Playwright & Creative Writer
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.
Screenplay Creator
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.
Food & Culinary Writer
Food & Culinary 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 r
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.
Food News & Events
Gmail, The Ultimate Icon, Memos from God . See review above.
Back cover of Gmail: the Ultimate Icon, Online with God by Lee Kitchen.
New screenplay for animation, Dog Gone Heaven.
Illustration from commuting and business characters.
From series or collection, Commutin' Train.
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.
Culinary Highlights
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.
Food Moments & Culinary Highlights
About Lee Kitchen
Background
Background
Background
Left corporate world 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
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
Some ASL, minimal Mandarin and elementary Spanish.
Associations
Associations
Associations
Dramatist Guild and Playwrights Guild of Canada.