I’m excited to bring you this conversation with one of the coolest and most interesting people I have met in a while. His name is Joe Ricci, and he is an actor, playwright, screenwriter, and director.
Joe has been an actor in stage productions such as the off-Broadway hit “I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change,” the national tour of “Carousel,” the first national tour of “Saturday Night Fever,” and the Broadway revival of “A View from the Bridge” with Scarlett Johansson and Liev Schreiber.
As a director, Joe’s two current projects are the rock musical Whiskeyland!, as well as a play called Squirrel Screams and Other Dating Sounds (major points for a great title). He just recently adapted Whiskeyland! into a screenplay and they are in the very early stages of developing Squirrel Screams into a TV pilot.
Joe has also written for the Hallmark channel, most notably the movie In the Key of Love, which we will talk about more in the bonus episode airing tomorrow. His other current writing projects include a rom-com musical called Third Party Ruling, as well as some new pitches for the Hallmark channel.
If you have been listening to this podcast a while, you may remember that I interviewed Tricia Brouk last year on the show. Joe is Tricia’s husband, and it has been an absolute pleasure getting to know them both and featuring them here on the show.
In this conversation, Joe shares quite a bit about his theater background and how that turned into writing and directing. He also shares talks about the process of turning a play into a screenplay, as well as some other projects he’s working on. I also had the chance to ask him about his rituals and habits for staying focused and productive.
No matter what kind of writing you do, I know you will be inspired by Joe’s creativity and his approach to writing. I know I was!
You can connect with Joe at his website, JoeRicci.net. And if you have the Hallmark Channel, make sure and catch In the Key of Love the next time it airs. Even if you don’t regularly watch the Hallmark channel or consider yourself a rom-com kind of person, I think you’ll really enjoy it.
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