[Updated May 25, 2007]
Hi! Welcome to RIPRAP ENTERTAINMENT TV (formerly Riprap Writers' Playhouse) and the Coffee-zine Scene! We celebrated 8 years in existence January 1, 2007 and 5 years at our theatre in North Hollywood, CA November 2006. I'm Sandy, and this is my personal page. I will answer any of your questions pertaining to the operations of RIPRAP ENTERTAINMENT TV and the Coffee-zine Scene! (our e-zine) on this page but please visit our new forum's Q&A section and our FAQs page first so that you're not asking questions that are already answered within the site. Let me start with who, what, why, where, when and how. But FIRST My POV:

SANDY's POV -

It's been an interesting couple of weeks casting ECCENTRIC. Never would I have believed the women in this play would be cast before the leading man. However, one thing I've learned over the years is to expect the unexpected and lessons learned in the past just got a new twist. At present, I am deciding which of three talented actors will be our leading man. The ladies already cast are some of the most talented actresses in Hollywood. I'm so happy to have met them and that they too see ECCENTRIC's potential.
Prior POVs

WHO -

I am a professional actress and writer who has appeared on stage in New York, and on national television. I have written 12 screenplays and produced one digital full length feature. We have produced 4 "main stage" two-act stage plays at Riprap Studio Theatre since 2003 when it was converted into a 60-seat intimate theatre for the west coast premiere of THE OFFERING, written by Gus Edwards. That particular play was directed by my friend Charles Weldon who received great acclaim for the same play in New York thirty years earlier. The play launched his film career - hence his love affair with the material. We have also had numerous readings, showcases, and we air our 43rd episode of RIPRAP ENTERTAINMENT TV on Friday, April 27, 2007. Our weekly television broadcast will celebrate its first anniversary on KVMD TV July 2007. I started Riprap Writers' Playhouse in 1999 in order to create a vehicle for writers to gain exposure in the Los Angeles and New York entertainment markets.

WHAT -

Our initial concept included broadcast productions in Los Angeles and New York of writers' works performed by professional actors in Los Angeles. We condensed and read submissions on television and gave the author a copy of the show. I first attempted to produce this show on Super-VHS (a step up from VHS). The results left a lot to be desired. Disappointed, but not derailed, I chose to go digital. Riprap Writers' Playhouse and the Coffee-zine Scene! were then photographed with a Canon XL1, and edited on a Power Mac with Final Cut Pro. We suspended production of the television show when we converted the theatre and we focused solely on stage plays.

We used to accept short stories, poems and articles for publication in our e-zine, The Coffee-zine Scene! The e-zine took a back seat to my bout with cancer, an unfortunate but inspiring journey which began in 2005. I am happy to say that I am brighter, stronger and better and we're putting our e-zine back together soon. We look forward to your submissions and I'll put a notice here when we're accepting material for our e-zine again. We'll also make sure we notify our subscribers in our weekly newsletter. In the meantime, I'll be sure to get the old archived issues up so that writers may get familiar with the flavor of our e-zine. My goal is to reintegrate pages that have been neglected back into the site at a rate of 1 to 5 pages per day - cross your fingers! This was, and will be, a PAID opportunity. If you would like to submit a short story, article and/or poem for publication in our e-zine - I hope to have those details back up in the next month or so. Just check our submit page regularly. Every selected short story published in our e-zine will automatically be nominated for a Riprap Award.

Our new forum debuted this month and that is the place to post questions about writing, acting and filmmaking and questions specific to our television broadcast. Please post in the forum so that everyone can have the same question answered once. We also have a new JOB OPPORTUNITIES board and our BLOG "Pursuing a Pilot" detailing our attempt to sell our pilot THE LEGAL LASSES.

RIPRAP UNIVERSITY also debuted this week and I am so excited I can barely see straight. We have video tutorials for writers, actors and filmmakers and guests in the acting, publishing, filmmaking world to educate, entertain and inspire. If you would like to contribute please let me know. If you know of someone who should contribute please have that someone contact me. We started with acting of course because that's my first love and where I have the deepest roots.

WHY -

To help writers, actors and filmmakers like myself build a foundation for our careers.

WHERE -

I opened a studio/theatre at 5755 Lankershim Boulevard in North Hollywood, California in 2001. The televised broadcast took a back seat to the theatre for a few years even though I got the location for the TV show - go figure!

Stage is my heart, so it was only natural when my friend suggested producing a play together that I dropped everything and did it. We continued to shoot and change and adapt the television broadcast while shopping for television stations and we finally reappeared on the independent network KVMD TV, channel 23, reaching a potential of 8 million viewers in southern California on July 6, 2007 after I got the thumbs up from my doctors and eight months of rehabilitation from cancer surgery and radiation. We changed the name to RIPRAP ENTERTAINMENT TV and added skits, Girl Talk!, interviews, The Legal Lasses, Potpourri with our Siren Stormy, and In The News to broaden our viewing audience. We have many, many more skits and segments to add. In time, in time. Patience is not my forte!

SCRIPT ANALYSIS is born of the original playhouse wherein we read the writers' works. We discuss and critique a new submission on the air each week for consideration for our stage and each selection is automatically nominated for our award. We hope to educate the general public about the writing process, give the writer actionable and constructive feedback and raise awareness of both our theatre and the arts in general.

We were on target to have four main stage productions mounted per season before I was knocked down with cancer and we're just about back on track with that goal for 2007. My hope is to add a reader series and one-act festivals no later than 2008. Activities at the studio are updated regularly on our THEATRE PAGE.

WHEN -

Every Friday at 3:30 PM on KVMD TV, Channel 23 in southern California. Check your TV Guide channel for stations or click here. Segments are posted on our web site immediately after Friday's broadcast. We continue to honor writers' works with our award, The Riprap.

Why Submit? This is a no brainer. It's FREE.

HOW -

There's no submission fee or reading fee required. Should your work be good enough to be nominated and go on to win a Riprap, you can then use this recorded fact as a reason to approach agents or publishers to look at your work. Imagine, an award bestowed on your work by a reputable third party. That's a door opener. And besides, who else is making an opportunity like this available to known or unknown writers worldwide?

You MUST follow the Rules and Regulations in order to submit for our broadcast and the Riprap Award and you must sign and send the proper release with your material which is available on our submit page. I receive questions, every week, regarding information that is already posted on the site. If you are really interested in submitting, please take a few minutes to read

Let's not waste each other's time! I am always accepting submissions and look forward to reading your original material.

One last thing. Sometimes we procrastinate by having too much to do. If you want to write a script write it! If you have ten ideas for your play, pick one and write it or produce it! If you want to act, keep on studying and get your face out there! But get it done!

About Sandy

Bio and Statement About the Playhouse

Actors are some of the most driven, courageous people on the face of the earth. They deal with more day to day rejection in one year than most people do in a lifetime. Every day, actors face the financial challenge of living a freelance lifestyle, the disrespect of people who think they should get 'real' jobs, and their own fear that they'll never work again. Every day they have to ignore the possibility that the vision to which they have dedicated their lives is just a pipe dream. With every passing year, many of them watch as the other people their age achieve the predictable milestones of normal life -- the car, the family, the house, the nest egg. But they stay true to their dream, in spite of sacrifices. Why?

Because actors are willing to give their entire lives to a moment--to that line, that laugh, that gesture, or that interpretation that will stir the audiences soul. Actors are beings who have tasted life's nectar in that crystal moment when they poured out their creative spirit and touched another's heart. In that instant, they were as close to magic, God, and perfection as anyone could ever be. And in their own hearts, they know that to dedicate oneself to that moment is worth a thousand lifetimes.
David Ackert

Without exception everyone was born with creative ability. It is essential that people be given the opportunity to express themselves. If Balzac, De Maupassant, O. Henry, hadn't learned to write, they might have become inveterate liars, instead of great writers.

Every human being needs an outlet for his inborn creative talent. If you feel you would like to write, then write. Perhaps you are afraid that lack of a higher education might retard you from real accomplishment? Forget it. Many great writers, Shakespeare, Ibsen, George Bernard Shaw, to mention a few, never saw the inside of a college.

Even if you will never be a genius, your enjoyment of life can still be great.

If writing holds no lure for you, you might learn to sing, dance, or play an instrument well enough to entertain your guests. This belongs in the realm of "art" too.

Yes, we want to be noticed. We want to be remembered. We want to be important! We can achieve a degree of importance by expressing ourselves in the medium which best suits our particular talents. You never know where your avocation will lead you.

Even if you fail commercially, you might very well emerge from your experience an authority on the subject you learned so much about. You'll be richer in experience - and if you have been kept out of mischief, that alone will be a great accomplishment.

So the gnawing hunger to be important will be satisfied at last without harm to anyone.
Lajos Egri
Forward The Art of Dramat!c Wr!t!ng
Its Basis in the Creative Interpretation of Human Motives

PRIOR P.O.V.

[May 1, 2007] Our very own Rachel Sorsa Khoury is appearing in ANGEL STREET (Gaslight) at the Sierra Madre Playhouse. Treat yourself to this rollercoaster ride and Rachel's riveting performance. Obviously I am biased but not without cause. This play is a must see. I suggest that you arrive early to take in the quaint, serene town of Sierra Madre and have dinner or ice cream before or after the show. Better yet, have both before AND after the show. Angel Street was my first trip to Sierra Madre and I plan to make many more!