I wrote “All Things Chicken” as a play while I was attending the “Yale School of Drama” where it had a student production. After moving to Los Angeles, my friend Jeff Teitler convinced me to write a screen adaptation of the 90 minute play. For too many reasons to recount, the film never happened but Jeff shot enough footage of me and him in the two lead roles (it was less my script than an improv on my script) in Feb. 2006 in Augusta, Georgia, and then with additional footage that he shot latter, he created the trailer below. The end title song is by Ramiro Medina.

After this, I re-wrote the play and then, with myself as Ray, and with Graham Shiels as Dave, I directed it as a staged reading in Sept. 2006 at the Academy of New Musical Theatre under the auspices of the Dramatists Guild.

Later, I re-wrote the play yet again to incorporate the “comet” monologues I wrote for the movie, and also cut it down to a 60 minute play. After that, I re-wrote the screenplay, cleaning up dialogue and shortening it down too, when I decided to make the movie in February of 2013.

Julius Galacki and Jeff Teitler in a scene from the first attempt to film “All Things Chicken” – a lake somewhere in northern Georgia

A “day for night” screen grab… this was part of improvised scene used in the trailer from 2006

Check out Jeff Teitler’s current documentary and narrative work at Envision Films.