THE CHARACTER CAFE
A Show Proposal
OVERVIEW
The Character Café is a place where a group a group of actors meet in this diner everyday (like the coffee shop in Friends) to discuss highs and lows of being an actor. They discuss auditions, acting in commercials and talk about their dreams that seem to keep breaking their hearts. The group are friends since high school and went to college together to study acting. Even the group’s old acting instructor hangs out with them as he also goes through his troubles and successes. The show is about how difficult it is to be an actor, but when you land a job, what a fantastic feeling happens.
This group is special, because they were all actors in college together and we see how their lives have evolved. Randy, an African American guy had some success with a teen show, but now is married and needed more steady income, so he is a professor at the university. Tony, a good looking Italian guy, never really took off in acting, but his good looks has kept him busy with a modeling career. He still lives at home with his mom, because he likes to eat and travels a lot for work. Nick, smart guy, quick witted, could’ve been an engineer, but got the acting bug. He’s more of a character actor, but has never really hit big with any roles. He’s on the fence whether he should give acting up and move on with his life. Our three friends also meet with their old acting instructor that they have stayed friends with. Lou is in his mid 70’s, from England, a Shakespearian trained actor, but now does a lot of character acting and tv commercials. He’s cynical and has a bit of a gambling problem, bets the horses a little too much.
Added to this group is JO, the owner and main waitress at the café. She’s a single mom and inherited the restaurant from her grand father. She runs the business by day, is a mom and goes to law school virtually at home after her kid goes to sleep.
PILOT:
We meet the characters in different settings. First Nick runs into Lou, who is heading for an audition. Lou continues on his way and Nick heads to the diner. Nick is stopped by a guy pan handling on the street and asks Nick for some money. Nick says he’s an actor and without hesitation, the pan handler gives Nick his red solo cup with all of his donations!
At the diner, Tony and Randy are already hanging out. Randy is reading papers his students submitted and Tony is talking about his latest girl friend that just dumped him. Nick enters and jumps right into the conversation. Nick has tried dating apps, but all the women seem to be in Malaysia and Tony chimes in that he won’t go to New Jersey no matter how cute the girl is.
Cut back to Lou’s audition. Lou doesn’t even know what he’s auditioning for as the casting director hands him a script and tells him he’s here to be the spokesperson for Perry’s Pickles. Lou, a Shakespearian trained actor, is fuming that his agent has sent him to this audition. His anger comes out in the casting (and of course, low and behold) the casting agent and the client love his character. Lou leaves disgusted with where his career has gone.
Back at the diner, Tony, Nick and Randy are reminiscing about the old day’s when they were the cool kids. Randy reminds them that they were in the Theater Class in High School and the farthest thing from the “cool Kids”.
When Jo, the waitress comes by for the guys order, Tony and Randy complain that they are a little short, but Nick says he’ll cover their check and pulls out the red solo cup that the Pan Handler donated to him.
CUT TO:
Ellen Lazar Talent Agent’s office. Ellen is reviewing their work and auditions with her assistant and office runner (Who is also her niece). Suddenly they get a call. Perry’s Pickles want Lou to be their spokes person.
Lou walks into the diner. He doesn’t even greet his friends and instead of going to their booth, he heads for the counter and sits down. Nick comes over to comfort him and ask his advice. Should he stay in the acting business or change careers. Lou goes to order some food, but realizes he just lost a bunch of money at the track. Nick said he’s buying and slams the red solo cup on the counter. Lou puts in a large order and thanks his friend As Lou gives advice to Nick about staying in the acting business, Lou’s phone rings. Nick steps away. Ellen Lazar is on the line and offers Lou the job. Lou is disgusted. He has played Shakespeare, Plays on Broadway. Ellen tells Lou how much money they want to pay him…
CUT TO:
A make up room on a stage. A make up person is applying green make up to Lou. The Make Up person tells Lou that she is a big fan. Lou is all taken back with himself. A fan, must have seen him in one of his Shakespeare plays. Nope, she loved him in the dog food commercial. We finally see Lou’s make up completed and it’s revealed that he is a giant pickle.
Nick is on the street when a passerby knocks into him, spilling his red solo cup of coins. Nick is on his knees picking up his coins when a car hits a puddle and splashes him. He is fed up, looks upward and asks the almighty to send him a sign. With that, a neon “OPEN” sign flashes on, reflected in the puddle. Nick glances up and sees a Palm Reader with the open sign. He goes inside to learn his future. She tells Nick that he’s thinking like a jeep. He need to be the TANK and go get what he wants. Nick gets fired up and knows what he’s going to do and leaves.
NEXT DAY at the diner, Nick, Randy and Tony are gathered at their same booth. Nick if sorting head shots and tells his friends he’s going to hand out head shots, old school and not going to stop until he lands an agent. Tony is swiping girls photos on his dating app as Randy corrects papers. The two discuss Tony’s dating troubles as Lou reads at the counter. Suddenly, Jo drops a dish on the floor. Everyone looks first at her then at what she’s looking at. It’s the Perry The Pickle commercial on the TV. Tony giggles. Tells Lou, that pickle looks like you…Suddenly he realizes Lou has sold out and is back doing commercials. They all laugh and tease Lou.
CUT TO:
Nick walking on the street with his head shots. He starts to cross a street, stops cold, looks up and sees Lou’s face as Perry the Pickle on a bus driving by. We hear tires screeching and all we see are Nick’s head shots floating in the air.
CHARACTERS
Nick the Greek
Nick is a really smart guy. Could’ve been an engineer, but the acting bug got him in high school. Or was it the girl he was trying to date in the drama club. He’s a nice guy, but ruggedly good looking, better than average. Think John Krasinski or Davide Schwimmer. Nick is divorced with a teenaged daughter that he doesn’t get to see much. His acting career or lack there of, was the cause of his divorce. His wife married an accountant and moved to Connecticut. His daughter just turned 18 and is now allowed to take a train to NYC to see her dad. (Think - John Krasinski)
Lou Smithey
Lou is an actor in his early 60’s, originally from London and a Shakespearean trained actor. He speaks with a heavy English accent, but can talk in many different dialects. He is known for his character pieces in commercials and guest appearances in tv shows. He’s not old enough to retire, so he needs to work until he can collect medi care and social secutity. Lou also likes to bet on the horses. Whenever he seems to get a residual check, he squanders it away on a horse. He used to teach at a local college and that’s where he met Nick, Tony and Randy and took them under his wings. Lou’s wife died years ago and he has a special needs child. He plays the horses hoping to hit it big so he can take care of his son after he’s gone. (Think Orson Wells, or Sir Alec Guinness).
Tony Rossi
Tony is a good looking actor from an Italian family. He still lives with his mother, either from guilt or jus the fact that she’s a great cook and he loves her cooking. He’s made a career out of his natural good looks and does a lot of modeling from everything in fashion magazines to J.C Penny catalogs. Tony is always on the hunt for a wife, but girls seem to take him for his money and he never seems to find true love. (Think Joey Tribbiani (Mat LeBLanc) from Friends).
Jo Diaz
Josephine Diaz the owner and main waitress at the café. She’s a single mom and inherited the restaurant from her grand father. She runs the business by day, is a mom and goes to law school virtually at home after her kid goes to sleep. She is smart, funny and has a lot of spunk and the most common sense out of all the characters. (A combination of Rosie Perez and America Ferrera)
Randy Williams
Randy is an African American, who while following his career as an actor teaches acting and creative writing at a local college. Professor Randy gives out writing assignments weekly and spends a lot of his free time grading papers. When not teaching, Randy works as a day player or extra in commercials and tv shows. He is very quick witted and has a snarky attitude – (similar to Wanda Sykes).
Ellen Lazar
Ellen is a former actor turned agent. When she aged out of her youthful looks for a teen TV star, she started her agency. He has a bitter attitude, mad at the producers that don’t see acting talent, but just a “LOOK”. She is successful despite herself. She is all business and little fun. Barely laughs or smiles. (Think Meryl Streep’s character from the Devil Wears Prada).
FUTURE EPISODES:
Episode 2 – The Funeral
We find Randy and Tony in a cemetery with a group of people surrounding a grave. Lou is giving a Eulogy. We immediately think that this is Nick’s funeral, since the last image that we saw was Nick crossing a street and hearing the sound of a bus hitting something. Everyone is crying when suddenly we hear “CUT”. Back to ONE, and realize we are on a set. CUT TO our group at the hospital visiting Nick, who is laid up in a hospital bed. His entire body is in a cast. He can barely move. Low and behold, Ellen Lazar gets Nick a commercial for a insurance company that needed someone who is in the hospital in a full cast. We cut to Nick’s commercial in which the director doesn’t realize that Nick is in real pain and forces him to do all kinds of action. The pain is real, but the director LOVES the acting. Later, the director calls Ellen to thank her for such a fantastic actor. Ellen signs Nick to her agency.
Episode 3 – Class Is Now In Session
Lou gets invited to give a lecture at an elementary school. Lou is accompanied by Ellen Lazar’s niece (from the agency) escorts Lou to his Special Appearance. Lou is dressed as Perry the Pickle and doesn’t really know how to talk to children and uses language that get’s him kicked out of the class room.
Back at the Café, Lou walks in, still in costume and sulks at the counter. His friends join him and cheer him up. The Café is super busy and an elderly woman waits on Lou. He’s confused, where’s JO? The woman is the new help. She starts to flirt with Mr. Pickle…Oops, Lou.
Episode 4 – How Did That Happen
Ellen’s niece inserts her boyfriend’s head shot for the part of Tarzan. He is handsome and fit, but can’t act. To Ellen’s surprise, the boyfriend gets the leading role of Tarzan. We watch the filming and see how the crew and director react to his bad acting. Nick is on set as an extra and can’t believe how bad an actor he is.
After the day of filming, Nick joins our crew at the Café
Episode 5 – Professor Williams Gives The Final Exam
Randy teaches his college acting class
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About the Creators
Mark Kalbfeld
Mark Kalbfeld is an award winning producer, director, editor and writer for over 25 years. Mark has produced TV specials, commercials, documentaries and hundreds of network promos and music videos, plus EPKs, Still Shoots and long form videos including multi camera music concerts. He knows production, truly from concept to shoot and the entire post production process and therefore can speak to all departments with knowledge and in their terms.
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Mark is an extremely optimistic person and his team spirit truly inspires everyone on the set, so much so, that he consider’s himself the Ted Lasso of production.
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To view some of Mark’s work click here: www.markkalbfeldproducer.com
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ROD JOVANELLY
Rod decided to learn how to make my camera see what my eyes were seeing. To create what I Imagined, Dreamed and Loved.
I saved up for years and when I was in 10th grade and I purchased my first my first 35mm SLR camera. I stared processing my own film and printing my own photographs in our basement and I still wasn’t happy with the results- but I was getting closer!
From that point on it’s been a life-long learning process: a B.F.A from the University of Bridgeport followed by hundreds of seminars classes though out the years. I was fortunate enough to be able to make photography my profession over 30 years ago and I’ve never stopped learning and creating.
I always tried to remember that before I could break the rules I had to lean the rules.
JACK RUSHEN
Jack recently won second place at the Las Vegas Little Theater with his comedy HAVEN’T MET YOU YET (formally Spring Chickens). He is also a two time semi-finalist with the EUGENE O’NEILL CONFERENCE in Waterford, CT. Recently he has won first place in the Julie Harris Playwriting Competition, for his play IMAGE (out of 500 submissions) sponsored by the Beverly Hills Theatre Guild. IMAGE has been seen around the country in such theaters as THEATRE 40 in Los Angeles, ARTEMESIA THEATRE in Chicago, POWERHOUSE THEATER in New Canaan CT, WORDSMITH THEATRE in Houston, EMERGING ARTISTS THEATRE in New York City, and at the DRAMATIST’S GUILD in their FRIDAY NIGHT FOOTLIGHTS series. Other full lengths include MITSVAH, TAMING THE LION, CHAPPY IN PARADISE, and WHAT IT TAKES.
Jack is an actor, director, and playwright and celebrates over 30 years working in stage, television, and film. He began his professional acting career in Michael Moriarty's production of RICHARD III, which he performed at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. He also appeared in several regional theatre productions, including THE ADMIRABLE CRICHTON, ETHAN FROME and THE DOCTORS DILEMMA at New Haven’s esteemed Long Wharf, and was seen at the Hartford Stage in ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA, under the direction of Mark Lamos.
Jack is a member of the Emerging Artists Theatre in New York City, where several of his comedies and dramas have been produced, including NILS TORVALD, THE MARKETING PLAN, A MESSAGE FROM ANGELA and OEDIPUS FOR DUMMIES. He is also a
member of The Writer’s Guild, Actors Equity Association, The Screen Actor’s Guild, and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists.
Other writing awards include first place in the East/West Theatre Festival, a finalist in the “Arts and Letters Prize” at Georgia State University, The Boston Theatre Festival, Princeton Theatre Group and many others.
Contact Information
Frames Per Second Productions, Inc
Executive Producer - Mark Kalbfeld
310-497-1645
