STAGE : Playwrights Who’ve Clicked

In the last month, John Patrick Shanley--his stage and film work, that is--has been all over town. Over on Beverly Boulevard at the Beverly Center Cineplex was his newest movie, “Five Corners.” Farther east on Beverly at the Fairfax Cinemas was “Moonstruck,” for which Shanley wrote the original screenplay, now an Oscar nominee. Up Melrose at El Centro Avenue, at the Cast Theatre, was “Danny and the Deep Blue Sea,” a play Shanley wrote long before Hollywood knew about him.

Does Hollywood ever know about him now. And not only because of the success of “Moonstruck,” but because as a screenwriter he has a playwright’s kind of contract. A clause in it stipulates that once the script is sold, it can’t be revised without his approval.

In other words, no rewrites. It’s the kind of leverage, perhaps, that would only occur to a playwright who considers such a stipulation as a matter of course in the theater.

Other playwrights--notably Sam Shepard and David Mamet--have also jumped into the film business with confidence. Shepard, whose latest play, “A Lie of the Mind,” was recently seen at the Mark Taper Forum, has found two ways to make his mark. First, write personal films like “Paris, Texas” and an adaptation of his play, “Fool for Love,” for directors who care--Wim Wenders and Robert Altman, respectively.

Second, act in movies and make a lot of money, which pays for the theater work. (Shepard impressed many with his performance as a ranch owner in “Days of Heaven” and as test pilot Chuck Yeager in “The Right Stuff.”)

Shepard has now made the biggest jump of all--behind the camera--for “Far North,” starring Jessica Lange, which he wrote and directed. It’s currently in post-production.

Mamet, author of “American Buffalo” and “Glengarry Glen Ross,” has risen through the ranks--from a revered playwright who felt dissatisfied as a screenwriter (“The Postman Always Rings Twice,” “The Verdict” and “The Untouchables”), to the level of the “hyphenate.”

Not only was he writer-director of “House of Games” and the upcoming “Things Change,” but he made them with his longtime ensemble from Chicago’s St. Nicholas Theater Company and the Goodman Theater.