After losing her high profile job as an advertising agency account executive in San Francisco, and the boyfriend that came with it, Elizabeth is plunged into a world of insecurity and the unknown, where she discovers new possibilities, new friends, new love and a whole new sense of self, and creative potential.

SYNOPSIS:

« JOB CLUB » by Katharine Whipple: Executive Summary “For Everyone Who Has Ever Been Out of Work, or Out of Love.” Doors slam and others open for a successful female San Francisco advertising account executive. In a matter of hours, she loses her job, her income, her boyfriend and her identity and is catapulted into a life of insecurity and the unknown. New friends, a new love and new possibilities emerge, helping her to get in touch with herself, her own humanity and that of others, and achieve the realization of a better life. Elizabeth is an attractive, successful, stylish 30-something SF ad account exec, at the top of her game. She’s watching a focus group of travel agents, for her key client “Club Tropicale,” a chain of tropical vacation resorts that has seen better days, through a one-way mirror. She’s also having a sensual encounter, with boyfriend/client, Stuart, Marketing Director for Club Tropicale. When Stuart hears one of the travel agents in the focus group reveal some negative issues about Club Tropicale, Elizabeth’s life begins to unravel. Several hours later, she and co-worker Mort, an Art Director, are summoned into the Sr. Partner/Account Supervisor’s office. Club Tropicale had suddenly cancelled their advertising contract that afternoon, so both Elizabeth and Mort are laid off. While Mort’s reaction is explosive, Elizabeth’s is restrained and repressed. In a daze, she packs up her office, then goes to meet Stuart at a café, hoping for some TLC, and maybe even an intervention on her behalf. She gets everything else but. Stuart had actually initiated the ad agency contract termination, to save his own job, block the Focus Group report being written up, and stop negative information leaking out at a time Club Tropicale was being put up for sale. Stunned, hurt and exhausted, Elizabeth returns to her apartment. Her spirits hit new lows, hearing a voicemail from her mother, about how proud her parents are of her job and achievements and how grateful they are for her financial support. The next morning, Elizabeth goes to file for unemployment insurance. There, the clerk refers her to the newly formed “JOB CLUB,” (“Your Job is to Get a Job!”), a support group for unemployed professionals. The rest of the story involves the fascinating lives of the JOB CLUB members as they interact in their loves, their losses and their successes. The Job Club includes Alex, a financially and matrimonially challenged Silicon Valley Executive, who becomes Elizabeth’s new love interest. Alex’s daughter, Dawn, who brought him with her to Job Club, is a recent Stanford MBA grad, having trouble getting a “real” job, and was just laid off from the campus bookstore; Joan, a laid-off publisher’s sales rep and aspiring editor, who becomes Elizabeth’s friend and mentor; Charlotte, an anxious and withdrawn law librarian; Harry, a dapper 60-something industrial sales manager, suddenly without his high income stream; Rick, a young, dark, intense and handsome former stock broker; Rosa, a laid-off State of CA social worker; Frank, a large, rotund, bearded, 40ish computer programmer and eternal optimist and Norm, CPA and MBA, searching for a place in corporate finance. A variety of other characters rounds out the story. Please contact Katharine Whipple for more information, including a review copy of the complete screenplay. Kathwhipple@yahoo.com, Tel: (415)532-9196

"JOB CLUB" - "FOR EVERYONE WHO HAS EVER BEEN OUT OF WORK OR OUT OF LOVE."