Michael Dalzell

I come at screenwriting from a different perspective than most. I am a lifelong journalist who took a late-career interest in screenwriting as a creative outlet. Though my road to screenwriting may not be traditional, I’ve come to see that journalists and screenwriters share two things in common: one, we’re all storytellers; and two, we believe that a great story has the power to create change.

I’m humbled that my screenplay, Bolles, is the winner of Stage 32’s 1st Annual True Story/Biopic Screenwriting Contest. I chose screenwriting as a medium for telling a story that needs to be told. A free and responsible press is the backbone of democracy. And yet, in our own country and around the world, journalists are harassed, jailed, and killed for telling the truth that some people in power don’t want others to hear. I tell this story through the eyes of a journalist — not only to tell what is. I want you to ask, “why?”