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Memminger
screenplay
wins at writers
conference

The Star-Bulletin humorist 'is
almost certain to get representation'
from an agency

By Tim Ryan
Star-Bulletin

WAILEA, Maui -- Charlie Memminger, humorist and sometimes politically incorrect Star-Bulletin columnist, has added the most major writing prize to his growing collection of awards with the announcement today that he has won first place in the Maui Writers Conference's screenplay competition.

Memminger, a national and local award-winning writer with his three-times-a-week column "Honolulu Lite," took top honors over 600 entrants for his script "Fly."

The script, set in a mental institution in California, involves a burned out, over-the-hill columnist and a teen-age girl who has been doing the butterfly stroke for years.

The winners were announced this morning at the conference awards ceremony at the Grand Wailea hotel.

Besides winning $2,500 and complimentary admission to next year's conference, Memminger "is almost certain to get representation" from an agency, said Andy Cohen, judge and director of the conference screenwriting competition.

Agencies call the conference "all year round seeking the names of our winners. At the least, (Memminger) probably will get a writing assignment. All of our winners get agents and managers."

The Maui Writers Conference this summer was named the No. 1 event of its kind in the world by Writers Digest, and Hollywood behind-the-scenes heavyweights among this year's attendees say it is the most prominent event for a new writer to get noticed.

The second-place award, $1,000 and complimentary admission, also was won by a Hawaii resident. Rich Figel, 44, of Kailua, won for his script "The Doll Killer."

The story is about an aspiring actress hired by a Muslim woman to be a nanny to a doll. The nanny later is accused of killing the real baby.

Third place went to Vicki Adams of Edmonds, Wash., who took home $500 and complimentary admission for her script titled "Breaking Ice."

Judges come from the top agencies, management companies, production companies, networks and studios.

"All aspects of (Memminger's) script are very, very good," Cohen said. "First and foremost, he tells a good story that is compelling, and the dialogue is true to life. He has something to say."

Judges commented that Memminger, a Star-Bulletin reporter for nearly 20 years, "presents a fresh voice who will get heard."

Figel moved to Hawaii in 1985 from New York City, where he had been a commodities trader. His interest in writing began as a young reporter in New Jersey.

Figel was a finalist at the Maui Writers Conference in 1998 and this year had a second script, "Lost in a Supermarket," named a semifinalist.