Two Women Directors Share Their Journeys
Dale Griffiths Stamos
Dale Griffiths Stamos is an award-winning screenwriter, director, and playwright. She has written six short filmsโthree of which she directedโwhich have been official selections at more than 70 film festivals, including Palms Springs Shortfest, LA Shorts International, Dances with Films, and The Newport Beach Film Festival. They have garnered two audience and eight jury awards. She has penned three feature-length screenplays which have been named finalists or semifinalists in various screenplay competitions including Creative World Awards, Story Pros, and the New York City International Screenplay Awards. She is in the process of producing one of the scripts, IMBALANCE, as a feature film.
Daleโs short and full-length plays have been produced around the country. She is the recipient of the Heideman Award from Actors Theatre of Louisville, and is a top-ten winner, twice, in the Writers Digest Stage Play Competition. Her full-length play, Blue Jay Singing in the Dead of Night recently received a Zoom reading through the UCSB Launch Pad program. The screen adaptation of the play is being developed by VEW Productions, a three-woman team that includes director Deborah LaVine, actor Jane Hajduk, and herself as the writer.
Additionally, Dale is co-author of the nonfiction book RenWomen: What Modern Renaissance Women Have to Teach Us About Living Rich, Fulfilling Lives. She is on the faculty of the Santa Barbara Writers Conference, and has led workshops at the San Miguel Writers Conference. She has also taught writing classes at Santa Barbara City College, adult ed., and is a private manuscript consultant.
For more information, go to: dalegriffithsstamos.com.
Photo credit: Rachel Sarah Thurston
Arlene Sanford
Arlene Sanford, who grew up in New York, worked in production for a number of years before writing, producing, and directing Welcome Home, a short film starring Jamie Lee Curtis. With that as a calling card she was hired to direct one of televisionโs first half-hour dramedies,ย The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd, starring Blair Brown. Since that exceptional beginning she has directed over 100 episodes of television โ comedies and dramas, single camera and multicam โ including numerous pilots and a few family-friendly TV movies.
Highlights include multiple episodes of David E. Kelleyโs groundbreakingย Ally McBeal.ย Her season-one episode, โThose Lips, That Handโ earned her an Emmyยฎ award nomination for Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series.ย She was later honored with anotherย Emmyยฎ nomination for Outstanding Directing for a Drama series for โThe Mighty Roguesโ episode ofย Boston Legal.
Sanford was also part of the first few seasons of the hit seriesย Desperate Housewivesย and received a Directors Guild of America nomination for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Comedy for her episode, โPretty Little Picture.โ
Most recent work includes muliple episodes of the hit Netflix show Grace & Frankie. Additional impressive creddits includeย Nashvilleย and multiple episodes ofย The Royalsย andย Pretty Little Liars. In addition, she directed the feature filmsย A Very Brady Sequelย for Paramount Pictures and Disneyโsย Iโll Be Home for Christmas.