• KOURY ANGELO

Chad Radford: Most of your performances on this tour that sweep through the South are at larger theaters this time around. Have you fully graduated from the club circuit?
Bill Burr: No, When I go to write a new hour, I go to clubs, and then once I've got the material together I take it to theaters. So every other year I do clubs, and every other year I do theaters. You can never stop doing clubs because that's like going to the gym. That's what gets you in shape, and I'm dong the theaters now, which means I've got my hour down.

You have an hour down, but your performances tend to feel pretty spontaneous. Does improv figure into your set?
It absolutely plays a role, and I'm very conscious of ... When I did the "Night Of Too Many Stars" I burned the Steve Jobs bit. It's a topical bit. I'm not doing another special until 2014, so what, am I going to do the "Hey, Steve Jobs died!" bit in 2014? No. So what I did was I waited for the right opportunity to put it out there. And then it's just out there - the fact that it's on "Night Of Too Many Stars" makes it kind of like a cool B-side. That's an old record album reference. I don't know if kids are going to understand that now, but back in the day bands would put out a 45 and then there would be just one song that you could only get on the back side of whatever the bigger single was. ... The point is, I try as much as I can to make sure that the people that come and find me on YouTube are not going to just see me telling the same joke wearing 15 different outfits.

• Courtesy of Screenwriter School
• Michael Lucker is not too cool for school

As the annual ritual of year-end critic's movie awards kicks into full gear, and New Year's Eve approaches, a time when resolutions like "finally write that screenplay" are made, what better time to catch-up with Atlanta-based screenwriter Michael Lucker, whose latest initiative Screenwriter School launches on January 9.

Mr. Lucker brings a wealth of personal experience to the classroom, from his job as assistant to Steven Spielberg at Amblin Entertainment to working in creative affairs at Hollywood Pictures, where he helped develop Crimson Tide, Terminal Velocity, Taking Care of Business, and Straight Talk. Michael's writing credits include A Vampire in Brooklyn, Home On the Range, and the Academy Award-winning animated feature Spirit. He also wrote the animated sequels to Mulan, Lilo & Stitch, The Emperor's New Groove and 101 Dalmatians.

Full disclosure: When I was Executive Dir. of the Atlanta Film Festival, I hired Michael to teach screenwriting workshops and he participated in the screenwriter's retreat we launched, and I've collaborated with Michael's company Lucky Dog Films to develop an unscripted project.

1. If screenwriting is all about telling stories, tell us the story of Screenwriter School.

Once upon a time a lonely and unshaven screenwriter who spent much of his day pent up at home typing by himself decided he wanted to meet people. So he started teaching.

Then two crazy things happened:

1. People thought he was good at it.

2. He found it incredibly rewarding.

So he did it more and more, for various groups and colleges and wanton writers on the side of the road. Until one day it hit him. Perhaps all these writers would like one fun place to come together, learn the craft of writing movies, and not be lonely too. Voilà: Screenwriter School was born.

What set us apart is this: the fact that I've been around the writer's block, ridden the development rollercoaster and been dragged behind the production bus, will enable others to avoid the wrong turns I've taken. They might even benefit from some of the right ones. What I share is not just based on theory. It's based on years of writing for produced projects at movie studios and television networks.

• Chelsea Raflo

A number of literary events have been making themselves at home there as of late. Scott Daughtridge's LostintheLetters series launched in September and has hosted a number of literary heavyweights since including George Singleton and Jared Yates Sexton. This Wednesday evening the Ballroom will open its doors to the rowdy and riveted cult following of Write Club Atlanta, at which local writers spar over opposing topics for charity.

A main spur for bringing artistic and authored action into the ballroom can be traced to the space's new events director, Chelsea Raflo. Already a force to be reckoned with in Atlanta's art scene when she took the position this past June, Raflo's bringing a new, more literary vision to the Ballroom.

You've been heavily involved in Atlanta's arts community for a while now through your own art exhibitions at places like MINT gallery and MOCA GA. How did your involvement with the arts community influence your vision for the Highland Ballroom and Lounge?
I've learned that I work best when I can integrate my personal interests into what I'm doing; attempting to compartmentalize inevitably just makes me feel like a fake, and that ends up showing in the work that I do. And the Ballroom is kind of a dream for me. The space itself is so unique and has a cool, underground feel to it that sparks so many ideas for me all the time. In the past, I've taken on curatorial projects and planned events, but the prospect of establishing a new venue or an arts space of some kind has always been far too daunting for me to make any progress on, although its been a long-held goal. So this job is kind of more perfect than I could have planned for myself. We aren't trying to take Atlanta by storm, or take huge risky leaps, because we don't have to. The Highland Inn is kind of a fixture in the community, and I feel incredibly grateful that we have the luxury of being able to steadily make changes and try out new ideas without the added pressures that come with starting a brand new business.

• Courtesy Alliance Theatre
• Playwright Alfred Uhry and actors Tony Carlin and Patricia Richardson rehearse the world premiere play "Apples & Oranges" at the Alliance Theatre, now on stage through October 28.

What interested you about the project of adapting Marie Brenner's book for the stage?
It's a good book. I was called by Lynne Meadow who's artistic director of the Manhattan Theatre Club in New York, and she asked would I be interested in adapting this book. The book had just come out, and I'd read a review of it in the paper right around the time she called. I knew Marie's work—I didn't know her—but I knew her stuff, and she's good. So I read the book. It's about a dysfunctional relationship between a brother and a sister. The set-up was one brother and one sister and no other siblings. That happens to be my own set-up with my sister and me. While we're not dysfunctional, it seemed interesting to me because I'd never seen a piece of theater about the relationship between a brother and a sister. If they're same-sex siblings, there are easier ways to communicate, but when there are just two of you and you're of different sexes, you're programmed from childhood to go different ways, but you bear the same memories, the same scars, the same everything. It seemed interesting to me to write about that, so I said sure.