about

As a writer and producer for television, film, and stage, DUANE POOLE’s credits include a dozen plays and musicals and over fifty television movies, series, and features, among which are the final two screen appearances of the legendary Katharine Hepburn.

A graduate of the University of Washington in Seattle, he was originally brought to Hollywood to create animated series for Hanna-Barbera Studios. He soon moved on to live action and primetime as a staff writer/producer for the legendary Aaron Spelling on such shows as Hart to Hart, Hotel, and The Love Boat movies shot around the world.

Series work eventually evolved to movies for television and features. For the animated musical, Michel’s Bird, he wrote the teleplay with songs by Michel Legrand. His television movie about child abuse, For the Love of a Child, got him an invitation to the White House. His feature, Shattered Image, was an official selection at the Venice, Montreal, and Toronto Film Festivals.

His first love, however, was always theatre. In recent years, he has written numerous theatrical projects including…

…A Christmas Memory (based on the classic Truman Capote story) with music by Larry Grossman (Snoopy, Minnie’s Boys) and lyrics by Carol Hall (Best Little Whorehouse in Texas) which opened at TheatreWorks in Palo Alto and has its New York premiere at the Irish Repertory Theatre in December, 2014.

…Dorian (starring Bob Cuccioli and Matt Cavenaugh for Denver’s Buell Theatre and the NoHo Arts Theatre) which is being produced in Amsterdam in late 2016. Co-author.  Music and lyrics by James J. Mellon and Scott DeTurk.

…Love Makes the World Go ‘Round featuring the songs of Bob Merrill, arranged by Brad Ellis, which premiered at Phoenix’s Arizona Theatre Company.

…Beautiful Poison, commissioned by Seattle’s 5th Avenue Theatre and selected for 2014’s NAMT Festival in NYC, with a score by Brendan Milburn and Valerie Vigoda.

…Scrooge in Love!, a new holiday musical with composer Larry Grossman and lyricist Kellen Blair of Off Broadway’s Murder for Two.

Along with a dozen other non-musical plays, Duane has created tribute evenings to Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt, Stephen Sondheim, and Stephen Schwartz for the Pasadena Playhouse.

Along the way, he has written for performers as varied as George Clooney, Cheyenne Jackson, Glenn Close, Anthony Quinn, Gwen Verdon, Jack Lemmon, Michael Feinstein, Ginger Rogers, Fred Flintstone, and Johnny Depp.