O:JA&L Theater Arts
Screen Writing
Deborah Havens
Top Notch
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Logline: A girl who has everything, including a criminal record, pays for a lesson money can’t buy.
Synopsis: In an upscale, uptight Midwestern town, the news creates shock waves that bright, pretty high school student Jade Lawrence runs a prostitution ring. Her single mother dispatches Jade to the man she ran from as a child herself: Jade’s 70-year-old grandfather; a man embittered by his banishment from the family, but the only one willing to take on Jade’s anti-social attitudes and behavior. Grandpa’s rough, survivalist existence on a Florida ranch teaches Jade appreciation for life and the impact of death; his sense of humor tempers his no-nonsense schooling; ultimately Jade’s sentence becomes her salvation and his chance for redemption.
About the writer:
Dr. Deborah Havens has woven education and broadcast television experience into a career that spans classroom and university instruction as well as consultant to television stations nationally and producer/writer to corporate clients including Walt Disney World. Her passion for women’s history and politics led to chairing Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm’s primary Education Committee. Her 2012 education doctorate grounded her leadership on the first-ever national conference of women governors (2017), cosponsored by the National Governors Association and the Hauenstein Center for Presidential Studies in Grand Rapids. An award winning writer for national and local television, her screenplays reflect her interests in history and politics, featuring family relationships and strong female leads, winning laurels in six contests since 2021.
Image: Peligrosa (AI-assisted digital image) by O:JA&L staff creative. 2025. Public domain via MidJourney AI.
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