PLAY ON- Production Summary
The Movie Logline: A young, arrogant professional rugby player battles to be a success in the eyes of his legendary, old school father.

The Production Team Albert Dekin, Writer/Producer: It wasn’t until his senior year at Dartmouth College that Albert Dekin, a lifelong athlete, discovered the game and culture that is rugby football. The eighteen years that followed saw Al play fly-half and fullback for first division clubs in Hartford, CT, Edinburgh, Scotland (Watsonians), Washington, D.C. and Long Beach (Belmont), CA. With tour, tournament and playing experience in thirteen different countries ranging from the United Kingdom to Hong Kong to Cuba, Al went on to represent the U.S. as a national sevens team player (27 caps) and three time captain. Professionally, Al balanced his rugby interests with a seventeen-year career in high technology, applying sales and marketing experience developed with IBM to a range of software, Internet technology and Internet media start-ups. As a senior executive or management team member, he played key roles in the conception, development and execution of business plans, strategic partnerships, core sales and marketing strategies and fund raising. Married with three boys, Al spends whatever free time he has advocating rugby in the Los Angeles area as a schoolboy coach for the Los Angeles Cougars RFC and a member of the Dartmouth College RFC Alumni Board of Governors.

David Story, Writer/Director: As a frustrated erstwhile offensive lineman, David Story had an epiphanous moment in his first rugby game when he—like William Webb Ellis before him—first picked up the ball and ran with it. His instant passion for rugby (and a willingness to play in the front row) took him to college teams at Dartmouth College and the University of London, and then to first-division clubs in Kansas City, New York, Vail, and Santa Monica, CA, where he now lives. As a television producer, director, and writer, Story’s work spans the gamut from notorious bio-pics such as Behind the Music, to eye-opening documentaries such as Cleavage, and reality series such as The Surreal Life. His work has earned raves from Variety, Associated Press, Rolling Stone, and The Los Angeles Times. Dave’s screenwriting credentials include an MFA from the USC School of Cinema-Television/Graduate Screenwriting Program, the Jack Oakie Scholarship for Comedic Writing and experience as a motion picture analyst for ICM Talent Agency. Married with two children, Story has also authored three guidebooks and numerous screenplays, including one about the 1924 American Olympic rugby team—the still-reigning Olympic gold medalists in the sport.

Synopsis: To young Scotsman Keir Kilgour, an arrogant rising professional athlete, the pursuit of rugby stardom is a personal quest for the love and respect of his legendary, amateur old school father. When an unthinkable act of professional selfishness crushes his quest to keep pace with his father’s own meteoric rise, Keir flees his rugby background to seek redemption as a “bigger star” in the world of professional football. Keir winds up in the utterly foreign place of Kansas City, Missouri, where no rugby stars are famous. It’s there that the bubble of his naïve “big money” professional aspirations bursts. Keir -- demoralized, broke but too proud to return home -- stumbles upon an unlikely savior -- the Kansas City Wanderers, a failing second division rugby club, a motley collection of weekend warriors and the ultimate in amateur. After jarring and comic doses of humility, Keir discovers a passion for the game far more powerful than the trappings of his professional past. As the Wanderers feed off Keir's renewed approach, they propel him homeward to face his father in one final attempt to gain the respect and love that eluded him since childhood. A serio-comic mix of comingof- age, fish-out-of-water, and sports underdog stories, PLAY ON will appeal to anyone who has ever had to dig deep and redefine themselves.

Tagline: There’s more than one way to keep score. PLAY ON.



Photo 1.
David Story -Writer/Producer
Billy Lonergan, Actor-Kansas City Blues
David...well, directs..Billy

Photo 2.
Derek R. Mannell, Actor-Kansas City Blues
Billy Lonergan, Actor-Kansas City Blues 
"God, you really think we will be famous?"

Photo 3. 
Billy Lonergan, Actor-Kansas City Blues 
Billy prepares to scrum

Photo 4.
Billy Lonergan, Actor-Kansas City Blues
Derek R. Mannell, Actor-Kansas City Blues
"Dude, do you really think we'll be famous?"


Joe Fridkin, Extra-Kansas City Blues
Michael Skahan, Extra-Kansas City Blues
Vince Pastorino, Extra-Kansas City Blues
These photos provided by HappyChic