Glenn Berenbeim wrote the book for “Imagine This,” a musical that opened in London’s West End in 2008, and was televised nationally on PBS in April 2010. Glenn was Co-Executive Producer/Writer for the CBS series, Touched by an Angel. Previous television work includes NBC’s A Different World, as well as development for several original dramas. He wrote documentaries for PBS, including the Emmy award-winning series Gardens of the World With Audrey Hepburn. Currently he is writing a play based on the unlikely but true encounter between the reclusive American artist Georgia O’Keeffe and the young photographer she invited to be her companion. His new feature film script, “Chet Baker Lives,” is based on the life of the legendary jazz musician.
A graduate of Harvard College, Glenn was awarded a Henry Russell Shaw Traveling Fellowship to study theatre in Europe.
The opportunity to write about Jill is a privilege. As one of the dedicated writers who organizes his creative life around her weekly seminars I am hard-pressed to imagine what life would be like without the opportunity she provides — to write, to grow, to flourish under her loving and demanding tutelage.
Having worked as a television writer for over twenty years, I recently decided to rededicate myself to the life of a more creative artist. As such, I wrote the book to a new musical which premiered last year in London. Unfortunately, the economy was taking its fall 2008 nosedive and I returned to America without any sense of what, if anything, was now possible.
Over the last year, thanks to Jill Robinson, I have produced a screenplay which is poised to sell. I would assert this screenplay was about to change my life but that honor belongs to a woman I am proud to count as a friend, advisor and treasure.
The only downside to her presence in my life — and those of my colleagues who gather around her table each week — is the fear that, without her I/we would be without our guiding spirit.
Perhaps Medical Science will decide to study her as an antidote to the dreaded “Writer’s Block.” Meanwhile, I am grateful to her and all who make the Wimpole Street Writer’s Group possible.