David Paterson lives in Manhasset and is happy with the choices he's made in life-not surprising because he chooses so much: actor, playwright, husband, father, carpenter, construction worker, fireman-so far. He has written 30 full length plays, 12 screen plays and on Jan. 31 his movie, Love, Ludlow, a quirky love story, will be distributed by Warner Home Video just in time for Valentines Day.

Love, Ludlow was among 2,300 hopefuls for inclusion in the 2005 Sundance Film Festival and was one of only 120 chosen, and one of 15 to receive distribution deals. Sundance bought eight films including Paterson's for the Sundance channel on which Love, Ludlow will appear in June. Another major coup was that STARZ included it among the independent films added to its library and Love, Ludlow will be shown in July on the STARZ channel which is carried in hotels and motels and has a subscription base of around five million.

Paterson wears many hats well-and simultaneously. He had a four-year run as a character on One Life to Live, and recently his play, The Blonde, premiered at the Blue Heron Theatre. David is on record as the only playwright ever to have premiered three plays in NYC within one month. He is an adjunct professor at New York Institute of Technology (NYIT) and a freelance writer for the NY Times and Reader's Digest. He is married, the father of two sons, a stay-at-home dad and a volunteer fireman.

Patterson was one of the contributing authors to the book 911: The Book of Help, a collection of short stories and poems for young people about the events of Sept. 11. Paterson's entry, The Decision to Go, was about his experience helping at Ground Zero. His desire to become a fireman, he said, resulted from that urge to help after the attack when he donned his construction gear and fast-talked his way past the barricade, although he believes he was allowed to help because he looked like he could. Paterson's experience at Ground Zero moved him to become a fireman himself and he joined Engine Company 1 of the Manhasset-Lakeville Fire District as a volunteer.

"I have been a volunteer fireman around five years and at the firehouse they didn't know what I did. We don't discuss jobs. When they found out I'm a stay-at-home dad they were amused. When I added 'I'm a playwright,' you could have heard a pin drop. It is so foreign to them. 'You mean you write?' I invited a few to come to a play. They brought dates and dressed as if going to the opera-but it was an all-male play, The Ice House-about male bonding, and they loved it."

Paterson confessed he is "corrupting firemen with culture. Whenever I am notified that one of my plays is in production I immediately contact the theater to set aside tickets for the firemen in the area, then immediately call the local firehouse and inform them tickets are available. The average mindset of a fireman is to not go, but my plays are about average people living average lives, not wealthy or high brow types, more like the firefighters themselves. Also, because the theater is so expensive today, if the tickets are free they will go."

In 1988 Patterson was already acting and decided to expand his skills and study stage combat (stunt man skills) at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London. Jonathan Waller, who staged the violence for all the Monty Python films, taught the course. "In fact," Paterson said, "Stunt men are a lot like firemen-they like to do crazy things and joke about it later. They are, though, more honorable stunt men." While at the academy, on a whim, he took a playwriting course.

That was almost 20 years ago, in London, when he wrote his first play, Fingerpainting in a Murphy Bed, and it is that play that Love, Ludlow is based upon. Paterson said, "At the time I was so poor I was living in flop houses where you put a quarter in for light, so I would go to the pubs and write there. One evening, mixed with the Irish, British and Scottish accents, I heard the most wonderful Queens accent and made my way to the bar to find two blonds. I told a joke and one laughed, Ariana, and we've been together ever since. Ariana was in college doing her year of study abroad." Love, Ludlow, Paterson explained, "is about a tough-talking blond from Queens and the two male characters are a combination of me." His wife eventually did lose her accent, he said, and is now a securities litigation and class action lawyer. "We couldn't be more different in our careers. There are no similar stories around our dinner table," chuckled Paterson.

Getting serious, Paterson said, "You make choices, and family and friends are my priority. I've seen in show business how individuals put everything into their career and end up having nothing else. My family is one of the things I'm proudest of. I made a choice and have not suffered professionally. You can have both, just not tomorrow, you have to work for it. There is no such thing as a famous young playwright."

By choosing family, Paterson's life style, he said, changed dramatically. With two young sons, Decker, 6 and Carter, 8 he doesn't have much time to write. Years ago, he said, he put Ariana through law school working as a carpenter, messenger, delivering flowers ("around here they tip, no one in the city tips"). "We lived in Hells Kitchen when it was Hells Kitchen, so I can coast a bit," he said. Paterson said he wrote 30 full length plays and 12 screen plays, almost all before the children and now writes one of each a year. He said he reads voraciously. "My plays are not political, are about average folks, not heady, not challenging, don't trick the audience-I just share a story. My goal is to entertain. Dialogue is my strength and the characters have something to say and a creative way of saying it. Love Ludlow as a play had three characters on stage for two hours. My mom is a novelist, but novels scare me, too many words."

His writing schedule is such that he writes feverishly when he writes, in longhand, and does 20-30 pages of dialogue for a play at a time. "I'll tell the family, give me an afternoon," he said. In three of four sittings in a week he will write the play, about 80 handwritten pages, then pay someone to type it onto the computer. "But it has taken me six months to think about the play. I write less now but it's quality over quantity," he stated.

The actual filming of Love, Ludlow, Paterson said, was wonderfully done by Reuben O' Malley who also films Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. He said David Eichenberg, an actor of Sex in the City fame, signed on for the film only because he has a good casting director. He added that his casting director has the ability to get scripts directly to actors, which can be crucial considering if given to the actor's agent the actor may never see the script since agents get a percentage of the actor's income and independent films pay very little, sometimes nothing.

Ludlow was shot in 18 days and Paterson was not happy about that, it should have been 16 days. "Most independent films die horrible deaths-don't even get finished and one reason is that well-known actors who like a script will sign on for peanuts but are available only for a limited amount of time. If the movie takes longer and they walk the movie is dead. Should luck prevail and the movie gets a distribution deal then the actors must be paid the Screen Actor's Guild (SAG) rate," Paterson said.

Paterson uses professional actors in spite of the demands and constraints imposed by the union itself, basically that the actors be well cared for because, he said, you can't do without big stars if you want to succeed. Paterson elaborated, "Who's fault is that? Miramax. Miramax discovered you can shoot films inexpensively if you have star talent. The average movie today costs around $60 million to make, and ideally should gross double that in ticket sales. If Miramax can make a movie for $5 to $10 million doubling that is far easier. The star is willing to take scale (about $50,000) because he wants to do the movie.

"So, today the independent film is driven by the star while in the old days films with strong characters, good dialogue, and interesting plots had a chance for distribution and potential success. Because my movies have been 'on the circuit' and I have been attending numerous film festivals I have seen, sadly, brilliant films that go nowhere without a star. It is getting harder and harder on all fronts for independent films. I am delighted that Love, Ludlow is doing well," Paterson concluded.