ACTOR Peter Houghton has taken one of his worst failings in life and transformed it into a theatrical success story.

His one-man show, The Pitch, is based on his experience of trying to sell a movie idea to investors.

"I was working on a screen play for a few years and we had three or four different production bodies involved.

"One was a farmer in New South Wales wanting to get a tax break, and there was an English and an American distributor.

"I was telling them all different stories, because each of them wanted to make a different sort of film."

But when it came to the punch, and Houghton came face to face with all the different parties, things soured very quickly.

"I was turning myself inside out trying to sell them all the story they wanted. It was a very compromising situation. I walked out of there knowing that I had blown it."

Within four weeks, the Australian investor pulled out, and the project was buried in a box at the back of Houghton's garage.

A few year later, while hunting through those boxes, the idea of The Pitch originated.

The play tells the story of screenwriter Walter Weinermann attempting to write the perfect Hollywood script.

Houghton says the film idea is true to the Hollywood style - "an action, mystery, revenge, loser-makes-good, romance film set in various exotic locations".

He says the play celebrates yet mocks the Hollywood form.

"I wanted to write a play about a film complete with soundtrack, guns, car chases, plane crashes, romances, assassinations, wars, explosions, betrayals, jealousies and revenge.

"I wanted to see if the formulas that cinema exploits so ruthlessly could be exploited to similar effect on stage. And I wanted it to be funny."

Houghton, who acts out each of the characters in the play, says it can be terrifying being the only actor on stage.

"It's a bit like you're up on a stump.

"It is really intense because they become your major relationship, and you become hypersensitive to the audience and you see every move they make. It is a much more isolated experience."

But Houghton says for the audience it is an hour and a half of "high voltage physical comedy".

"They would never have seen anything like it before," he says.

The Pitch is on at 8pm, September 4-6, at the Drum Theatre, Dandenong. Tickets: members $18, adults $25 and concession $21. Bookings:

www.drumtheatre.com.au

or 97716666.