Fun with Backyart's 3rd Annual Film Fest

This past weekend, Carlo Fiorletta and I participated in what has become a delightful annual event: we shot a movie for Backyart's 3rd Annual Film Fest (see http://www.backyartbrooklyn.wordpress.com/).

This fest is the essence of immediate gratification: at 5 PM on Friday, the organizers provide a theme that MUST be included in all movies. The movies must be written, shot, and submitted by 5 PM on Monday (minimum of 30 second, maximum of 5 minutes). This year's theme was: "So this is the myth you've been sleeping with?"

Carlo wrote, directed, and cast a delightful comedy called All About Audition, culled from his years both casting and being cast, and I served as the camera(wo)man and producer.

The cast featured the talented and experienced actors Haley Zale, Jay Rivera, Simcha Borenstein, Troy Dane, Alex Goll, and opera-singing Luigi Fabricini. And he rounded it out with acting newcomers playwright Gary Morgenstein and Gabe Baitz.

The movies (submitted by filmmakers in NYC and Dublin, Ireland) will screen at CultureFix (see http://www.culturefixny.com/) in Manhattan on Friday April 1 at 8 PM; they're at 9 Clinton St., just south of Houston Street. Check it out if you have a chance!

Enjoying A Tomato...

I had the pleasure of seeing Gary Morgenstein's new play A Tomato Can't Grow in the Bronx last night at the Producers Club in Manhattan, and definitely recommend it, although it only runs through Sunday Sept 26.

Carlo Fiorletta's expert direction brings out the best in the actors and keeps the play moving briskly. Donna Castellano and Bruce Levy shine as a feuding married couple who probably should have divorced 20 years earlier. Jessica Renee Russell is delightfully flustered as newly-minted real estate agent Madeline, while Simcha Borenstein, Alyson Linefsky, and Troy Dane are excellent as the equally dysfunctional next generations of the family.

The play's best moments come toward its conclusion, as 25 years of anger and frustration are released - and not gently. But the story manages a hopeful note, and the audience can leave with a smile.

The story takes place in 1964, but its theme of a family yearning for a house with a yard resonates today, especially as we deal with the aftermath of the real estate bubble.