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!

"Surviving Family" shoot starts July 11

We've got a start date for shooting Surviving Family: July 11, with a planned 22 day shoot. To say that I'm delighted would be a major understatement!

I'm happy with the script (although I'm sure I'll be tweaking it up until the last possible moment), and looking forward to working with director Laura Thies again. With Caroline Sinclair as the Casting Director, Carlo Fiorletta as Associate Producer, and Vanessa Bergonzoli as Line Producer I know we're going to make a terrific movie. Jeff Bellantine is designing the website, which will be live soon.

We're still testing a couple of log lines, but I'm leaning toward: You can't leave the family tree.

It's going to be quite a year.

Olympia Dukakis On An Icy NY Night

I fell on the ice yesterday morning. It wasn't a bad fall, more embarrassing than painful, sort of in slow motion. But as I walked - carefully - the rest of the way to the PATH station in Jersey City, I cursed the ice, the snow, and everything I could think of related to my morning commute. And for the millionth time I wondered why I don't move someplace warmer.

I know the answer to that question, of course: my job is here, and these days that's nothing to sneeze at. The charms of NYC have worn thin, though, and seemed virtually non-existent at 7 AM on the ice.

Fortunately we had booked tickets to see Olympia Dukakis in Tennessee Williams' The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore at the Laura Pels Theatre. It's not one of his best - the review in the New York Times described it as a "patchily eloquent but often preposterous drama..." Yeah, I can't argue with that.

But. But. But Olympia Dukakis is great, and she's great in this. I've been a fan since her Oscar-winning performance in Moonstruck (1988), which is one of my favorite movies. To watch her on stage alternately angry, wistful, seductive, and downright silly reminded me of what remains (for me) the best part of New York: the theater.

Next week we're seeing Chekhov's Three Sisters with Peter Sarsgaard, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Jessica Hecht at the Classic Stage Company on East 13th Street. Hopefully we won't have another snowstorm before then, but if we do, I'm going to look forward even more to a night at the theater.

Note: The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore is produced by the Roundabout Theatre Company, and is at the Laura Pels Theater at the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre, 111 West 46th Street (btw 6th and 7th Avenues). Discounts are available through http://www.theatermania.com/ and http://www.playbill.com/

Getting "Blood From A Stone"

We saw Blood From A Stone last night at The New Group. I bought the tickets because I'm a big Ethan Hawke fan, especially since we saw him on stage in Hurly Burly a few years ago (same company, space, and director - Scott Elliott). Stone also stars Gordon Clapp, who's best known for his years on NYPD Blue, and was terrific in Glengarry Glenross on Broadway (with Liev Schreiber and Alan Alda).

The reviews weren't very good - the Daily News described it as "unyieldingly grim...churns into blandness." The New York Times wasn't much better: it "grinds through its glum familiar paces..."

But here's my bottom line: It's a dark comedy and they just didn't get it.

We (my husband and I) laughed a lot and thought it was terrific. So did the guy next to us, who we'd never seen before. And so did the couple on the far end of our row. It reminded me of the dark comedies of Irish playwright Martin McDonough, like The Beauty Queen of Leenane and The Lieutenant of Inishmore. Judging by the (very) happy expressions on the actors' faces when they took their bows, we may have laughed quite a bit more than their average audience. (Which is a reminder that laughter is contagious: a subject for another day.)

If that kind of black family humor - whether Irish or American in setting - is your taste, I definitely recommend Tommy Nohilly's Blood From A Stone. The one point on which I will agree with the reviewers is that the actors are all terrific: Hawke and Clapp are joined by Ann Dowd, Thomas Guiry, Natasha Lyonne, and Daphne Rubin-Vega.

In one final note and a nod to my favorite subject of women's restrooms: Theatre Row (410 W. 42nd St., between 9th and 10th Avenues) is one of my favorite places to see a play. It's a complex of 6 theaters that share ticketing, restroom (excellent!), and lounge space (great for a cup of coffee or a beer before a show).

On strobe lights, (fake) gun shots, and smoke effects

I saw A Free Man of Color shortly before it closed - it was OK, neither great nor terrible. It was definitely loooonnnngggg. The cast was very good, especially Jeffrey Wright (pictured at left), who was on stage almost all of the 3 hours. I'm a big fan of Paul Dano (I saw him - wonderfully - on stage in Things We Want as well as on screen in Little Miss Sunshine and There Will Be Blood). The only thing that I don't like about the actor Mos, who was also terrific, is that I'd just gotten used to an actor named Mos Def (born Dante Terrell Smith) when he shortened it to just Mos.


But my point here is separate from the acting (good) or the writing (disjointed). When I got to the theater, there was a sign announcing that the production includes gun shots - three of them, in fact. I don't really mind fake gun shots, but I'm sure that there are people who do.


My pet peeve is strobe lights, which are also announced at the door to a theater. I hate them I hate them I hate them. I cannot say strongly enough how much I hate them. For short periods, I close my eyes and cover them. If it goes on too long, I've been known to walk out of the theater. Yes, in the middle of a play.

I'm sure that there are people with allergies who feel equally strongly about smoke effects.

So here's my point: all of these effects should be announced clearly in all ads for the show. They should be made completely clear in any on-line ticket sales, and mentioned in any telephone sales. That way if we don't like them, we don't need to see them/hear them/inhale them.


I don't begrudge producers the right to use whatever effects they want. But tell me about them first.


End of rant.

Greatest Hits of 2010 - My Version

Photo at left: receiving an award at Columbia Gorge Film Festival

It seems like everyone is making lists of the Ten Best and Ten Worst of whatever...This isn't one of those. It's a list of the best things that I saw/did/experienced this past year.

One thing that won't be on the list: favorite movies. That's because I haven't seen most of the good ones that came out recently (The King's Speech, The Social Network, The Fighter, or any of those other movies whose title starts with the word "the").

1. Best New Broadway Play: Red by John Logan, starring Alfred Molina as Mark Rothko and Eddie Redmayne as his assistant. I loved this play from start to finish, but especially the quasi-dance as the 2 men paint a large red canvas together.

2. Best Broadway Revival: A View From the Bridge by Arthur Miller, starring Liev Schreiber, Scarlett Johansson, and Jessica Hecht. I must admit that I'd probably like any play Liev Schreiber is in. But this was great.

3. Best Off-Broadway Play: Trust by Paul Weitz, starring Zach Braff, Bobby Cannevale, Sutton Foster, Ari Graynor. Fun with a dominatrix.

3a. Runner-up for Best Off-Broadway Play: This Wide Night by Chloe Moss, starring Edie Falco and Alison Pill. This British one act drama about two women recently released from prison starred two of my favorite actors.

4. Best New Television Show: It's almost a cliche (already!) to say this, but I love HBO's Boardwalk Empire. Steve Buscemi is still one of the creepiest looking guys around, but he's terrific, as is Kelly Macdonald.

5. Best Film Festival Experience: I had a great time at the Columbia Gorge (formerly Washougal) Film Festival - Breven Angaelica Warren did a great job. Foreclosed got an award (that's the photo at the top), they had some terrific speakers, and yeah, some good movies too. Plus I got to have dinner with my cousin Jen & her husband in Portland, and saw spectacular scenery.

5b. Runner-Up for Best Film Festival Experience: Flint Film Festival, with all the credit to Robert Joseph Butler of Spirit of Isabel for the great audience and terrific q&a. Plus my sister Amy joined me for the day, and we had a delightful tapas dinner together (yes, in Flint).

6. Best weekend: Any weekend that I'm in the Poconos.

"Foreclosed" on The REEL Show, Sat. Feb 12

I'm delighted that my short Foreclosed (http://www.foreclosedthemovie.us/) will screen on The REEL Show on the MSC Network on Saturday afternoon February 12 at 2 PM. Even better: I'll be chatting live during the show to answer viewers' questions and provide insight into the movie.

The REEL Show premieres on Saturday January 8 on http://www.morningshowcentral.com/ , and is dedicated to providing expsure to indie films and filmmakers.

It's produced and hosted by Kristina Michelle in cooperation with executive producer Ray Szuch. I know both of them through The Indie Gathering film festival in Cleveland (check it out at http://www.theindiegathering.com/ ). They do a terrific job with the festival, and are now expanding to producing shows on an ongoing basis. I really hope it takes off - not just because they're nice people, but (yeah, selfishly!) because good indie movies - and shorts in particular - need more outlets for broad-based exposure.