Tag: New York City

Double Your Savings

I’m happy to announce that Elephant Run District’s next film The Save will be screening at two upcoming festivals.

It will have its premiere at the Chain NYC Film Festival on Friday, Aug. 14 at 8 p.m. in the Comedy block. 312 West 36th Street, 3rd floor. This is my fourth film project screening at the Chain. They put on a great festival! Tickets and more info here.

And it will screen at the Richmond International Film Festival on Saturday, Sept. 26 at 4:45 p.m. in the Narrative Shorts block. Movieland Theater 2, 1301 N. Arthur Ashe Blvd. This screening will use a DCP file and 5.1 stereo sound. Tickets and more info here.

The inspiration for the film came from a news story that ended tragically. Without giving things away, I thought about how someone desperately wanting to fix his marriage might go to such an extreme and how might it end differently than it did in real life.

As you can see from the trailer, we had a great team working in front of and behind the camera. This was the project where I learned to look at the monitor to see what the camera sees, rather than looking at the actors’ live performance. I was wedging myself next to the camera and getting under the foot of Alejandro Medina, the director of photography. He kindly insisted I plant myself in front of the monitor instead.

Aimee, who worked so hard on several production roles, took this picture. I love it because you can see the crew hard at work with the actors in place. Shauna Blaize is off to the left giving an eye line for Francis Mateo. You can see him both on the monitor looking at her and back to the right in the plaid shirt.

Half-Time Celebration

At this point, I’ve completed four half-marathons. The Brooklyn Half, the NYC Half, the Rockaway Beach Half, and another Brooklyn Half. To real runners that’s not a big deal. To non-runners it is huge.

Non-runners always ask, “So, are you going to run a full marathon?” I don’t know why that is important to them but it always is. At this point, doing halfsies is enough in terms of balancing out all the things happening in my life.

Training in the winter is rough because of the weather. Training in the summer is also rough. I don’t really feel like there is much of a spring or autumn anymore. Maybe they will come back. Two events I was scheduled to do were cancelled due to rough weather.

This picture is from the NYC Half, which went from Prospect Park over the Brooklyn Bridge up the FDR across 42nd Street through Times Square into Central Park and finishing near Tavern on the Green. It is kind of amazing to feel the city open up and embrace you as you make your way through it. Normally, it feels like you are making your way through capricious quicksand.

I’m gearing up for two more half-marathons in August and October, weather permitting. Today, I am laying low due to the AQI from the Canadian wildfires. I promise the Canadian gods that I will wear another Canada-themed t-shirt during my next events if they will stop being so miffed with us.

A Mind Party

Got to attend a listening party for Peter Stass and Blerime Topalli’s audio drama In a Dark Wood at QED Astoira on Feb. 5. I can be heard playing the role of the German solider Ludwig in it. They brought their Hollywood film experience into this non-visual format. It is a very layered and textured aural adventure.

It was nice to be in a room with a bunch of people who are there for the purpose of truly listening to something. People are so noisy inside and out these days, it is a rare occurrence. I’ve enjoyed this kind of listening at the Village Vanguard a couple of times. But it is different with drama.

It’s available on Spotify and on Apple where you can listen at your convenience in your own place of solitude. If you dare!

Richard II

I’m excited to be jumping into a production in Central Park of Richard II as the Duke of York this summer. It is going to be directed by my partner in life and art Aimee Todoroff. The last time I did this play was for the North Carolina Shakespeare Festival. I was one of four of Richard’s pages and was 17-years-old. The other young pages went to become the playwright Anton Dudley and two members of the indie band Jump Little Children.

There are a lot of lessons about leadership and loyalty in this play. A very interesting one to be doing at this time. A wonderful cast and crew are putting their sweat and tears into this one!

Wipeout

I’ll be appearing in the Chain Theatre’s Winter One Act Festival in a short play called Wipeout, written by and featuring Jeryl Brunner. We met several years ago while doing some improv training in the city. Jeryl reached out to me to play two roles: a skiing enthusiast and a grade school teacher. It’s part of a full-length play she has been working on. It’s always nice to get a request out of the blue like this and Jeryl’s enthusiasm is contagious!

This project also gives me the good fortune of reconnecting with a friend from college Sara Thigpen, who is directing. This is the first thing we’ve worked on together since our days at UNC-Greensboro. It’s been so nice to reconnect while working on this.

With Amy Ziff from the indie rock band Betty rounds out the cast and plays three roles. I saw their show, Betty Rules, back when I first came to the city. It ran at the now defunct Zipper Theatre, which was located just one block north of where we’re doing this festival. Amy and I have similar senes of humor so we’ve been cracking each other up like misbehaving school kids.

This play is being presented by Jesse Eisenberg, who directed an earlier section of this play, Anna Strout, and Barbara Toy. And the festival is produced by my old friends from the Chain with whom I did a production of Hurlyburly when their space was located in Long Island City. It’s a big festival with 25 programs and over 90 plays altogether. The festival runs through March 2.

It’s been delightful to have several strands of my life draw together while working on this.

Program No. 2: We Were Girls Together by Jacklyn Collier, Wipeout by Jeryl Brunner, The Interlude by Jeff Checkley, and The Same Place by Rory Lance.

Tickets: Sunday, Feb. 9 at 2 p.m.,  Friday, Feb. 21 at 6:30 p.m., and Friday, Feb. 28 at 8 p.m. Use the code WIPE25 to get 25% off your tickets.

The Chain Theatre, 312 West 36th Street, 3rd floor MainStage, NYC