Know when a story isn't ready

Theatre Reset has produced one of my plays, Your Child, The Devil, and You, and in a month's time, the company will produce another play of mine, George of the Dead.

I was extremely happy with the quality Theatre Reset put into the former, and I can't wait to see what they do with the latter. I will continue writing plays, and I hope, when I submit them, Theatre Rest will produce them.

Today, April 30, is the deadline to submit plays for Theatre Reset's fourth short play festival, scheduled for later this year. I'd love to be able to submit something. I've been developing a couple of different ideas and stories that I think would be a good fit for the style of the festival. Unfortunately, they won't be ready before the deadline passes.

Worst movies to see on a first date

A while back, a coworker and I talked about the worst movies we had seen on first dates. Not worst as in objectively bad, but movies that one should not see on a date with someone you barely know and whom you are trying to build rapport with because these movies will ruin whatever connection you are trying to build.

My pick was Let the Sunshine In, described to my date and me as a French romantic comedy that I found neither romantic nor funny (I have my doubts about the French part). We had planned to see To Kill a Mockingbird, but after driving through heavy rain - the kind so thick, you can't see past the hood of your car - and waiting for my date to arrive, I learned that screening was full (it was a free screening, and she and I had an appreciation for older films). 

This was at the Drexel, an independent theater in Bexley near Columbus, Ohio, and it had only three screens. When my date arrived, we agreed to see the other movie showing at that time, Let the Sunshine In, since we were already there. The theater was nice enough to give us a discount for the tickets because we had been there for To Kill a Mockingbird.

Cast, director announced for 'George of the Dead'

Theatre Reset has announced the cast and director for my play, George of the Dead.

Dallas Ray-Macke will direct. George will be played by David Gigliotti, Suzanne by Colleen "Squiddy" Kochensparger, and "Payday" Pete by Jim Azelvandre.

I'm so excited. I've worked with or seen all these talented people work before, and I know they're going to do a spectacular job.

George of the Dead will be performed as part of Theatre Reset's 3rd Short Play Festival May 17-19 at 929 Harrison Avenue, Columbus, OH 43215.

You can order tickets here. 

Unwrapping the unproduced 'Mummy'

Years ago, I purchased a PDF copy of an unproduced Mummy script from 1994. Before the movie that exists was made as a throwback Indiana Jones-styled adventure movie, just about anyone who was anyone in Hollywood horror was attached to remake The Mummy.

I bought the script because it was written by George A. Romero of Night of the Living Dead fame, based on earlier drafts by Alan Ormsby (who wrote the Cat People remake) and John Sayles (the writer and director of Matewan and Eight Men Out but who also wrote The Howling and Piranha.).

'Season 666' trailer debuts

 A slasher film I was in, Season 666, has a trailer up and available on YouTube!

Click here to watch it.

Directed by Michelle Hanson (with a story by Hanson, Andy Batt, and Shane Stefanchik), Season 666 is an improvisational horror movie about contestants who compete on a reality show to kill a notorious serial killer, Raymond Burroughs, who is prevented from killing them in this contest because of a device implanted in the back of his head. However, when the device malfunctions, the contestants find themselves hunted by an unstoppable killer.

I played Raymond (ah, the roles you get when you're 6 feet 3 inches tall). We filmed this back in the summer 2021. It was a challenge but a lot of fun. 

The movie will be released this summer. Stay tuned for release details.

 

"George of the Dead" to be performed at short play festival

I'm excited to announce my short play, George of the Dead, will be produced as part of Theatre Reset's upcoming Short Play Festival #3.

Theatre Reset is a women- and non-binary-owned theatre company based out of Columbus, Oh. This is their third short play festival and the second time they've produced something I wrote. In 2023, they produced my play, Your Child, The Devil, and You, at their second festival.

The festival will be held at 8 p.m. on Friday, May 17, and Saturday, May 18, and at 2 p.m. on Sunday, May 19. All performances will be at 929 Harrison Avenue, Columbus, Oh 43215. Tickets are $20 each.

George of the Dead, as you can probably guess from the title, is a tribute to the late George A. Romero, the writer-director of his series of socially conscious zombie films that began in 1968 with Night of the Living Dead. His other horror films include Creepshow, The Crazies, and Monkey Shines. 

Although he is best known for making scary movies, Romero tried to branch out into other genres throughout his career, but Hollywood pigeonholed him as a horror guy. My play is about his desire to branch out as an artist, but of course, it has a ghoulish sense of humor. I can't wait to see the cast and crew bring it to life. 

To learn more about the festival, including how to buy tickets, click here.

Onibaba

As civil war ravages 14th century Japan, an older woman (Nobuko Otowa) and her daughter-in-law (Jitsuko Yoshimura) survive by murdering straggling soldiers and selling their wares. One day, their neighbor Hachi (Kei Sato) returns. He had been conscripted along with the older woman's son and younger woman's husband, whom Hachi reveals had been killed after they deserted. Hachi pursues the young widow, and despite warning from the older woman, the young woman begins a sexual relationship with him, triggering a jealous response from the older woman...

The world itself feels empty of joy and life in Onibaba (1965), a psychologically twisted drama directed by Kaneto Shindo that has the look and atmosphere of a surreal horror thriller. As the characters struggle to survive a land devastated by war, hunger drives them to commit murder, and repressed desires push them toward insanity and possibly supernatural punishment.

Onibaba has a plausible, real-world context, and its characters have believable, human motivations, but the effect is one of dream-like fantasy. The dialogue is limited, the performances of heightened physical intensity that at times feel like Kabuki. The setting is largely self-contained, as if nothing else exists beyond what the characters see, and there's nowhere else they can escape to. 

Renfield

Renfield (Nicholas Hoult), the long-suffering, bug-eating slave of Count Dracula (Nicolas Cage), has grown weary of serving his vampire master. While Dracula recovers from a recent encounter with some vampire hunters, Renfield attends a support group for people looking to escape codependent relationships. Renfield also tries to help his group members by bringing their abusive partners to Dracula to feed on, but things get out of hand when he ends up killing an assassin for a local crime family, drawing their attention...

For a character who doesn't have that large of a role in the original source material, Renfield has managed to make quite an impact on Dracula lore. In Bram Stoker's original novel, Renfield is a patient in an insane asylum, delusional, insane, and loyal to the Count. He eats insects and other small creatures in the belief consuming their lifeforce will add to his own.

Dwight Frye, the memorable character actor of Universal's Golden Age of Monsters, brought him to the life in the 1931 adaptation, which expanded his role, having him go to Transylvania instead of Jonathan Harker, and there, he falls under Dracula's spell, travelling with him on the Demeter and becoming his devoted slave.

The Last Voyage of the Demeter

In 1897, police respond when the Demeter, a derelict merchant ship, crashes on the English coast. They find the log of Captain Eliot (Liam Cunningham). The Demeter had been chartered to deliver cargo from Bulgaria for a mysterious client and paid handsomely for it. The crew - including Eliot's grandson cabin boy Toby (Woody Norman), first mate Wojchek (David Dastmalchian), and Cambridge-educated Dr. Clemens (Corey Hawkins) - began the trip in high spirts, but soon, bad omens led to deaths among the crew until it became apparent something evil was on board...

Bram Stoker wrote Dracula as an epistolary novel. The story unfolds as a series of letters, journal entries, newspaper articles, and other similar documents, and while this style can be clunky at times, it helps put the reader in the minds of the characters and identify with their perspectives.

The Captain's Log, which details the fate of the Demeter's crew, is one of the book's best passages, working on its own as a self-contained short story within the novel. Stoker captures a true sense of rising dread and despair, and the image of the dead captain tied to the ship's wheel, clutching a crucifix, is a memorably nightmarish image.