Bistro Buddies! The comfy casting couch for this production was largely the famed Corner Bistro in the West Village of New York, like friend Edlin Pitts, a Miles Davis look-a-like who manages a bike shop and John Adams who lent us the trumpet and renewed his acting career with his appearance here as Joe Coffey, the camera operator in”FILM.” And there’s the well-traveled and so talented sax tenor Grant Stewart whom I’ve known for twenty years! I also befriended our Producer at the Bistro five or so years ago, James Richard, and Jake Salas, the “Rod Serling”-esque Narrator, and actor Benjamin Foronda, whose role here I won’t divulge! Don’t want to spoil THAT surprise! You’ll see Jay O’Brien here too, as an hilarious “come on guys, I gotta go home” late night restaurant chef, Guido. It was Steve Smith, here Buster Keaton, who did the most to welcome me at the Bistro some twenty-one plus years ago.
Many of the featured background cast I met in other “under Broadway” productions, like “Mystery Woman” Gargi Shinde, who played Nurse Mortimer in a reading of “A World of Solitude” by Peter Dizozza at La Mama e.t.c. a couple of years ago (or more?), a musical spoof of the James Bond movies in which I played Bond’s Uncle James, and I worked with Jay Greenberg as Ernest Hemingway in Rob Urbinati’s “Karaoke Night at the Suicide Shack” which played in Queens Theatre in the Park and which unfortunately nobody in Manhattan or Brooklyn ever saw. Jay had been cast as Mark Rothko, another celebrity suicide among the others: Kurt Cobain, Dorothy Dandridge, “Frankenstein” director James Whale, Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton. Here, Jay is the director of Beckett’s “FILM,” Alan Schneider. Jay also worked with us as an Associate Producer for “To Paint the Portrait of a Bird,” an award-winning short film based on the Jacques Prevert poem available at the iTunes store.
Cynthia Shaw, the Costumer in “FILM,” comes to us by way of the The Shelter creative collaborative whom we often work with, Michael Kingsbaker, in particular, who was our “Writer” character in “Dinner on the Riviera.” Cynthia also worked in Joe Quartararo’s first feature, “The Candy Flip,” which was the first vehicle in which I got to know Lou Matthews who is the all-important actor wanna be Waitress, and John Payne who played the lead. Here he is Norman Grantz, the jazz impresario of the 50’s and 60’s. Czech-born Camilla Mraz, whom we use here to recall the late, great cabaret/jazz singer Blossom Dearie, is a singer/pianist/composer and “dear” friend. The “Jazz Groupie” is Meghan Norbut whom Joe ran into on a subway during production which inspired the very idea for her role, and our Beatnik, Adam Walck, who doubled as the company carpenter (thank you Adam!) came to us through his friend and ours, Anna Kathleen.
Director Joe Q is now in India working with the Sundarum Tagore Gallery recording sound for a Louis Kahn (architect) documentary and he can fill you in later on how he met most of the patient and tireless production crew, but for now I’d like to acknowledge and thank them all here starting with Production Designer Anna Kathleen who also worked with Joe on “Charity” — as did our shooter, Donavon DeCesare, the director of photography for “The Candy Flip” as well. Brian McElroy is our invaluable First A.D., and his wit (and wisdom) provided much of the fuel we needed to barrel through some of the normal bog that just seems to go along with film production.
Gaffer Matt Kessler, a/c Anthony Carella, Nick Massey, Key Grip and Mike Sutter, Best Boy, Sam Schmitz, Dolly Grip, Annette Heart, H/MU, Set Decorator Hannah Caggiano, Script Supervisor Sabrina Hillp, Production Coordinator Candece Munroe , Set Photographer Rachel Brunell, 2nd A.D.’s Nick Ambro and Emma Zbiral Teller; P.A.’s were Vijay Joshi, David P. Evans (who also doubled as a Busboy, thank you!), Ian Friedman, Daniel Lambroso. And we cannot, should not, will not take Lakhota Film Sound Guy Jose Ramirez for granted! Thanks Jose !
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