Welcome to Berkshire County

An interview with Audrey Cummings

1-What first made you want to become a director?

My first love of film making was when I saw my first movie up on the big screen. It was E.T. and it made me love movies more than anything. Then I started hearing about the man who made E.T. and I became a huge fan of Steven Spielberg. The more films he made the more I wanted to do what he was doing.

2-Can you tell us a little about story of Berkshire County and how the film came about?

Chris Gamble (the writer) and I both love sci-fi, horror and thrillers. We were coming off having worked on a few very complex sci-fi scripts and decided it was time to do something terrifying and fun but with a simpler story line than the mind benders we had just completed. We really loved working on this one and the story came together pretty quickly.

3-So far, what's you pre-production been like?

Amazing. I’m just keeping my fingers crossed that it continues to go as smoothly as it has been. It’s also my first time working with producer Bruno Marino and I think he’s just incredible. I would trust any of my films in his hands.

4-The mysterious boy wears a pig mask. How was his mask decided upon? Where there any other looks for him before you settled on that one?

The thought was that these guys are Berkshire pig farmers. The little boy’s mask is really our take on what we envision a baby pig might look like. I worked with a storyboard artist to design the concept art for the masks and then we took them to a special effects make-up place and now we are in the process of creating the actual masks.

5-This is going to be your feature film debut as a director. What kind of pressures have you had to deal with going into this?

My short films have done very well for me and brought me many successes so I feel that I need to deliver a great film in order to keep up with the standard I have set for myself. In short – the pressures are really my own in being the perfectionist type.

6-What are some of the locations you'll be using? Will it be all on location? Any sets?

We were very lucky in having found the perfect location for the isolated home in the country. I couldn't have asked for a more perfect place really. We are shooting a majority of the film at this location but we have several other smaller locations as well including the inside of a cube van.

7-Does the film take place in a modern setting or is it a period piece?

The film is kind of a throw back to the old 70’s babysitter in peril movies that I love so much – but set in modern day and bringing in unique and original twists. One of the terrifying things about this film is that situations like this do happen in real life more often than we want to imagine. And that’s what makes it terrifying.


8-Can you tell us a little about the film's main character and the actress playing her?

The main character is an amazing role for any girl. She is a strong female character who undergoes an intensive and redemptive journey. She needs to learn to stand up for herself and what she believes in, in order to survive. The actress playing her stood out from the very first time we saw her. She has a beautiful vulnerability and is very talented. I can’t wait to get out on set and push her to her limits. I think she’s going to shine.

9-How much of the film have you planned out in your head or in storyboards?

I'm a director who loves to come in all organized and ready to go. That being said on any given day there are about a hundred issues that come up that make you have to change the way you envisioned shooting a scene – but the more prepared you are the easier it is to come up with plan B when you need to.

10-What sort of advice do you have for any aspiring filmmakers about reaching their dream?

This industry is crazy and we’re crazy for being a part of it. But those of us who are committed are committed because we have a deep passion for storytelling that can’t be put aside. If you believe in yourself and what you have to say…anything is possible.

For more info on Berkshire County check out their Facebook page and Berkshire County The Movie.com.

Full Interview: http://cathode13.blogspot.ca/2013/03/welcome-to-berkshire-county-interview.html

RENT hits The Loft

By Leigh Blenkhorn, www.simcoe.com The Barrie Advance

BARRIE - When it came to selecting the first official Loft Art Space show, there was no contest.
The theatre will launch its inaugural summer season with a production of Jonathan Larson’s RENT.
“We’ve got a crew of struggling artists who love the arts telling a story about struggling artists and people who love the arts,” said the show’s director Ryan LaPlante. “It was perfect.”
RENT follows a group of young artists who are living in early-1990s New York. It explores the struggles of low-income artists, the unemployed, those infected with HIV, and those battling homophobia.
“When we were talking about shows, it seemed like all of the issues that were a part of that show are just as current today as they were then,” LaPlante said. “We are still dealing with economic crisis, and threats to the arts, but it’s really about relationships, about struggling against a world that is confusing and not always terribly welcoming. It’s about trying to find meaning for yourself and the people around you and that really spoke to us. Along with the fact that the music rocks.”
At the heart of the story are three close friends – the jovial Tom Collins (Wayne Desormeaux), the filmmaker Mark Cohen (Michael Holland) and the recovering addict/former rock sensation Roger Davis (Steve Major).
Roger finds himself falling in love with the troubled addict/dancer Mimi Marquez (Jaclyn Serre), while Mark struggles to get over the fact that his previous girlfriend – the diva Maureen Johnson (Pam Reesor) – left him for civil lawyer Joanne Jefferson (Jessika Dean).
Collins is the only one to find true love, as he meets the fabulous Angel Dumott Schunard (Jamie Meltz) after being mugged.
The economically stable, yet slightly arrogant, Benjamin Coffin III (Andrew Perry) seems to be the thorn in their collective side as he pushes for a more realistic lifestyle and plans for the future.
The chorus of the play, a number of highly demanding roles that require each actor to perform multiple characters throughout the piece, fills out the rest of the unforgiving yet sometimes charming world in which these characters struggle to live (Alysa King, Robbie Woods, Leanne Miller, Nicole Bach Dyer, Meghan Fox and Carla Tucker).
LaPlante, a recent graduate of Queen’s University, is one of the original co-artistic directors of Vagabond Theatre, Canada’s first Shakespearean Repertoire Company.
“The way that RENT has been done traditionally is about recreating what that original broadway cast did with that first production. My background is in Shakespeare, which is all about bringing yourself to the role and telling the story with the actors you have,” he said. “We have such talented people that it’s not about comparing them to the original, it’s about what can they bring to the role.”
The production’s musical director is Edwina Douglas, choreographer is Carla Tucker and costumes are by Jill LaPlante.
RENT runs Aug. 11, 13, 14, 18, 19 and 21 at The Loft,  
Tickets are $20 each and can be reserved online by e-mailing tickets@movingart.ca, or by phone at 705-792-2877.

http://news.ca.msn.com/ontario/barrie/rent-hits-the-loft

Tick, Tick... Boom an explosive success

"As Susan, Alysa King brings great poise to her role"

By Greg Burliuk, Kingston Whig-Standard

One of the great tragedies of modern musical theatre is that the creator ofRent,Jonathan Larson, died just before the musical was to open and become a big hit on Broadway.

BeforeRent,however he wroteTick, Tick...Boom,which details his struggles trying to make it as a composer of musicals. Larson performed it as a solo piece and after his death, it was re-jigged to include other actors.

It's a piece which is by turns wistful and angst-driven but also witty and a commentary on the life of young people living in New York in 1990. It's not exactly an ad for the motto follow your dreams, but for those who didn't, it's a reminder of what they missed.

Blue Canoe Productions was the perfect company to premiere this piece here because all of its members are either high school or university students, and the company has had enough experience mounting bigger musicals that it does fine here with this intimate one.

The main character Jon, feels he is at a crossroads. He's about to turn 30, but he's still waiting on tables and trying to launch his musical career. Meanwhile his girlfriend Susan is making noises about settling down and even leaving the Big Apple, and his best friend Mike has left showbiz for a lucrative career in marketing. Should Jon join Mike and sell-out, leave with Susan, or keep slogging it out in the theatre?

Obviously there are more crucial dilemmas than this one, and Jon's angst occasionally seems like whining. But this smart play tackles other themes through the musical numbers. The song Sunday, for example, satirizes fussy Sunday brunch patrons at the restaurant where Jon works. Sugar, is all about addictions to all things sweet. And a non-musical scene briefly mocks brainstorming at a marketing firm.

Best of all the music in the show, none of which I'd ever heard before, is bright and tuneful, and in this production accompanied by a smart young quartet. Note to director Michael Sheppard: you should have these guys playing something, anything, before the show starts rather than just standing there for 10 minutes waiting for the lights to go down.

Most of the singing is done by the three main characters, all of whom have great voices that don't need amplification in the intimate quarters of the Baby Grand.

It's easy to see the one-man origin of the piece however, since Jon is in every scene, sings in most of the songs and is also the show's narrator. Without a good Jon, this musical would never get off the ground. Luckily Josh Blackstock is more than up to the task.

For starters he looks the part of a wide-eyed clean-cut boy next door, and acts like one too, which makes it seem logical that he would be struggling in the big city.

Blackstock is a great struggler and has a natural singing voice that works well with the play's songs.

Although he is sometimes a little wooden with his movements, Jordan Richards is very likeable as Mike, Jon's best friend, who on the one hand enjoys his material success, but on the other still feels like something is missing in his life. As Susan, Alysa King brings great poise to her role, which works well with her character who is supposed to be a dancer.

The remaining four actors, Marta McDonald, Sue Del-Mei, Brianna Roberts and Tyler Check play the chorus and have small parts. Roberts gets to shine on the torchy ballad Come To Your Senses, playing an actor who is sweet on Jon.

Those of us who aren't young anymore are reminded by this play that youth can sometimes be painful. But the play's message is that ultimately it's worth the risk to follow your dreams. You'll leave the theatre feeling a little mushy, but having been vastly entertained.

--

gburliuk@thewhig.com

- - -

Tick, Tick...Boom

A musical by Jonathan Larson

Director:Michael Sheppard

Music director:Drew Moor

Stage manager:Carin Ann Crabtree

A Blue Canoe Productions production now playing at the Baby Grand until June 26.

Cast

Jon Josh Blackstock

Michael Jordan Richards

Susan Alysa King

Karessa Brianna Roberts

Rating:* * * * (out of five)

http://www.thewhig.com/2010/06/19/tick-tick-boom-an-explosive-success