Indian Summer

It's a gorgeous Indian summer weekend. I will start looking at 'The Waterboard' footage soon, and yet I've been very busy; all over the place. For starters, I headed down to Washington, DC to check out a stage production and it was a magnificent one. One of the leads of my film, Ben Cunis is currently starring in a production called 'Host And Guest', staged by Synetic Theater at the Rosslyn Auditorium in Arlington, VA. I usually don't rave about theater (as most people know me as a passionate filmmaker) but I found this to be an excellent theatrical piece.

'Host And Guest' is an epic poem from the Georgian Republic and it deals with strife between Christian and Muslim factions in a medieval era setting. Ben plays a Christian hunter who meets and befriends a Muslim hunter in the Carpathian mountains. The men form a bond, but the plot takes a tragic turn when the village where the Muslim man resides acts on a long-standing, deep-rooted blood feud and kills Ben's character. The play is an affecting tragedy that provides commentary on the vicious cycle of violence and recrimination that haunts the Georgian region even to this day; the downward-spirals of religious-based warfare that plague many places in this world, such as modern-day Iraq and the Middle East.

The Synetic Theatre's performance troupe is outstanding, and Ben Cunis is phenomenal in his role. This stage production is very physical, kinetic, with actors--starting with Ben--dancing, tumbling and skillfully moving all over the stage. The production uses common wooden sticks to represent everything from trees, winds, and guns. Here are some pictures (Iphone pics) from the perfomance and the Q&A that took place afterwards:













And here's a still of Ben on 'The Waterboard' set. (And yes, I will soon be devoting a post to just pics from the shoot.)



"Host And Guest" runs until November 9th, and I highly reccommend you check it out. It's definetely worth the drive down to DC. For more info and to buy tickets visit the Synetic Theatre site.

On Saturday, I helped my buddy Rick Smith shoot his second film. I was expecting to just do a tour of duty in the crew behind the camera, but I got commandeered for a role in front of it. So, I ended up playing Roberto, an egotistical 'competition' pot smoker in Rick's latest, Weedfest 2008. After a day's shoot on Saturday, the film screened at the Camm Slamm 2008 screening that took place last night at The Senator theater. I really don't like to act in films unless I absolutely have to, but it was all for my buddy Rick. In any case, I got many kudos for my comedic performance. The film will hit YouTube soon, and I will post a link to it when it does.

And today, Monday, I have had a lot of errands to run. I'm still returning props from the shoot. And that reminds that I really must get going to take care of urgent business. So let me go and do so and enjoy the rest of this beautiful early Fall day.

Oh, and if you're in the Baltimore area, this Friday, October 17th, do check out the premiere screening of Mark Colegrove's "Isle Of The Damned" at the Creative Alliance Patterson Theater. There will be two screenings at 8pm and 10pm. I believe the Patterson Theater is at 2124 Eastern Ave, Balto MD... or just visit direwitfilms.com or creativealliance.org for more details. 8 bucks a ticket and I will be there having a goddamn blast!