Theatre Artists Workshop 2015 Film Festival

Theatre Artists Workshop Presents: 2015 TAW FILM FESTIVAL

Theatre Artists Workshop will screen four award-winning Connecticut-based films in its second annual TAW Film Festival the weekend of March 20^th through 22^nd.  Reprising last year’s successful format, the festival will give audiences the opportunity to interact with the filmmakers in a talkback after each screening. A donation of $10 is suggested for each show, or $20 for a weekend pass.  No reservations are necessary.  Popcorn will be sold!

On Friday night, March 20, at 8 PM, screenwriter Susan Cinoman hosts a screening of her films, “All Me All the Time” (2009, 75 minutes), and “Love and Class in Connecticut” (2007, 40 minutes).  Directed by Ms. Cinoman’s husband, Doug Tenaglia, and starring TAW actors Mia Dillon, Keir Dullea, and Sachi Parker, “All Me” is about two girls partying wildly on the night of their high school graduation while their parents marriages unravel. “Love and Class” stars TAW actors Joanna Keylock, Carol Schweid, and Bill Phillips, and was also directed by Doug Tenaglia.  The film, about the arrival of the uninvited black sheep sister at a baby naming ceremony, won “Best Narrative” at the the New England Film and Video Festival and was a “Judge’s Choice” at the Connecticut Film Festival.

On Saturday March 21^st, at 8 PM, the Workshop’s founding member, Keir Dullea, will host the a screening of “The Hoodlum Priest” (1961, 101 minutes), the film in which he made his debut portraying Billy Lee Jackson, a doomed, troubled youth. Based on the real-life Jesuit priest, Charles Clark, a minister to street gangs in 1959 Saint Louis, the film was directed by Irvin Kershner, and written by Joseph Landon and Don Murray.  Winner of the OCIC Award at the Cannes Film Festival, 1961, “The Hoodlum Priest” was named to the National Board of Review USA Top Ten Films of 1961.  Mr. Dullea later achieved fame as astronaut David Bowman in American Film Institute’s #1 sci-fi film of all time, “2001: A Space Odyssey,” directed by Stanley Kubrick.

On Sunday, March 22^nd, at 3:00, Sachi Parker will host a viewing of “The Wicked Witch of the West is Dead” (2008, 115 minutes), a family drama with English subtitles about a troubled high school student sent to live in the country with her wise and “witchy” grandmother (Parker). Shot in Japan, directed by Shunichi Nagasaki and written by Kaho Nashiki and Kaori Mizushima, the film was an award winner at the Mainichi Film Concours in 2009.  Sachi’s films include:  “Back To The Future” (1985), “About Last Night” (1986), and “Peggy Sue Got Married” (1986). Sachi is also author, with Fred Stroppel, of “Lucky me: My Life With – with and without-My Mom, Shirley Maclaine”, published in 2013.

The Theatre Artist’s Workshop, founded over 30 years ago by Keir Dullea, has over one hundred members and is the only professional theatre of its kind in Connecticut. Each Monday night, Workshop actors, writers, and directors meet to put up scenes, audition pieces, and new written scripts to receive the support and critique of other members, develop new work, and hone the craft, and then several times a year share their talents in public performances, including the Film Festival; the upcoming Classic Night Reading of “The Man Who Came to Dinner” (Friday, April 24^th and Sat. April 25^th at 8 PM; Sunday April 26^th at 3 PM), and the Spring Playwrights Festival, featuring new work by TAW playwrights (Friday May 29^th and Sat. May 30^th at 8 PM and Sunday May 31^st at 3 PM).

• Date: Friday and Saturday March 20^th and 21^st at 8 PM; Sunday, March 22^nd , at 3 PM
• Place: Theatre Artists Workshop, 5 Gregory Blvd., East Norwalk, CT.