Why Small Businesses Matter
Shop small, do big things for your community
Why Small Businesses Matter puts a spotlight on the local merchants who donate their time, talent, goods, and services for the betterment of our community. The shop local movement spreads virally as local businesses who are “tagged” have the opportunity to share their story!
You're IT Macmillan Films!
Three questions with James Thomas, founder of Macmillan Films.
Why did you start your business?
We started Macmillan Films as an independent studio to produce films about art, thought, and democracy. We now have the most extensive catalog of ancient Greek plays available anywhere - for academic and personal use including all three plays of the Oresteia, The Bacchae, Lysistrata, Oedipus Rex, and Prometheus Bound.
What is your best-selling product/service?
Our best-selling play is Lysistrata – a comedy by Aristophanes about the women of Athens who go on a sex strike to end the war. The story appeals to everyone and is a sure way to get students interested in the classics. Readers can view it here.
Have you "reimagined" your small business?
We have recently moved beyond staging Greek Dramas and have staged CATO – George Washington’s favorite play - so that viewers to experience this drama that figured so large in the thinking of the Founding Fathers. CATO tells the story of the last day of Rome's 500-year democracy - before Rome became an empire. George Washington famously staged the play at Valley Forge – during the darkest days of the American Revolution - because Cato is an inspiration to all who know it.
We have also staged True Drama a feature film that is celebrated for showing the instructive roots of drama – and how violence in drama can be used to shock citizens out of partisan blindness or to encourage nihilistic slaughter. Strange Bacchic disturbances near a horror movie set prompt a police investigation. A shadowy figure emerges. Calling himself the God of Drama, he believes that he can achieve the seemingly impossible goal of returning drama to its original purpose – of preparing citizens for leadership in a democracy. The Festival Director of the Washington DC Film Festival said of True Drama “We’re proud to bring attention to a film that could reduce the cycle of mass killings in America.”
Visit Macmillan Films online here, and make sure to check out their Facebook page as well!
HamletHub thanks Fairfield County Bank for making our Why Small Businesses Matter series possible!