It's always gratifying to see an ensemble of beloved, award-winning actors in a locally produced play. Seeing an entire cast of first-rate Tampa Bay actors on the big screen in a movie, performing scenes in familiar locales, is a special super-sized treat that happens rarely, if ever.
Such a full-on convergence of local stage and screen can be enjoyed this Monday when the new feature Waiting on Mary celebrates its world premiere at freeFall Theatre in St. Petersburg. The cast will walk the red carpet at 7:30 p.m.; movie starts at 8.
The screening is by invite only, but the producers hope to get the film into the upcoming Gasparilla Film Festival and other local/regional film fests.
A gentle, quirky tale, Waiting on Mary stars Brian Shea as Nathaniel, a heartbroken, struggling actor, who assumes the personality of a colonial character — a role he played at a failed amusement park (set at Heritage Village). Nathaniel takes on the persona as a creative coping mechanism and means of retreat from a painful divorce.
The dramedy also stars Emilee Dupre' as a love interest, Bonnie Agan and Jim Wicker as Nathaniel's parents and Bob Devin Jones as a therapist. Matthew McGee plays an eccentric co-worker; Matt Lunsford is a TV reporter; Ned Averill-Snell plays a barfly, and Katherine Michelle Tanner plays the elusive Mary (whew!).
“We lucked out," said co-writer, director and producer Corey Horton during a recent CL interview. "We got a really fantastic, dedicated group of actors, as well as the crew," added the founder of Dolphin and a Drum Productions.
"I think the cast was a great asset because, not everyone, but enough of the actors had worked together on something before so there was a familiarity, and maybe a sort of shorthand between how we could best play off each other," said Shea.
An occasional actor himself, Horton hand-picked the cast, including friend, film lead and producer Shea, whom he met a a decade ago when they co-starred in Bill Leavengood's Crossing the Bay. The bromance doesn't end there. Co-writer, director of photography and unit production manager Joe Papa attended theater classes with Horton in high school. The buddies split off to different colleges; Horton graduated from the University of South Florida with a bachelor's in TV production in 2007, and Papa is a motion picture arts grad from Florida State's prestigious film program, class of '06.
Now based in L.A. and an assistant to executive producer to David Lonner (Dope), Papa enlisted six fellow alumni, including a few locals: brother August Papa (field sound mixer), Justin Sadler (grip/production assistant), sister Kiara Papa (production assistant/2nd AD) and Duc Duong (production assistant/2nd AD).
"I started out with a small part, a couple of lines … but an actor had to drop out, and I got his bigger role, and then a few months after we shot that, Corey and Brian expanded my part and called me back for another day of shooting," said Averill-Snell, who plays barfly Rodney. "Shooting it with Brian was a stone-cold gas, and the production team were all solid pros — the scenes I have seen look like full Hollywood. I can't wait to see the whole thing."
Waiting on Mary Trailer from Nathaniel Harrison on Vimeo.
Cameos include local theater leading man Jim Sorensen. William Miller plays a Redcoat who gets in a scrape with Nathaniel. Mike Vasallo — Papa and Horton's drama teacher from St. Pete High and Gibbs' current Assistant Principal — appears with his son in a scene. Peter Lynch has a brief role as well as Best of the Bay-winner Paul Potenza, who plays a shop owner. Others include Shawn Paonessa, J. Elijah Cho, Rick Stutzel, Natalie Symons and Garrett Schulte.
Waiting on Mary was shot during two weeks of 15-hour-plus workdays. There were just a few "fires," they say, but nothing too cataclysmic. The whole thing came in under budget at $30,000. Local venues such as Heritage Village, freeFall, the Emerald Bar, Gratzzi's, Studio@620, provided free backdrops. Family members pitched in.
"We had a lot of help from friends and family to fill out the backgrounds," explained Papa. "But everyone you see in a lead role is a paid, professional actor/actress. …The St. Petersburg/Clearwater Film Commission gave us a blanket permit that basically stated we were allowed to shoot within Pinellas and Hillsborough counties for the entire 14 days of our shooting. In L.A., they require a separate permit for each individual intersection and they hold you to a strict schedule. … We had free rein — wherever we wanted to shoot, whenever we wanted to shoot. The freedom was a huge help. We even had police cars pass by and wave at us!"
"Spectators shouted 'Ben Franklin!' during shoots in downtown St. Pete," Shea said with a laugh.
The producers hope the play will have a residual appeal and have compared WoM to the low-key, bittersweet indie comedy Lars and the Real Girl. The film may not only bring more exposure to Tampa Bay's professional actors and scenic locations, but it may be part of a sea change in the film industry — one of many smaller-budget film scoring big in online markets.
"This sort of project is exactly the kind of thing that Netflix, along with the other streaming sites like Amazon and Hulu, seeks out — a unique, locally made romantic comedy that people can watch to discover something new; whether it's our fresh cast, the beautiful backdrop of St. Petersburg or the sheer fact that we made this for $30K in 14 days straight would pique interest in a lot of viewers," said Papa.
Adds Shea: "I think there’s been a Renaissance of creating where we’re at, where artists and the public are realizing that it’s not always New York or L.A. We can create great work in our back yard."
This article appears in Dec 31, 2015 – Jan 6, 2016.