Film and Theater Marry in The Rest at Philly Fringe
September 08, 2004
Philadelphia, PA, September 8, 2004 — During this year’s Philly Live Arts Festival and Fringe, make sure you do not miss the brand-new collaboration of theater and film artists titled, The Rest. Melding both mediums into one, The Rest revisits Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Ophelia, delving into their unexplored passion. Arriving at the climax of the stage performance, the film elements offer a striking juxtaposition between the couple’s imagined ideal and the bleak reality of the Bard’s most famous play.
The Rest is the first collaboration between the newly-minted Fetch Theater Company and New York upstart Eighty-Watt Cinema. The script is the latest Philadelphia offering from veteran writer/director Michelle Shafer, who is a member of Fetch and a full-time member of Big House (plays and spectacles). Fetch actor Edward Snyder, who was pinned 2002’s “most electrifying bizarre performer” by Philadelphia City Paper, plays Hamlet, and Barrymore-nominated Amanda Schoonover takes the role of Ophelia. Fetch member Miriam Jones, who has designed for Bread and Puppet Theater and Mabou Mines, is the artistic designer and technical director. Leading the collaboration with the Philadelphia-based company is Joshua Dilworth of Eighty-Watt Cinema. Dilworth both directed and produced the film elements, which add several new dimensions to an already multifaceted piece.
The Rest finds Hamlet and Ophelia in the afterlife together, after the original play has ended. Flashbacks provide glimpses into their former life, depicting lost encounters that Shakespeare implied but never fully explored. Fusing texts by Stein, Beckett, Rilke, Shakespeare, and more, The Rest endeavors to show us a play within a play, giving one of literary history’s most famous sub-plots an articulation all its own. Hamlet and Ophelia are left to re-create their passionate and meaningful relationship together after the “great disaster” has left them with only shreds of memory of the power their love once possessed.
Dilworth, co-President of Eighty-Watt Cinema, who is the recent recipient of Panavision’s prestigious New Filmmaker Award, decided on a brand new cinematographic process to establish the film’s unique look. Shot on Kodak’s just-released Vision 200T Super 8 mm film, the project was subsequently transferred to video on a Spirit Datacine machine with Davinci Color Correction at Moving Images in New York. In laymen’s terms, this process utilizes both antique and cutting age technologies, marrying 25-year old cameras with today’s digital wizardry.
The collaboration of both mediums - film and theater - allow Fetch and Dilworth to experiment creatively. They offer the audience a synergy of film and theater, creating not only an effective and exciting finished product, but also one that allows festivalgoers to loose themselves in the story entirely. This year’s Philly Fringe, which boasts over 150 self-produced pieces is an ideal venue for the premier of this experimental and entertaining piece. The Rest will be performed at the Spirit Wind Performance Space Wednesday September 15 at 9:30 p.m., Thursday September 16 at 9:30 p.m., and Saturday September 18 at both 6:30 and 9:30 p.m. Tickets can be purchased online.
About Eighty-Watt Cinema
Eighty-Watt Cinema, the brainchild of longtime collaborators Joshua P. Dilworth and Nicolas White, was founded in 2002. Eighty-Watt Cinema aims to provide existing audiences with strange and wonderful films that exceed expectations in every way. The company also hopes to draw new and crossover audiences to the cinema with consistently outstanding projects that redefine the pleasure in filmgoing altogether. The Surprise, Eighty-Watt’s latest short film, just premiered at IFP Buzzcuts and can be seen at film festivals in the very near future. For more information, please visit Eighty-Watt’s website at www.eighty-watt.com.
About FETCH Theater Company
FETCH Theater Co. is a dynamic new performance group formed specifically to bring innovative new work to the 2004 Philly Fringe. FETCH is a collaboration between Edward Snyder, Michelle Shafer, and Miriam Jones.
Media Contacts:
Erin Howard
Octive9 Public Relations
(646) 281.6176
press (at) eighty-watt.com
Joshua Dilworth
Eighty-Watt Cinema
(212) 712.2509
press (at) eighty-watt.com
