Title: PRIVATE ROMEO (feature film, 98mins)
Writer/Director: Alan Brown
Based on William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet When eight cadets are left behind at an isolated military high school, the greatest romantic drama ever written seeps out of the classroom and permeates their lives. Incorporating the original text of Romeo and Juliet, YouTube videos, and lip-synced indie rock music, Private Romeo takes us to a mysterious and tender place that only Shakespeare could have inspired.
Cast: Seth Numrich, Matt Doyle, Hale Appleman, Chris Bresky, Sean Hudock, Adam Barrie, Bobby Moreno, and Charlie Barnett Distributors
View the trailer: www.youtube.com/user/privateromeomovie Visit the website for updated news, background: www.privateromeothemovie.com/ http://www.facebook.com/pages/Private-Romeo/123162147748863 http://twitter.com/privateromeo
The soundtrack features songs from the indie-rock group Bishop Allen. Listen for their hit songs, The Magpie and Busted Heart. Private Romeo is Alan’s fourth film. His first, the half-hour narrative O Beautiful (Strand Releasing, Boys Life 4), won the Future Filmmaker Award at the 2002 Palm Springs International Short Film Festival, and was an official selection of the 2003 Sundance Film Festival. It was singled out by critics as “a rare piece of film making.” His feature debut, Book of Love (Sundance Channel Home Entertainment) which stars Simon Baker, Frances O’Connor, and Bryce Dallas Howard, was praised for its “creepy eroticism and sly intelligence” and for being “a movie that feels about as real as it’s possible to be.” It was nominated for a Grand Jury Prize at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival.
Alan’s second feature film was Superheroes (IFC) starring Dash Mihok and Spencer Treat Clark. Praised by critics as “brimming with a rare compassion,” it won numerous prizes including the Feature Filmmaker’s Award at the 2007 Avignon/New York Film Festival, the Maverick Spirit Award (top prize) at the 2008 Cinequest Film Festival, and both the Narrative Feature and Best Film awards at the 2008 Brooklyn International Film Festival.
Alan is also the author of the acclaimed novel, Audrey Hepburn’s Neck, which won the Pacific Rim Book Prize, and has been translated into eight languages. The film version, which Alan will direct, is slated for production in 2012. Alan is the recipient of many writing and directing awards, including a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship for his fiction, a Fulbright Fellowship in Journalism, and numerous residency fellowships, including those to the MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, and the Edward Albee and Ucross Foundations. He lives in New York City. Though Romeo and Juliet is usually interpreted as a romantic tale of young love thwarted by a family feud, recent re-readings convinced me that it is actually a much more modern, and relevant story about sexual identity and desire pitted against society and its institutions; about personal freedom and rights versus authority.
As a gay man and an artist, frustrated by the political battles, and inaction, over gay equality, and by the heart-breaking epidemic of gay bullying, I thought Shakespeare would be the perfect vehicle for exploring these issues.
As Private Romeo’s high school military cadets find themselves in the kinds of emotionally tumultuous situations – falling in love; the loss of friendship; confronting homophobia – that would leave any adolescent (or adult) at a loss for words, they must use Shakespeare’s language as their sole means of expression, forcing them to explore the profound drama of coming-of-age.
–ALAN BROWN Seth Numrich Matt Doyle Seth Numrich & Matt Doyle
Seth Numrich & Bobby Moreno Sean Hudock, Seth Numrich & Bobby Moreno Matt Doyle & Seth Numrich Chris Bresky Adam Barrie, Hale Appleman, Matt Doyle, Chris Bresky, Sean Hudock, Seth Numrich, Bobby Moreno & Charlie Barnett
Hale Appleman & Sean Hudock Bobby Moreno & Hale Appleman Matt Doyle & Seth Numrich Hale Appleman, Matt Doyle & Seth Numrich Director Alan Brown
ALL STUDIO PHOTOGRAPHY BY CHRIS VONGSAWAT SETH NUMRICH (SAM SINGLETON ) Private Romeo is Seth’s first feature film. He is currently starring in the 2011 Tony award winner War Horse at Lincoln Center, for which he was nominated for an Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Featured Actor. Seth also appeared as Lorenzo in the Tony nominated The Merchant of Venice, with Al Pacino. He was a regular on the Starz Original Series, Gravity. His Off-Broadway credits include: On the Levee with Lincoln Center Theatre, Dutch Masters with LAByrinth, Iphigenia 2.0 at Signature Theatre. Seth is a graduate of The Juilliard School.
MATT DOYLE (GLENN MANGAN) At 19, Matt made his Broadway debut in 2007 in the Tony Award winning musical, Spring Awakening, covering the role of Melchior. Matt has reunited with his Private Romeo co-star Seth Numrich in Lincoln Center’s 2011 Award winner War Horse. Matt trained at The London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. He is also known for his recurring appearance as Jonathan, on the CW’s, Gossip Girl. In 2007 played Peter on the studio recording of Bare: A Pop Opera and in 2009, played Hugo Peabody in the Broadway revival of Bye Bye Birdie.
HALE APPLEMAN (JOSH NEFF) Hale’s other film credits include Chad Lowe’s Beautiful Ohio, the Sundance hit, Teeth, and Dustin Lance Black’s Pedro. New York theater includes: David Rabe’s Streamers, Sarah Ruhl’s Passion Play, and Unrequited at the Public Theater. Other theatrical credits include Emily Mann’s A Seagull in the Hamptons for the Stonybrook Theater Conference, The Art of Coarse Acting, 100 Saints You Should Know, and Twelfth Night with the Chautauqua Theater Company.
CHRIS BRESKY (OMAR MADSEN) Chris’s NY and Regional Credits include: Taming of the Shrew with Capital Rep., Open Heart in NY Fringe, History Boys, Peter Pan at the Arden Theatre, The Fifth of July, An Absolute Turkey, Restoration Comedy, Much Ado, Titus Andronicus and Hamlet with The Globe. He graduated from The Globe MFA Program and was seen in the 2010 Philadelphia Fringe as Goose in Jester’s Dead: A Top Gun Shakesparody. BOBBY MORENO (CARLOS MORENO) Bobby is a New York based actor and emcee. His television and film credits include Kings, Law & Order, One Life To Live, The Good Wife L.V.J., Night Out. He is also a founding member of At Play, a collective of NY’s finest emerging writers, actors and directors, and the resident Off-Broadway company of The 24 Hour Plays. Bobby spent his formative years as a member of the Bats, The Flea Theater’s resident acting company.
SEAN HUDOCK (GUS SANCHEZ) Sean Hudock is recipient of the David C. Evans Outstanding Artist Award. Recent credits include five seasons and two regional tours with the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, including critically acclaimed productions of The Lion in Winter, Twelfth Night, Romeo and Juliet and Life of Galileo. Other credits include The Great Tennessee Monkey Trial with Ed Asner, James Cromwell and Sharon Gless, Secrets of Lamplit Blinds, Jesus Hates Me, The Chairs, and The Tiger; Henry IV, Part 1, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream with the great Paul Ryan Rudd.
CHARLIE BARNETT (KEN LEE) Private Romeo is Charlie’s first film. A 2010 graduate of the Juilliard drama program, some of Charlie’s noteworthy performances included productions of Katori Hall’s Hurt Village, The Skin of Our Teeth, and Sam Shepard’s The Americans. Charlie intends to continue to develop himself as a performer and pursue a career in theater and film.
ADAM BARRIE (ADAM HERSH) Adam’s theatre credits include Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet at TheaterWorks, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Carlos in Don Carlos, Frank Townley in The London Cuckolds, The Accidental Death of an Anarchist, Taming of the Shrew, The Rose Tattoo, Marat/Sade, Ionesco’s Macbett. Adam is a graduate of Interlochen Arts Academy and The Carnegie Mellon School of Drama BFA ’09. Agathe David-Weill (Producer) Agathe David-Weill worked as the assistant to the Director of Development at Disney and for Hart/Sharp Entertainment before producing her first feature film, Kettle of Fish, a romantic comedy with Matthew Modine and Gina Gershon, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2006. Private Romeo is her second project with Alan Brown. The first, Superheroes, was acquired by IFC and released in Spring 2008.
Craig B. Weiseman (Editor) In addition to his numerous commercial credits, Craig has served as an editor on several award-winning television series including Without A Trace on CBS, as well as many narrative and documentary projects. His first feature film, Jellysmoke, was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award. This is his second feature film with Alan Brown.
Derek McKane (Director of Photography) Derek has an extensive resume of commercials, independent features, shorts and documentaries. His recent work includes Alan Brown’s Superheroes, and The Last New Yorker (dir. Harvey Wang). Some of his commercial clients include Microsoft, Adidas, Sony, Advil, and Verizon. The Sundance Film Festival has presented two of his short films: Late Bloomer (dir. Craig MacNeil) and Sony Dreams: Flight.
Stephanie Holbrook (Casting Director) Stephanie Holbrook’s current casting projects include Bar Karma, a TV series for Current TV and a film in development entitled Backing Into Love. Another indie in development is Murder Trust, to which Stephanie attached Ethan Hawke, Christian Camargo, Josh Hamilton and Mark Webber. Among other projects in development, Stephanie will cast the upcoming prequel to Elmore Leonard’s Jackie Brown. Recently, Stephanie attached Krysten Ritter, Ari Graynor and Brian Geraghty to Audrey Hepburn’s Neck for writer/director Alan Brown.
Nicholas Wright (Composer) Nicolas is a British/American composer and songwriter. His music can be heard in award-winning global advertising campaigns for clients such as American Express, Google, HBO, Starbucks and IBM. He has written multiple original film scores, including Alan Brown’s last feature Superheroes. Read it online here: http://www.out.com/detail.asp?page=1&id=29889 In July 2011, the entire cast of Private Romeo was honored with the Grand Jury Award for Best Actor. The award read: “For bringing fresh life to a timeless love story and infusing each moment with a 21st century immediacy that balances naked passion with longing and delivering it all with brilliant coherence.”
NEWS ITEM: Lincoln Center’s production of War Horse, which stars Private Romeo's Seth Numrich and Matt Doyle, won five awards including Best Play at the 2011 Tony Awards.