Director Statement Our Film Is a Daringly Honest Account of One
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Director Statement Our film is a daringly honest account of one woman’s shattered past as a child sexual abuse victim and the dramatic journey she undertakes to discard the mental, emotional, and spiritual scars, which she has borne throughout her nearly thirty years of life. It is a “coming home” story that illustrates the empowering wisdom that home is, ultimately, what you define it to be. Spin the Plate has a beating heart, sharp teeth, an occasional clenched fist, and a deep social conscience. It offers an unpolished and bold depiction of the myriad of social ills that serve as the context within which the lead character’s life story unfolds. We are all impacted by child abuse, rape, domestic violence, post-traumatic stress disorder, juvenile sex trafficking, and animal cruelty; whether it is you yourself who has experienced these issues first-hand or someone you know and care for. All of these subjects are artfully woven into our story; each in their own way. Through the darkness of these experiences, the main characters in Spin the Plate are lead to an unexpected and heartfelt outcome. Tom Anastasi SUBMISSION CONTACT, PRODUCER, WRITER IMDb PAGE » Tom is a Professor at Boston University in the Questrom School of Business and has taught filmmaking, acting, and playwriting at Daniel Webster College and Southern New Hampshire University. He is the Owner/Manager of Pack of Dogs Productions, and in addition to producing Spin the Plate, has produced several short films, documentaries, and training films. He is an award-winning playwright (New American Playwrights' Festival (Deadline), New Hampshire Theatre Awards 2004, Best Original Play Christmas Stories (Music by Peter Bridges), and NH Theatre Award for Best Original Play, 2013 (Lazarus) produced by StageCoach Productions. Tom's Play Surviving Evil about NH Holocaust Survivor Stephan Lewy has been seen by over 5,000 people and went on tour to New York City in 2011. Tom is also a national best-selling author of Personality Selling (Sterling Publishing), Personality Negotiating (Sterling Publishing), The Fight-Free Marriage (Thomas-Nelson Publishing), and The Successful Entrepreneur (Glenbridge Publishing). Tom has attended several screen-writing/playwriting workshops with Academy-Award (R) winning sreeenwriter Ernest Thompson at Whitebridge Farm Productions "Write on Golden Pond" sessions. Eric Eastman DIRECTOR, ASSOCIATE PRODUCER IMDb PAGE » As a film, television and theatrical actor himself of over 30 years, Eric has amassed a considerable filmography as a character actor in numerous independent film projects of note throughout New England, some of which have been accepted at film festivals throughout the country (among which are: Boston Int'l Film Festival, NH Film Festival, SLAMDANCE Film Festival in Park City, Utah, to name a few). Through the years Eric has directed productions for stage and short film; this is his directorial debut in the feature film category. Becki Dennis ASSOCIATE PRODUCER, JO ORSIANO (LEAD ACTOR) IMDb PAGE » Becki Dennis was born in Boston and raised in the suburb of Andover, Massachusetts, as the only daughter in a household with three brothers. Although her mother and father - a teacher and an accountant respectively - weren't in show business, her grandmother was a pianist and singer. Born with her grandmother's genes, Becki began entertaining audiences at the tender age of three when she grabbed a microphone and sang "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" to an entire cruise ship during a family vacation. Since then, she has never missed an opportunity to shine in the spotlight. Throughout her childhood, Becki was always using her creativity and imagination. She wrote poems, song lyrics, and stories; formed singing groups and sang in talent shows; made up dance routines and took dance lessons; and fell in love with, and watched, movies often. As she developed into an ambitious and self-motivated teen, she took her craft seriously, studying acting, voice, and dance several hours per week, while performing in plays, choral concerts, and dance recitals. The highlights of her high school years were dancing on an episode of MTV's Total Request Live (1998), writing and directing an original theatre piece for her senior project titled "Take Off Your Shoes," and playing Madame Thenardier in a production of "Les Miserables." It was her comedic performance in "Les Miserables" that stole the show and sealed her calling as an actor. After auditioning for college theatre programs, she was accepted to and attended Point Park University's prestigious Conservatory of Performing Arts in Pittsburgh, where she earned a B.A. in Musical Theatre in just three years; finishing off her credits with summer courses at Emerson College and Berklee College of Music. Upon graduation, Becki returned home to the Boston area, where she was determined to earn a living using her degree. Some of her first paid acting jobs were doing interactive dinner theatre, standardized patient work, and historical reenactments of the witch trials at the Salem Witch Dungeon Museum. She also found employment singing in Christmas caroling quartets and with a theatrical performance group called "The Stiletto Singers," which she was a founding member of. Simultaneously, she directed and/or choreographed over fifteen musicals for high schools and community theatres, as well as taught performing arts classes to youth. These jobs supported her while she auditioned for, and subsequently performed at, professional regional theatres in New England, such as the American Repertory Theatre, Ogunquit Playhouse, Seacoast Repertory Theatre, and Palace Theatre. It was around this same time that Becki began delving into on- camera acting in film, television, commercials, and industrials. In order to prepare herself for the transition from stage to screen, she trained with Carolyn Pickman, Kevin Lasit, and Maura Tighe. Her first significant booking came when Maura Tighe cast her in a national commercial for Boys Town, a crisis hotline. What followed was even more exciting - Becki was flown to New Orleans to compete in the acting competition TV pilot Casting Call: Spring Break '83 (2009), where she was mentored by the judges of the show, seasoned actors Morgan Fairchild, Joe Piscopo, and Adrian Zmed. For the next few years, she continued to act in everything she could get her hands on - industrials for companies such as Dunkin' Donuts and Staples, print ads and voice-overs for big names like Progressive and PricewaterhouseCoopers, and principal roles in commercials for the Massachusetts Health Connector and Millennium Training Institute. She starred in short films as an unconventional leading lady, as well. After experiencing almost every type of job an actor could have, Becki began to explore new experiences by working behind the camera as a director, assistant director, producer, writer, casting director, production assistant, and stand-in. Functioning in all of these different capacities allowed her to gain an understanding of, and appreciation for, the many facets of the industry. In addition, she started her own business, Talent Tools, through which she provided marketing tools and services for actors, such as reel and resume editing, audition and career coaching, and educational workshops and events. Moreover, under the off-shoot Talent Tools Productions, she produced, co-directed, and cast music videos and the films last (2012) and Mildred's Millions (2013); the latter of which went on to screen at five film festivals. But, her heart called her back to acting again when David O. Russell handpicked her for the role of Rebecca, a nanny and friend of Amy Adams character, in American Hustle (2013). The experience she had during this movie reignited her passion, making her realize how much she had missed acting. Therefore, when she was offered the demanding lead role of Jo, a sexual abuse survivor with PTSD in the independent feature film drama Spin the Plate (2017), she gladly accepted the challenge, and became a better actor due to how far her range and ability was stretched. Immediately after that shoot wrapped, Seth MacFarlane cast her as the receptionist in Ted 2 (2015) alongside Mark Wahlberg. Following on the heels of these successes, and still living in Massachusetts at the time, Becki began commuting to New York City for auditions and workshops in an effort to expand her scope of potential work opportunities. Although she started to make some headway in New York, it was not long after she opened herself up to the possibilities outside of her comfort zone that a serendipitous opportunity arose for her to attend the American Film Market in Santa Monica. It was during this trip to AFM that she also met with, and was then offered representation from, the Entertainment Lab in Los Angeles. Thus, in January of 2015, Becki decided to make the leap from the East Coast to the West Coast, and she has never looked back. During Becki's first year in LA she studied at the renowned Second City in Hollywood, where she graduated from their improv program, and she was accepted into the Moving Picture Institute's film program, where her script "Time To Go" was a finalist in their pitch competition. She also appeared in a commercial for Just Dance, the short film Noise (2015), which screened at Warner Bros. Studios, and the web series Ladies Keepin' It Real (2015). In her second year in LA, she continued to hone her craft by taking audition technique with Wendy Davis, Lilach Mendelovich, and Alex D'Lerma. Soon after that, she started booking roles in major TV shows, such as the acclaimed This Is Us (2016) (episode directed by Helen Hunt),Speechless (2016) (acting opposite Minnie Driver), The Young and the Restless (1973), Pretty Little Liars (2010), GLOW (2017), The Fosters (2013), and Pure Genius (2016). Now in her third year in LA, Becki has recently worked on the hit shows Fresh Off the Boat (2015), Jane the Virgin (2014) (acting opposite Gina Rodriguez), How to Get Away with Murder (2014) (with Viola Davis), Shameless (2011) (directed by Emmy Rossum), and Life in Pieces (2015), the new shows I'm Sorry (2017) and Unsolved: The Murders of Tupac and the Notorious B.I.G.