Plug for "Rectify"

If you are a regular here, you'll know I only hype things of which I am legitimately fond. I'm not a shill, except when it comes to promoting those projects I feel are truly worthwhile. Even then, I'm more a fan than a shill. So trust me when I say that Dan Humphrey's latest short film, Rectify, is an amazing, subtle, creepy piece of work with dynamite camera work by Oridnary Angels Director of Photography Anthony Tackett, an excellent performance by our own Afriel, Eric Riedmann, and a reveal that rivals M. Night Shyamalan.

Dan could really use your help getting Rectify into various festivals. It's off to an auspicious start with STIFF (the Seattle True Independent Film Festival), but obviously there are others he would like to submit to, and Dan has found a great way to raise the cash to cover entry fees. You can find details over on Dan's Rectify blog. I did it, and it's all of a minute's effort. And OurStage doesn't spam you. And you get to watch the film online for free. Help a brutha out.

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In other news, the run of Deathtrap ended this last weekend with good-sized houses and a lot of positive buzz. I don't know how the final numbers came out, but I hope it was worthwhile for Twelfth Night. It was apparently well received, by the response we got. I thought the performances were good, and just kept getting better throughout the run. The closing matinee performance was the tightest, and the crowd twice that of a normal matinee. I got to pilot the first attempt at a two-week run for an off-season show (just like I got to pilot the first off-season show in 2006 with The Dining Room), so I guess Twelfth Night isn't sick of me yet. We also tried out a new print shop for our poster, postcard mailers and programs, as well as a poster placement service. And it's great having an actual staff member handling PR. It all seemed to work quite well.

In all honesty, I think my blocking was the weakest link in the production. Not to say the other elements of direction weren't there - some of my bits got laughs or whatnot. But I'm way more critical of my own work, and I found a real disconnect between the show we'd worked on for five or six weeks and the avid response of the crowd. Some of the younger Twelfth Nighters came on Sunday and were over the friggin' moon, slapping me high fives and saying things like, "bad ASS" and "you are the MAN". I think that means "good". Oh, kids these days and their colorful jargon.

Sam's folks and her brother came on Saturday night, our best crowd by far. And I added a dedication to Caleb's father in the program. For the final show, we had Sam Raimi level blood (or at least Brian DePalma level). It was cool. We struck the set in about two hours and went home, satisfied with having done a good show, and having done our community proud.