Cleopatra Backstage
Elyse, an accomplished New York Actress is in previews to play Shakespeare's Cleopatra at a regional theatre when she is blindsided by romance. A New York actress who's feeling too old for the part, c…
Cleopatra Backstage
Elyse, an accomplished New York Actress is in previews to play Shakespeare's Cleopatra at a regional theatre when she is blindsided by romance. A New York actress who's feeling too old for the part, comes to play Shakespeare's Cleopatra at a regional theatre, and finds herself falling for the local character actor, who's bisexual. Backstage and offstage, the couple shares the wisdom that comes with maturity as well as a great fear of being newly vulnerable. Witty, literate, and with a modern perspective on commitment, actor-director-writer George Crowley's film aspires to the character-based work of masters like Mazursky, Pollack and Cassavetes. With Pamela Guest and Stephen Reyes, and cinematography by award-winning Eve Cuyen. At a regional theatre production of Shakespeare's "Antony and Cleopatra," the mature actress from New York who's come to play Cleopatra is drawn to the local, likewise aging, bisexual character actor who plays Enobarbus. Their intimacy forces them both to confront jealousies, ambition, and their own fixed patterns. In and out of costume. The story includes a third character, a young, impressionable actor in the company who, like the older two, feels more himself when onstage than at intermission. Each of them gets to take a look at second chances and forgiveness, and, as the years pass, they come together again, fine-tuning their identities not just as artists but as comrades in the struggle to live authentic lives off the stage. —George Crowley
Cleopatra Backstage
Comedy,Drama,Romance
Film Details
Elyse, an accomplished New York Actress is in previews to play Shakespeare's Cleopatra at a regional theatre when she is blindsided by romance. A New York actress who's feeling too old for the part, comes to play Shakespeare's Cleopatra at a regional theatre, and finds herself falling for the local character actor, who's bisexual. Backstage and offstage, the couple shares the wisdom that comes with maturity as well as a great fear of being newly vulnerable.
Witty, literate, and with a modern perspective on commitment, actor-director-writer George Crowley's film aspires to the character-based work of masters like Mazursky, Pollack and Cassavetes. With Pamela Guest and Stephen Reyes, and cinematography by award-winning Eve Cuyen. At a regional theatre production of Shakespeare's "Antony and Cleopatra," the mature actress from New York who's come to play Cleopatra is drawn to the local, likewise aging, bisexual character actor who plays Enobarbus.
Their intimacy forces them both to confront jealousies, ambition, and their own fixed patterns. In and out of costume. The story includes a third character, a young, impressionable actor in the company who, like the older two, feels more himself when onstage than at intermission.
Each of them gets to take a look at second chances and forgiveness, and, as the years pass, they come together again, fine-tuning their identities not just as artists but as comrades in the struggle to live authentic lives off the stage. —George Crowley.