Sue Lange's Blog, page 5

Short Film Review — To Scale: The Solar System

 

The title says it all. This film from Alex Gorosh and Wylie Overstreet is about a model of the solar system built to scale. Sounds dry and plotless, but believe it or not, it made me cry. It’s so beautiful.

If you like stories about science, watch this for a new take on a familiar subject. If you usually shy away from Nova or New Scientist, watch this and be stunned. And, and, you will learn something. I promise.

I give this science project an A.

Short Film Review: The Christmas Light Killer by James P. Gannon

This short film is for all the Grinches out there. It’s a documentary about a guy whose job is to turn out all the lights at some sort of Christmas park at the end of the night. He’s a bit down on Christmas. He’s not sure why. He thinks it might be because of his job. The people that come just seem to be trying too hard to enjoy Christmas. He thinks they should all just admit they don’t like it. Like he does.

Great idea for a documentary. I would have liked a little context. The shortness works (7 minutes) because it’s a small concept and doesn’t need a lot of explanation.

I’m sort of like this guy in that Christmas lights don’t seem to interest me as much as they did when I was a kid. Funny thing, though, I really liked the lights in this video. Creative stuff. Cute. Ugh! I might want to go to this park. I have no idea where it is, though. Could use context.

I hope the guy gets over his negativity. It’s really bringing me down. Christmas is depressing enough.

Film rating: B+.

Fiction for Sale: Just in time for Xmas

Here’s a blast from the past, Athena Andreadis’ collection of science fiction stories, entitled The Other Half of the Sky, is on sale over at Storybundle (https://storybundle.com/fiction) just in time for the greedy season.

You like to read? You love weird stuff? You love a good sale? Head over to Storybundle and pick up a bunch of books for $15. It’s all sf, fantasy, weird work. The Other Half of the Sky is one such weird sf book. A reminder: this anthology ended up with a bunch of award nominations. I am honored and humbled that my own story, Mission of Greed, somehow got included in this amazing book.

Don’t delay. Operators are standing by: https://storybundle.com/fiction

 

 

A Perfect You

The shoot is done. Now we’re editing. Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/APerfectYouFilm/

 

 

Actors Needed for Short Film to be Shot in Reading, PA

Sue Lange (me) under the auspices of Schott Productions will be shooting “A Perfect You,” a short film Nov. 30th – Dec 2 in Reading, PA. She needs actors. This is a paying gig. Here’s the breakdown:

Nell: female, 30s, any ethnicity; a perfectionist

Driver: male or female, 35-55, any ethnicity;  cab driver, laid back, likes grass

Businesswoman: female, 50s, any ethnicity;  power suit, pushy

Gunman: male, 25-50, any ethnicity; mean, scary, desperate, bandaged, carries a .38

Officer Mike: male, 30s, any ethnicity; cop, nice guy, drives a cop car

Delivery person/cop: male, 35-55; Actor to play 2 parts: delivery person and a cop, should be physically strong

Auditions will be held October 19-21 at Schott Studios (Goggleworks, 201 Washington Street, Set 326, Reading, PA 19601. Rehearsals mid-November.

Contact suelange1@verizon.net for an appointment. Send availability and link to reel if available.

Actors Need for Short Film to be Shot in Reading, PA

Sue Lange (me) under the auspices of Schott Productions will be shooting “A Perfect You,” a short film Nov. 30th – Dec 2 in Reading, PA. She needs actors. This is a paying gig. Here’s the breakdown:

Nell: female, 30s, any ethnicity; a perfectionist

Driver: male or female, 35-55, any ethnicity;  cab driver, laid back, likes grass

Businesswoman: female, 50s, any ethnicity;  power suit, pushy

Gunman: male, 25-50, any ethnicity; mean, scary, desperate, bandaged, carries a .38

Officer Mike: male, 30s, any ethnicity; cop, nice guy, drives a cop car

Delivery person/cop: male, 35-55; Actor to play 2 parts: delivery person and a cop, should be physically strong

Auditions will be held October 19-21 at Schott Studios (Goggleworks, 201 Washington Street, Set 326, Reading, PA 19601. Rehearsals mid-November.

Contact suelange1@verizon.net for an appointment. Send availability and link to reel if available.

Reading Theater Project’s Midsummer Night’s Fundraiser

Hey all. Reading Theater Project is raising funds. Surprise! We don’t want your money! Nope, we just want you to head over to West Reading Tavern on June 19th at 5pm and order a beer and some truffle fries. Or pulled pork and glass o’ wine. Or any combination on the menu.

The money will come rolling in with the raffle sales (totally voluntary). What are we raffling off? All manner of things. I, for one, am donating an hour of writing critique. You send me your stuff and I’ll critique it. Mercilessly.

We’re also raffling off two all-access passes to the Reading Film FEST in November (a $200 value!), gift certificates to W. Reading Tavern and Dan’s, house cleaning services, a massage, haircut and organic color, legal services for estate planning, handyman services, and a bunch more stuff.

And we’re preparing a few performance pieces straight from the vault for your dining pleasure.

It promises to be a fun night and will perhaps allow Reading Theater Project to stay solvent for a few more months. Do consider stopping by!

Info: https://www.facebook.com/events/446591965515155/

Writing and Beyond

I’m finding it hard to find time to blog these days. That’s because I have a new writing assignment for the Reading Eagle. I have a weekly column on the night club scene in Reading. That means I have to go out, participate, return home, and write about it. You can imagine the burden.

I’ve been at it for a couple of months now and I really get a kick out of it. I usually have a photographer tag along so we can get some documentation on the whole thing. Unfortunately the paper only ever uses one photograph, which means a night’s worth of photos goes right to the cutting room floor.

Fortunately for us, we live in the Internet age and nothing, nothing is ever lost anymore. I have been ordered (by the photographers who generally work for drinks and so are looking for any kind of compensation whatsoever) to put the extra photos into Tumblr, so that’s what I did. I’ll try to post these photos regularly, but I have to be honest, it’ll probably be sporadic at best. I’m a very forgetful person, if you know what I mean. I mean this is a club gig after all.

Here’s the link: http://suelange.tumblr.com

Can you believe I’m the first suelange with a tumbler account. Where’s the other 2,935,444 Sue Lange’s in the world? None of them are tumbling?

Sorry there’s no more writing at my blog for the mo’. If you need a fix of sarcastic, sardonic, witty writing, full of you-know-what, you’ll have to go to the Reading Eagle site. Try this one on for size: http://readingeagle.com/weekend/article/got-club-a-memorable-memorial-day (no that is not me in the picture; it’s my evil twin sister)

Meantime if you’d care to join me on the club crawl, send me an email: weekend@readingeagle.com

RTP: Marriage Expo(sé)

For those of you local to Reading, PA, you may remember last year’s Speakeasy show from Reading Theater Project. It got rave reviews and was generally considered genius on toast by all who experienced it. Well maybe that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but it was very well received. It was a ton of fun to write and watch. I still warm up the uke for a round of “He’s My Father” once in a while.

This year RTP is back at it with a slightly different show. For one thing, Marriage Expo(sé) has about twice as many cast members. It’s twice as chaotic. There are so many characters the writers (Vicki Graff and me) are forced to actually (ugh!) act in it.

Yikes.

Performance is a seductive thing for me. An addiction. I can never get enough once I start on a bender. I’ve quit cold turkey twice now and had hoped it would stick. At this point, I’ve been sober for a few years. I just don’t need something to come along and give me a platform and a microphone. I’ll be right back haunting soap boxes in back alleys and theaters in the dicey parts of town. One day soon I’ll be waking up in the gutter outside a club that hosts open mike nights.

But Marriage Expo(sé) will be worth it. I promise. It’s a parody of convention center shows. You know, like the boat shows, British invasion car shows, wedding expos, etc. It’ll be a combination of vendor booths and traditional stage show held on the runway.

The audience members get to choose how much interaction they’ll participate in: none or a lot. They can watch the show from seats or mill around by the booths, or do a little of both.

Like last year’s Speakeasy, it will be held at the Olympian (Fred Astaire) Ballroom on Penn Avenue in West Reading.

There are some hilarious vignettes like the Fathers-in-Law support group. Or the Family Loan Center where you can borrow a fully functioning family if yours is not spiffy enough for a visiting boss. But there are also some dark moments such as when the announcer has a crisis in his relationship with the Expo itself. It’s complicated.

It’s like a Robert Altman movie where there are several small plots going on at once and the protagonist is more an object or idea than a person. That is similar to Speakeasy where the main character was the city of Reading in the 1920s. Sure there were characters and they had their arcs, but they were dressing for the larger tragedy of our town.

Here too, there are several plot lines but the main character is marriage itself. So what would be an arc for a marriage? Readers Digest has aptly answered that question and we mined that text to illustrate it in Marriage Expo(sé). You can probably get the picture from that.

Hope to see you there. The show is running:

May 2 (8pm)

May 3 (2pm and 8pm)

May 9 (2pm and 8pm)

May 10 (8pm)

For tickets ($20) go to the Reading Theater website: http://readingtheaterproject.com/productions/

See you in the aisle.

Sue Lange

RTP: Marriage Expo(s��)

For those of you local to Reading, PA, you may remember last year���s Speakeasy show from Reading Theater Project. It got rave reviews and was generally considered genius on toast by all who experienced it. Well maybe that���s a bit of an exaggeration, but it was very well received. It was a ton of fun to write and watch. I still warm up the uke for a round of ���He���s My Father��� once in a while.

This year RTP is back at it with a slightly different show. For one thing, Marriage Expo(s��) has about twice as many cast members. It���s twice as chaotic. There are so many characters the writers (Vicki Graff and me) are forced to actually (ugh!) act in it.

Yikes.

Performance is a seductive thing for me. An addiction. I can never get enough once I start on a bender. I���ve quit cold turkey twice now and had hoped it would stick. At this point, I���ve been sober for a few years. I just don���t need something to come along and give me a platform and a microphone. I���ll be right back haunting soap boxes in back alleys and theaters in the dicey parts of town. One day soon I���ll be waking up in the gutter outside a club that hosts open mike nights.

But Marriage Expo(s��) will be worth it. I promise. It���s a parody of convention center shows. You know, like the boat shows, British invasion car shows, wedding expos, etc. It���ll be a combination of vendor booths and traditional stage show held on the runway.

The audience members get to choose how much interaction they���ll participate in: none or a lot. They can watch the show from seats or mill around by the booths, or do a little of both.

Like last year���s Speakeasy, it will be held at the Olympian (Fred Astaire) Ballroom on Penn Avenue in West Reading.

There are some hilarious vignettes like the Fathers-in-Law support group. Or the Family Loan Center where you can borrow a fully functioning family if yours is not spiffy enough for a visiting boss. But there are also some dark moments such as when the announcer has a crisis in his relationship with the Expo itself. It���s complicated.

It’s like��a Robert Altman movie where there are several small plots going on at once and the protagonist is more an object or idea than a person. That is similar to Speakeasy where the main character was the city of Reading in the 1920s. Sure there were characters and they had their arcs, but they were dressing for��the larger tragedy of our town.

Here too, there are several plot lines but the main character is marriage itself. So what would be an arc for a marriage? Readers Digest has aptly answered that question and we mined that text to illustrate it in Marriage Expo(s��). You can probably get the picture from that.

Hope to see you there. The show is running:

May 2 (8pm)

May 3 (2pm and 8pm)

May 9 (2pm and 8pm)

May 10 (8pm)

For tickets ($20) go to the Reading Theater website: http://readingtheaterproject.com/productions/

See you in the aisle.

Sue Lange