A Short Stack of Short Takes

A poignant documentary by Denali Tiller (which will receive its world premiere at the 2018 San Francisco International Film Festival), Tre Maison Dasan focuses on children who, in addition to the usual challenges of growing up, experience life through the prism of visiting a parent in prison. One of those children is Maison Teixeira, described by the filmmaker as "an incredibly intelligent, hilarious and inventive boy who loves analyzing cartoons and reviewing video games. He is unashamed of his Asperger’s, which presents itself through his constant talking, skipping and encyclopedic mind."

Take a few minutes to watch the following trailer. At the 2:47 mark, you'll see Maison skipping around in circles in his flip-flops, whispering to himself as he narrates an intense string of fictional events with imaginary friends. The moment beautifully captures how a child's fierce imagination and boundless energy are released on a day-to-day basis (the good news is that Maison is currently attending a private middle school in Pawtucket, Rhode Island on a scholarship from RISE, an organization that helps to support the children of incarcerated parents).
Many adult writers look back on their adolescence hoping to regain that wide-eyed sense of wonder at the ideas that cluttered their minds as time kept whizzing by. One of the more delicious shorts at this year's festival is based on a satirical piece by John Babbott entitled I Will Not Write Unless I Am Swaddled in Furs. In this delightful six-minute film (with music composed by Peter Van Der Fluit), a writer's huge ego, high standards, whopping insecurities, and compulsive nitpicking stand in the way of any hope that he will ever manage to create a meaningful work of art. As Babbott recalls:

"Wade Shotter, director extraordinaire, the Pride of Paremoremo, contacted me in October 2014 with the good news that he'd read a piece of mine and wanted to use it as fodder for his first ever short film. The correct response when someone like Wade asks you to collaborate is: Yes. It's been exciting batting around screenplay drafts, seeing Wade's brain and eye at work as he develops this concept, and being involved in a creative process that includes more heads than just mine."

For the record, Shotter's final result is an airborne tease, filed with the child-like pretentiousness and adult pomposity that thrive in the part of an artist's imagination where everything is possible.

Poster art for Wade Shotter's short film.

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As animators move through various stages of childhood fantasies, their protagonists may start out wide-eyed and wistful, but eventually take on the weariness of adult life.

In Nicholas Arioli's five-minute short entitled Coin Operated, a young boy clad in a mock space helmet and bursting with dreams of exploring the heavens is seen walking alongside his mother as he holds a toy rocket in one hand. Behind him, gold ribbons hanging from his belt mimic the fiery tail flames of his alter ego (perhaps a hybrid of Astro Boy and Spaceman Spiff). As mother and son pass a supermarket, the boy spots a mechanical rocket ride. Reaching into his pocket, he finds a nickel, hops aboard, pushes a button, and starts the ride (which proves to be severely underwhelming).

His disappointment doesn't stop the boy's imagination. Instead, he launches a lemonade stand which, over the years,  grows into such a thriving business that, by the time he retires, he has more than enough nickels to purchase a trip to outer space.


In Bastiann Schravendeel's Scrambled, a young girl is so intensely focused on her smartphone that she misses a train and must wait on a bench for the next ride home. A lonely, abandoned Rubik's cube (which had once entranced children of all ages) tries to get her attention and briefly succeeds. When she boards her train and departs, it is up to the Rubik's cube to find someone else who will be grateful for his company.



Set in Toronto in the 1980s, Trevor Jimenez's poignant 15-minute short tells the story of a young boy who, in the wake of his parents' recent divorce, is forced to shuffle between their respective homes. During the school week he lives with a mother who is depressed and often absorbed in her own work. On the weekends, he visits his father's apartment in the city, where they play video games, dine in Chinese restaurants, and enact mock battle scenes with fake swords from his father's art collection. The boy frequently climbs up on a red statue of a horse that stands near a window, overlooking the cityscape.
As the seasons progress, the mother finds a new boyfriend, the father remarries and, to the melancholy sounds of Erik Satie's famous Trois Gymnopédies, the boy bids farewell to the horse that comforted him and provided him with a fantasy friend. Jimenez's beautiful, hand-animated film has moments of incredible surreal beauty as the boy's lifestyle grows further and further away from the comforts he once called home.

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On March 22, Stephen Sondheim celebrated his 88th birthday (quite an achievement for a prolific artist who challenged and changed the course of the American musical theatre). San Francisco's 42nd Street Moon recently debuted a rare production of Saturday Night, one of Sondheim's earliest works in which he functioned as both composer and lyricist. Through a quirk of history, this musical adaptation of Julius J. Epstein and Philip G. Epstein's play, Front Porch in Flatbush, was originally slated to be produced on Broadway during the 1954-1955 season. However, the sudden death of its producer, Lemuel Ayers -- who designed the scenery for Oklahoma! (1943), Song of Norway and Bloomer Girl (1944),  as well as sets and costumes for Angel Street (1944), St. Louis Woman (1946), Kiss Me, Kate (1948), Out of This World (1950), Kismet (1953), and The Pajama Game (1954) -- throttled production plans for the musical that had been intended to become Sondheim's Broadway debut.

Mike Birr, Nathaniel Rothrock, Jesse Cortez and Jack O'Reilly
in a scene from Saturday Night (Photo by: Ben Krantz Studio)

With his success as the lyricist for West Side Story (1957) and Gypsy (1959), Sondheim didn't too poorly in the 1950s. However, Saturday Night remained on the shelf until 1997, when it was staged in London for 38 performances at the 133-seat Bridewell Theatre (formerly a Victorian-era swimming pool located on a winding alley off Sweeney Todd's Fleet Street). Saturday Night was subsequently performed at Pegasus Theatre Chicago (1999), received 45 performances at off-Broadway's Second Stage Theater (2000), and was performed on two London stages in 2009.

Courtney Hatcher (Celeste) and Caitlin Waite (Mildred) in a
scene from Saturday Night (Photo by: Ben Krantz Studio)

The action takes place in New York City during the "Roaring Twenties," when the stock market was riding high and a generation of young men were hoping to get lucky, get laid, and maybe even get married. However, for an ambitious Brooklynite like Gene (Nikita Burshteyn), social climbing was the most intoxicating thrill imaginable. If Gene could manage to parlay some stock tips into bigger money, there should have been no limits to his dreams.

Unfortunately, reality has a strange way of playing with the delusions of naifs and amateurs. Even after meeting the attractive and far more realistic Helen (Amie Shapiro) -- who crashes parties by pretending to be descended from the Calhouns of Georgia -- Gene's insatiable ambition could easily land him in jail for financial fraud.

Nikita Burshteyn (Gene) and Amie Shapiro (Helen) in a
scene from Saturday Night (Photo by: Ben Krantz Studio)

Among the many charms of Saturday Night, the ones which provided me with extra chuckles were geographic references to such memorable Brooklyn locations as Avenue M, Albemarle Road, and Midwood (not only did I attend Midwood High School, my father taught there for most of his career). Sondheim's songs are mostly upbeat, tuneful, and meticulously crafted, with his lyrics offering clear hints of the profound language skills that would later be applied to shows like A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Company, Follies, A Little Night Music, Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Into The Woods, Assassins, and Sunday in the Park With George. While "So Many People" has become a familiar item in Sondheim revues, songs like "A Moment With You," "Montana Chem," "All For You," "What More Do I Need?" and the title number have obvious appeal.






Directed and lit by Ryan Weible on a unit set designed by Brian Watson (with choreography by Allison Paraiso and costumes by Bethany Deal), 42nd Street Moon's production of Saturday Night offered a pretty and pleasant way for Sondheim enthusiasts to check off a bucket-list item. Courtney Hatcher (Celeste), Caitlin Waite (Mildred), and DC Scarpelli (Pinhead) showed strong comic chops while Mike Birr (Artie), Jesse Cortez (Ted), Cameron La Brie (Bobby), Jack O'Reilly (Ray), Nathaniel Rothrock (Dino), and and Kalon Thibodeaux (Hank) brought appropriate levels of Brooklynese to their diction, dancing, and deportment.

The cast of Saturday Night (Photo by: Ben Krantz Studio)

The two romantic leads did an excellent job although, with his usually bushy hair slicked down for the role, Nikita Burshteyn's facial expressions took on an uncanny resemblance to Martin Short.

The cast of Saturday Night (Photo by: Ben Krantz Studio)

Performances of Saturday Night continue through April 15 at the Gateway Theatre (click here for tickets).