Hello ……. I am producing a 30 minute video entitled “STORM WARNING: Walther Webber’s 15th Birthday Party,” that I intend to enter into festivals. It will be a weekend shoot on location in Westchester County. I am budgeting $1000 to pay the actors (about 10 actors) in various amounts from $250 down to $50, to be determined, depending on size and importance of role.
Germany, 1930s. Hitler and his right-wing supporters are gaining power. Anti-Semitism is on the rise. A left-liberal family, Kurt and Ilse Webber, who support the weakening democratic regime, is celebrating 15 year old Walther’s birthday. Guests include left wingers like Ilse’s friend Beata, an echt-Germanic looking Jewess and her new boyfriend, the left wing labor leader Berthold Mendelssohn. They also include men like prissy librarian Vogel, a secret Nazi, and ruffian grocer Hartmann, who will become the town’s top Nazi after the takeover. It also includes a black Jewish veteran of the Great War whose name is Rabbi, but he is not a rabbi. He is a drummer and songwriter.
Those days were remarkably the way things are now in America: a fractured society, anti-Semitism on the rise, political violence on the rise. It ended badly for Germany—let’s not let it end badly for us. My piece is, as the title says, a storm warning. There is a major role that fits you.
If this situation interests you, I would love to see your reel.
Best, Saul Braun....tomcubano@yahoo.com.