In terms of sheer craft, the challenge of depicting outer ...



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BNS PRODUCTION

with music by The Billy Nayer Show

Written and directed by Cory McAbee

Press Contacts at Sundance:

Jeremy Walker, 917-597-7286

Rudi Furstberger, 917-597-7269

Christine Richardson, 917-771-3668

CAST

SAMUEL CURTIS Cory McAbee

PROFESSOR HESS Rocco Sisto

THE BOY… Gregory Russell Cook

CLORIS Annie Golden

BODYSUIT James Ransone

BLUEBERRY PIRATE Joshua Taylor

OLD MAN Tom Aldredge

LEE VILENSKY Peter McRobbie

EDDIE Bill Buell

HENCHMAN #1 (Hey Boy!) Mark Manley

HENCHMAN #2 (Hey Boy!) Ned Sublette

FILMMAKERS

Writer / Director Cory McAbee

Producers William Perkins, Joshua Taylor, Bobby Lurie

Director of Photography W. Mott Hupfel III

Music Director Bobby Lurie

Music by The Billy Nayer Show

Sound Designer Doug McKean

Production Designer Geoff Tuttle

Co-Producer Michael Krantz

Editor Pete Beaudreau

Costume Designer Dawn Weisberg

Casting Director Ann Goulder

THE AMERICAN ASTRONAUT

The makers of “The American Astronaut” have used flinty black-and-white photography, ingenious sets and the spirit of the final frontier to bring their film, set in the dirty, isolated vastness of outer space, to life. But it is the tradition of the Western, as opposed to the technology-heavy fantasies of science fiction, that informs “The American Astronaut” and the Homeric intergalactic journey upon which its characters embark. Touching down on an asteroid belt near Saturn, interplanetary trader Samuel Curtis discovers an all-male culture driven by song, dance, and the loneliness of the most remote prairie. Curtis is presented with a scheme: trade a gestating “Real Live Girl” to the all-male worker planet Jupiter in exchange for a sixteen year-old boy who will surely be coveted on all-female Venus. But after the journey begins Curtis discovers that he is being pursued by Professor Hess, an enigmatic figure from his past who is leaving a trail of death in his wake. The makers of “The American Astronaut” have spent several years crafting the film, all the while gaining a following all over America as the acclaimed rock-and-roll band known as The Billy Nayer Show. Since the band’s front man, Cory McAbee, is the writer, director and star of “The American Astronaut,” the film, like such recent groundbreaking neo-musicals as “Dancer in the Dark” and “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” gets its kick from a number of memorable songs.

SYNOPSIS

Space travel has become a dirty way of life dominated by derelicts, grease monkeys, thieves, and hard-boiled interplanetary traders such as Samuel Curtis (Cory McAbee), an astronaut from Earth who deals in a rare goods, living or otherwise.

His mission begins with the unlikely delivery of a cat to a small outer-belt asteroid saloon where he meets his former dance partner, and renowned interplanetary fruit thief, the Blueberry Pirate (Joshua Taylor). As payment for his delivery of the cat, Curtis receives a homemade cloning device already in the process of creating a creature most rare in this space quadrant...a Real Live Girl.

At the suggestion of the Blueberry Pirate, Curtis takes the Real Live Girl to Jupiter where women have long been a mystery. There, he proposes a trade with the owner of Jupiter: the Real Live Girl clone for the Boy Who Actually Saw A Woman’s Breast (Gregory Russell Cook). The Boy Who Actually Saw A Woman’s Breast is regarded as royalty on the all-male mining planet of Jupiter because of his unique and exotic contact with a woman. It is Curtis’ intention to take The Boy to Venus and trade him for the remains of Johnny R., a man who spent his lifetime serving as a human stud for the Southern belles of Venus, a planet populated only by women. Upon returning Johnny R’s body to his bereaved family on earth, Curtis will receive a handsome reward.

It all seems simple enough.

But while hashing out the plan with the Blueberry Pirate, Curtis is spotted by his nemesis, Professor Hess (Rocco Sisto). Possessed by an enigmatic obsession with Curtis, Hess is capable of killing without reason, unless his intended victim is someone with whom he has unresolved issues. Hess has been pursuing Samuel Curtis throughout the solar system in order that he might forgive him, then kill him. Along the way, Hess has executed each and every individual to come into contact with Curtis.

Unaware of this danger, Curtis sets forth on his mission.

After retrieving The Boy Who Actually Saw A Woman’s Breast from Jupiter, Curtis is contacted by Professor Hess, who makes his intentions known.

(more)

Fearful, Curtis and The Boy look for a place to hide. They come across a primitive space station constructed by Nevada State silver miners from the late 1800s. Inside they discover a small group of miners still alive, their bodies crippled and deformed by space atrophy. Unable to return home for fear that Earth’s gravity would kill them, two of the miners mated and give birth to a boy known as Body Suit (James Ransone). He has been raised in a suit of hydraulics to simulate Earth’s gravity with the intention of eventually sending him home. In trade for supplies and sanctuary, Curtis agrees to deliver Body Suit to Earth.

Once they land on the lush planet of Venus, the terrain dramatically changes, and Curtis is inspired by a plan. And it may just happen that in a solar system ruled by commerce and danger, sometimes good can prevail.

ABOUT THE PRODUCTION

“The American Astronaut” has been in the making for over six years, and although the film’s writer, director and star, Cory McAbee, workshopped the screenplay for the film at the 1998 Sundance Writers’ Lab, its route to the screen was anything but traditional. McAbee began writing the script and composing songs for the film about a decade ago, at which point certain elements of the story were inspired by McAbee’s own situation. “I wasn’t homeless,” McAbee explains, “but I had chosen not to pay rent, either, so that I could work part time and feed myself and still have time to work on my own stuff. I was in transit.”

For three years, McAbee stayed in a friend’s garage, slept on a few couches and camped out. He was sort of like Curtis, going from place to place. He had odd jobs at nightclubs, as an M.C. and as a bouncer, and worked as a freelance artist. “The band,” he says, “was very popular at that time.”

A true showman, McAbee is the front man for a rock and roll band with a devoted following, The Billy Nayer Show, which McAbee started in his home town of San Francisco in 1989. The band was in the newspapers a lot in the early 90s, and McAbee recalls seeing his name and his picture in newspapers blowing around the sidewalks of San Francisco. “To some degree,” McAbee says, “I was seeing my name in lights and seeing my name in garbage at the same time.”

Since the band was formed over a decade ago, The Billy Nayer Show has performed live all over the country, and has recorded five albums. Their latest, Return to Brigadoon, features sixteen cuts.

But The Billy Nayer Show was never intended to be devoted solely to the production of music. The group is more like a creative think tank that launches lots of projects in a diverse array of media. Indeed, The Billy Nayer Show has produced three short films, “Billy Nayer” (1992), “The Man on the Moon” (1993) and “The Ketchup and Mustard Man” (1994), all of which have been presented and the Sundance Film Festival and went on to play in festivals all over the world. “The Billy Nayer Chronicles,” a live show bringing together the band’s performance with a screening of the three films, has been performed at both the Egyptian and Salt Lake’s Tower Theatre as a part of the 1995 Sundance Film Festival; at The Castro theatre in San Francisco; at Reed College and the Portland Art Museum in Oregon; and at The Knitting Factory in New York.

Handmade elements and an emphasis on craft are qualities shared by both the shorts and “The American Astronaut.” “Billy Nayer,” for example, is made up of over 2000 frames, each of which McAbee individually traced then hand-painted with house paint then re-filmed by Lance Accord, who went on to photograph such seminal independent films as “Buffalo 66” and “Being John Malkovich.”

For “The American Astronaut,” McAbee, Production Designer Goeff Tuttle and artist Maria Schoenherr also hand-painted every shot depicting the exterior of Curtis’ spaceship as it travels through outer space. As producer Josh Taylor explains, “We wanted to represent outer space in a way that no one had ever seen before. We talked about using a traditional blue screen, miniatures, and still photographs. But Cory’s paintings were amazing, and they fit best into the overall look we were cultivating for the film.”

Much of the effort over the six years it took to make “The American Astronaut” went into creating that look, which McAbee says was inspired by memories of his grandfather and father. An inventor, whiskey runner and freight train jumper, and a guy who could fix absolutely anything mechanical, McAbee’s grandfather was in many ways a holdover from the days when Northern California was still the Wild West. McAbee’s father, in turn, was an auto mechanic and cowboy from Booneville, CA. McAbee is proud of the fact that the bridge on Curtis’ ship looks like the shops where they both worked, that the ship itself looks like a transient’s motel room and that the exterior looks like a locomotive. McAbee has discussed that the look of the film in some ways matches how his Grandfather had lived, and was inspired by the way that McAbee was living when he began work on the script.

McAbee and production designer Geoff Tuttle conceived the look about four years ago. The two met when McAbee lectured at a class Tuttle was taking at the San Francisco Art Institute, then worked together at a mannequin factory, painting faces on the dummies before they were shipped out to department stores. “That was fun for the first five minutes,” McAbee recalls. “I went on to get a job at a club called the Trocadero,” he continues. “I was hired of head of security, the head bouncer. When Geoff got a job there a year later, we worked together designing and building a lot of the special theme rooms in the club. We made cages for go-go dancers and a space that was really an adults-only rumpus room, something like you might find in your parents’ basement.”

Tuttle continued to collaborate with McAbee on the look of the “The American Astronaut” for a number of years. Indeed, McAbee credits Tuttle with preserving their vision by creating a number of very detailed drawings. When it was time to shoot the film in New York, McAbee and his producers hired production designer Michael Krantz, whose work in a number of independent films, by such directors as Gregg Araki and Paul Thomas Anderson, to execute the look.

Another contributor to the film’s overall look is graphic designer John Borruso. An artist who has worked with The Billy Nayer Show for over ten years, Borruso’s created every label on every beer bottle, every matchbook, the cover of every book in Cutis’ space ship and the star charts and opening and closing titles that bookend the movie.

Intricately designed props and a number of specialized outfits, like Curtis’ space suit and The Boy’s outfit, the cat carrier and the case containing the Real Live Girl, were created by Stephan “Maze” George.

Other costumes were designed, discovered and often hand made by Dawn Weisberg. Curtis’ outfit, The Boy’s outfit, and Body Suit’s body suit all to reflect the personal histories of their characters and were meant to evoke the lonely routine of outer space. But Weisberg also created whole communities based on wardrobe, from the first men we see in the saloon to the legion of laborers on Jupiter to the all-female society on Venus. “Dawn really understood Cory’s notion of groups of isolated men and women and how fashion would get translated under those circumstances,” says producer Taylor.

Adds McAbee, “As generations go by fashion gets mutated, so I thought the women on Venus in particular should be depicted as having worn the same clothes every day for ages – still fancy but not that clean. I imagined fabric and patterns you might find in an old lady’s bathroom, and Dawn was able to pull the look together beautifully.” Looking for an inexpensive way to create the women’s dresses, Weisberg initially explored using the surplus body bags the City of New York had on hand in the wake of the peaceful Millenium celebration. But as it turned out, the bags were not as nice as some very fancy shower curtains she found, and she ended up using those instead.

W. Mott Hupfel III photographed “The American Astronaut.” He worked closely with McAbee to achieve a black and white that could help audiences suspend disbelief about an outer space where there is no atmosphere to filter light, while still leaving a lot up to the imagination. “We wanted the audience to see much of what is happening in shadow,” explains McAbee. The Boy’s performance on stage was lit and photographed to create a massive shadow, which in some shots takes up much of the screen. Mott also lit and photographed The Boy like a silent movie star in the scenes that he and Curtis share in the space ship. Says McAbee,“ Mott worked on putting a little bit more light on Greg than on me. It was like a special effect that explained everything about our characters – here was this dirty trader guy at the helm and next to him was this young hero. Mott understood what we were after and made the film look exactly right.”

The filmmakers were equally concerned with maintaining their visual strategy as they began casting, but their highest priority was to create an ensemble of skilled actors. They worked with Casting Director Ann Goulder, whose knowledge of the rich New York theatre scene proved vital to the production. McAbee and the producers saw actors first to determine that they looked like they could be living a hard, lonely life in outer space, at how they carried themselves and if they were in the right ballpark for the part. The first callback helped the filmmakers compare leading candidates to others who had since auditioned for any given role. And the third and final callback was intended to determine that a candidate could fulfill the special demands of a musical.

Gregory Russell Cook, who plays the key role of The Boy Who Actually Saw a Woman’s Breast, auditioned a number of times. At first he came in to read for Body Suit. “Gregg didn’t look right for Body Suit,” recalls McAbee. “Body Suit needed to be very thin and wiry and Greg is pretty well built. But for The Boy, I was looking for a real golden boy. Our casting director sent us a lot of guys who could have been on the cover of Tiger Beat, and they didn’t match the palette.”

Cook showed up early for one of his callbacks on a day when members of The Billy Nayer Show were putting together a mass mailing of promotional materials. “Greg was just sitting in our waiting room, so I asked our casting director if it was OK to ask Greg if he minded stuffing envelopes while we waited for the other guys to show up,” McAbee recalls. “So we spent an hour talking and joking around and after a while I realized that I really liked Gregg, and figured that if I liked him, an audience would, too.”

For Professor Hess, McAbee was looking for an actor who could play a villain, someone older, possibly British, but not an actor that projected a quality of pure, unadulterated evil. “Rocco Sisto’s audition scared the hell out of us,” he says. “He was very frightening, yet you could tell he was really a very sensitive person. His acting was like an exposed nerve ending. He was not what I was looking for but I’d never seen anything like him.”

All of the music that appears in “The American Astronaut” was written and composed for the film by The Billy Nayer Show’s McAbee, Bobby Lurie (on drums and one of the film’s producers), James Beaudreau (guitar) and Michael Silverman (bass). Two numbers, however, are featured in the band’s regular repertoire. “Love Smiles,” the rocking number behind the dance contest near the beginning of the film, was one of the earliest collaborations between McAbee and Lurie. And the filmmakers created a new arrangement for “The Girl with the Vagina Made of Glass,” a version of which exists on their CD, The Villain that Love Built.

But as with all of The Billy Nayer Show’s musical enterprises, McAbee worked to create a unique sound for the musical elements of “The American Astronaut,” elements that not only advanced the film’s narrative, but fit the characters’ motivations and moods. Says McAbee, “One of the things about the film that makes it unlike other musicals is that the music is organic – the people in the film aren’t just putting it out there for no reason. I wanted musical numbers to be fully integrated into the story. So one number happens at a dance contest, one at a rally of workers on Jupiter, and one number is even used as a kind of musical assault perpetrated against Curtis in a bathroom. Curtis uses song to make a grand entrance when he is in the open air of Venus, but even then he is serenading the ladies there to persuade them to do business. He is trying to charm them and soften them up.”

The filmmakers considered a number of strategies to execute the musical numbers. A top priority was to avoid lip-synching at all costs, and to replicate the energy and sound of live performance as much as possible. “In order to avoid sounding canned, we considered setting up a recording studio at every location, but soon realized that this would be too difficult to pull off,” says Music Director Bobby Lurie.

Instead, the band laid down basic tracks for many of the numbers at a studio in San Francisco before principal photography began. In some cases the tracks were played back during filming so that vocals could be recorded live on location. At other times, the performers were fitted with tiny transmitters in their ears that played back the tracks while the cameras rolled and live vocals were recorded, which could be mixed into a final track during post-production. The resulting musical numbers have a spontaneous, energetic feel with none of the mawkish, slightly out-of-synch moments that have shaded musical numbers in other films.

“The pre-recording sessions in San Francisco were a blast,” recalls McAbee. “We all stayed together in family member’s apartment. We worked all the time but it was fun because we were all very happy with the music. In a way, the movie came together and became a reality for me in that studio.” In fact, the film’s tracks were recorded two months before principal photography began.

“When we went to create the soundtrack,” explained McAbee, “it was a more physical process than when we would record a new album. When I went in to talk with everyone about how I wanted a song to go, we would have to describe how the camera was moving, what the characters were doing, take into account choreography. Because of this, the ideas we had for the music going into the studio continued to develop, and the songs turned out greater than we ever anticipated.”

After years of writing, composing, designing and creating the costumes and assembling the sets and recording the tracks for the film’s musical numbers, McAbee and the producers were ready to begin shooting film.

“A lot of time we put into making this film was devoted to preparation for shooting, so we could keep the number of shooting days down to an absolute minimum,” says producer Josh Taylor. “But once we were ready to go, we were able to move really quickly and efficiently, thanks to William.”

Producer William Perkins’ role was to spearhead and manage the 25 days of principal photography that it took to put “The American Astronaut” on film. Says Taylor, “Every person William hired seemed like they were as dedicated to the project as we were – which is rare these days.”

The fact that “The American Astronaut” was powered by music as much as narrative and photography forced its producers to create unusual priorities as they got ready to shoot. Bobby Lurie, who is in charge of producing The Billy Nayer Show’s recording sessions, oversaw much of the work that went into the performance and recording of the film’s musical numbers.

Lurie says, “This soundtrack turned out great – it balances very high production values with a very natural sound.” He worked very closely with Engineer Doug McKean, who recorded every aspect of the pre- and post-prodution and was the chief sound designer for the film. The two spent months shaping the film’s sound. Says Lurie, “When we work on an album we are not afraid to spend a lot of time on something and, if we realize it’s not working, throw it out. We took the same approach to the film before we went into production. My role with Cory,” Lurie observes, “is almost as a kind of a security guard for his ideas. 99% of the music Cory comes up with we can execute in pristine condition, and over the years I’ve learned that outside tampering doesn’t help.”

Lurie quickly leaned that the collaborative nature of filmmaking created lots of opportunities for outside tampering. He continues, “As the band’s drummer, I have the same role that a conductor has in an orchestra – I’m sort of like the traffic cop. I tend to set a certain tone when we are working, and when you’re shooting a film that job normally goes to the A.D.’s [Assistant Directors]. And I probably got into more fights with our A.D.’s over sound than anything else. I learned the hard way that once you get on set the last thing anyone seems to care about is sound quality. The attitude is: “You can fix in post [production].” Well, from my work with recording artists over the years, I knew that ‘fixing’ things costs a lot more than it does to do it right the first time. You can measure the cost in dollars, but you can also measure what you lose in energy, in the thrill of getting something right on the first take. So every day, I reminded the people we were working with that great sound was why we were all there.”

Much of the film – from the interiors of Curtis’ spaceship to the grand auditorium where the workers on all-male Jupiter rally – was shot in an old ballroom in Maspeth, Queens. While providing a great “Art Deco gone wrong” space for such operatic moments as the song by the Boy Who Actually Saw a Woman’s Breast, the Maspeth location was a challenging place to shoot. Freezing cold, filthy with (noisy) nesting pigeons and located adjacent to a (noisier) major truck route, the production nonetheless had the run of their own soundstage for as long as they needed it, as well as an atmosphere that was as still and as cold and as dead as the face of the moon.

Interiors were completed last winter, but the film’s final scenes, which required the fresh open air and blossoming trees that represented the surface of all-female Venus, required that production shut down until spring. Producers discovered an abandoned Boy Scout camp in New Jersey for that location. Other locations included an Elks Lodge in Hoboken and Orchard Beach in the Bronx.

In the end, Music Director Bobby Lurie learned from making “The American Astronaut” that “People think that they can fix a film with music, as if music were a band-aid or something. It never works. But I also learned that you can take a good film and make it great with the right music. Our hope is that because we were able to listen to a lot of people’s ideas, and they were able to listen to ours, we’ve been able to come up with something really unique, really different, and really fun.”

ABOUT THE BILLY NAYER SHOW

The Billy Nayer Show began in San Francisco about a decade ago and has since attracted a diverse and loyal following. Like a fat, brown trout, the band has thrived on the very edge of the mainstream. The band’s following has remained consistent, perhaps because its members have worked hard to perform without pretense and maintain a high degree of integrity. Their live appearances have become legendary, as much for their energy as for their originality.

Lead singer and chief songwriter Cory McAbee’s writing and singing style has been called everything from manic to operatic. He balances a surprising core belief in the power of love, weaving pictures of affairs gone bad and redemption. McAbee's songs tend to be structured around a simple rock and roll paradigm, yet the band’s devoted following seems to revel in the unique sound it creates for each new record it cuts. The Billy Nayer Show's dynamic sound may owe a lot to McAbee's main instruments: autoharp and ukulele. A rich carpet of harmonies and interplay with the band often creates a sense of otherworldliness in the band’s songs.

Guitarist James Beaudreau has developed a reputation for playing like someone spinning a dozen plates at once. His unique sound -- biting, beautiful and melodic to the core – gets to the root of the group’s songs without relying on acrobatics.

Bassist Michael Silverman and drummer Bobby Lurie blast away on a hard groove one moment, then throw it all away at the next, so that sometimes they sound like an entire kitchen just got thrown out of a window from three flights up.

One of The Billy Nayer Show's great feats is to balance conflicting sounds, structures, and emotions. Like Lenny Bruce, the music can be funny and absurd, but beneath it lies a dark and human underbelly. And The Show rocks as hard as any one on planet earth.

The band’s latest release, Return To Brigadoon, continues to defy categorization, moving from haunting ballads to full on orchestral anthems.

ABOUT THE CAST

Rocco Sisto

PROFESSOR HESS

Rocco Sisto has the fun role of Curtis’ obsessed nemesis Professor Hess. Sisto has appeared in such recent films as “Frequency,” “Donnie Brasco,” “Eraser” and John Turturro’s “Illuminata.” He was seen recently on TV, as well, in roles on such programs as “The Sopranos,” “Law & Order” and “Homicide.” Highlights of his extensive career on stage include his work as Salieri in Sir Peter Hall’s production of Amadeus at the Music Box, and he originated the role of the Marquis de Sade in Doug Wright’s Quills at the New York Theatre Workshop, for which he was honored with Obie, Drama League and Encore Awards, and for which he was nominated for a Drama Desk Award. A classically trained stage actor, he is a founding member of Shakespeare and Co. In Lenox, MA.

Gregory Russell Cook

“THE BOY WHO ACTUALLY SAW A WOMAN’S BREAST”

Gregory Russell Cook may very well have a great 2001. In addition to his beautifully photographed role in “The American Astronaut,” he will be seen in June of this year in Maggie Greenwald’s “Songcatcher,” to be released by Lions Gate Films. Cook made his feature debut in the independent film “The Prince of Central Park.” He has been seen on television in “Law & Order” and in a recurring role on “The Babysitter’s Club.” On stage, he has performed with the Steppenwolf Company in its Broadway production of “Grapes of Wrath” and was also featured in “The Kingdom’s Coming,” written by Jeff Daniels.

Annie Golden

CLORIS

As Cloris, The Queen of Venus, Annie Golden gets to remind Samuel Curtis, after he’s arrived on the all-female planet of Venus, that “If only you were twenty years younger we’d all have our way with you.” Golden can currently be seen on Broadway in the hit musical The Full Monty. Her other Broadway credits include On The Town, Ah Wilderness, and Hair. Her Off-Broadway credits include The Full Monty (at the Globe Theater), An Empty Plate, La Terrase, Saturn Returns,

On The Town, Assassins, and Little Shop of Horrors. Ms. Golden's film

credits include “Hair”; “The Pebble and the Penguin” and “12 Monkeys.” Her TV credits include roles on “Law and Order,” “Third Watch,” “One Life To Live,” “Cheers,” “Miami Vice,” and “House of Ramon Iglesia” for American Playhouse.

James “PJ” Ransone

BODYSUIT

“The American Astronaut” marks James Ransone’s motion picture debut. Well know to anyone familiar with Manhattan nightlife, Ransone, also known as “PJ,” has worked for the last two and a half years as a photojournalist with one of the city’s best-liked and highly published social photographers, Patrick McMullan. PJ’s work for Patrick has appeared in such publications as Interview, New York and Harper’s Bazaar. A graduate of Carver Center for the Arts in his home town of Baltimore, where he studied theatre and fine arts, PJ moved to New York in 1997 to pursue a career in film. He will next be seen in “Ken Park,” the new film from Larry Clark (“Kids,” “Another Day in Paradise,” “Bully”). PJ begins work on “Ken Park” in February. Ransone is also the lead singer for the neo-new wave rock band “The Misery.”

Joshua Taylor

THE BLUEBERRY PIRATE

A producer of “The American Astronaut,” Taylor plays the role of the Blueberry Pirate, intergalactic trader and Curtis’ former Dance Partner. A graduate of Boston University where he earned a degree in dramatic studies, Taylor has been around film for many years, serving as a script consultant, executive producer and actor on several films, commercials and television shows. His directorial debut, ”Dita and the Family Business,” is distributed by First Run Features. In addition, Mr. Taylor has performed on stage in New York, regionally and internationally with such theater companies as Irondale Ensemble Project, Monkey Wrench Theater, HERE and Barrington Stage Company. Taylor has been the recipient of a 1997 New York State Council on the Arts grant and first prize at the 1994 Okrite International Theatre Festival in St. Petersberg, Russia, for his stage adaptation of You Can’t Win.

Tom Aldredge

THE OLD MAN

Tom Aldredge plays The Old Man, who will be remembered for his joke about a Hertz Doughnut. Aldredge first appeared in New York, Off-Broadway, as the Messenger in Electra in 1957. Since then he has enjoyed a career in an uncounted number of roles on Broadway, Off and Off-Off Broadway and in regional theatre; in many films, and on prime time TV and on the occasional Soap. On Broadway he has appeared in seminal works by Williams, Albee, O’Neil and Sondheim. He received a Drama Desk Award and a Tony nomination for Sticks and Bones and Tony Nominations for his work in Where’s Charlie?, The Little Foxes with Elizabeth Taylor and, most recently, the Sondheim-Lapine musical Passion. Aldredge has portrayed a wide range of Shakespearean and contemporary roles for the New York and Connecticut Shakespeare Festivals in such plays as Henry V, Love’s Labours Lost, Romeo & Juliet, Trolious & Cressida, Hamlet, Richards II & III and King Lear. He received an Obie Award for his performance in Stock Up On Pepper ‘Cause Turkey’s Going To War and as Angelo in Measure for Measure. With much work on the small screen to his credit, Aldredge received an Emmy Award for his performance in the CBS Special “Henry Winkler Meets William Shakespeare.” He has appeared in such films as “The Rain Peope,” “Batteries Not Included,” “See You in the Morning,” “What About Bob?” and “The Adventures of Huck Finn.”

Peter McRobbie

LEE VILENSKI

Peter McRobbie has appeared in eight films by Woody Allen, most recently in “Small Time Crooks.” He appeared in John Singleton’s “Shaft” and in the Sundance hit “Big Night,” and has a new film development project at Sundance. On television, McRobbie has been seen in “The Sopranos,” A fixture on the New York theatre scene, McRobbie has appeared in eleven Broadway plays and many Off Broadway productions.

Bill Buell

EDDIE

As Eddie, the owner of the saloon where Curtis first lands and lead singer during the Dance Contest, Bill Buell seemed to enjoy working in a rock and roll musical. He has appeared on Broadway in numerous productions, including Anna Karenina, Titanic, Tommy, Taking Steps, Big River, Welcome To The Club, Annie, The First, and The Miser. Off-Broadway he has appeared in Nicolette & Aucassin (Westport Country Playhouse), Tartuffe, The Winters Tale (New York Shakespeare Festival), Picasso At The Lapin Agile and The Common Pursuit (Promenade Theatre), Bad Habits, Groundhog, and Aristocrats (Manhattan Theatre Club), On the Bum (Playwrights Horizons), Waste (Theatre for New Audience). He has appeared in such films as Darren Aranofsky’s “Requiem for a Dream,” Todd Solondz’ “Happiness” and ”Welcome to the Dollhouse” and in the most recent version of “Miracle on 34th Street.” On television, Buell has appeared on “Law & Order,” “Cosby,” “All My Children,” “One Life To Live,” and “Guiding Light.”

ABOUT THE FILMMAKER

Cory McAbee

Writer / Director/ “Samuel Curtis”

Cory McAbee was born in San Rafael, California. He began work on his first animated film, “Billy Nayer,” in 1988, while simultaneously writing for and creating a musical performance group of the same name. The film was completed in 1992 and premiered at the 1993 Sundance Film Festival. It screened at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston in the American Independent Animation Series. It won the award for Best Animated Short in the 1993 USA Film Festival in Dallas. It was featured in the 24th International Tournee of Animation and has aired repeatedly on PBS.

Work on the musical film, “The Ketchup and Mustard Man” followed, including live performances of the material that would eventually end up in the film. Like many elements of “The American Astronaut,” “The Ketchup and Mustard Man” was a truly hand-crafted film; the furniture, paintings, and props created for the film remained on exhibit at the Pro-Arts Gallery in Oakland for the next two months. The finished film premiered at The Castro Theatre in July 1994. It has since received many honors, including best short film at the 1995 Chicago Underground Film Festival.

In 1992, McAbee completed his second short film, “The Man On The Moon.”

This film was shot on a Fisher Price Pixel Camera and premiered in 16mm in

1993 at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco. A hand-sculpted prop from this film was displayed at San Francisco’s New Langton Arts Gallery. “The Man On The Moon” has been exhibited throughout the US and Europe.

With McAbee as its front man, The Billy Nayer Show has released several albums and has been awarded the 1993 San Francisco Bay Guardian Goldie Award for Best Musical Group and the 1994 SF Weekly WAMMIE award. They were nominated for a BAMMIE in 1996 and selected to compete in a regional GRAMMY showcase that same year.

McAbee has been a frequent guest lecturer at Stanford University and at

the San Francisco Art Institute.

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