Heartsgaard the Play - Status: Production is full speed ahead!

Well...There has been a lot of progress on the Heartsgaard front since I last wrote in. We have begun work shopping the play in North Hollywood and have already gotten some fantastic suggestions from the cast as to how to mold the script into something funnier, sharper and more poignant. Tomorrow night we will be holding auditions to cast the roles of the Mariko the Prophet and Casey the Lawyer. Our current cast members have eagerly agreed to help run them. I am truly fortunate to be working with such dedicated and talented people of the likes of Shawn MacAulay, Christie Insley, Danielle K. Jones and of course our Writer/Director, Tennyson Stead. As far as the auditions are concerned, we have some great people interested in this project and I think we're going to have some very tough choices to make!

Irma Vep and her Magnificent Madmen!

Last Friday I had the pleasure of attending a magnificent production of Charles Ludlam’s The Mystery of Irma Vep at the WeHoChurch Space in West Hollywood. Irma Vep is the story of a series of Mad and Macabre events which unfold upon the arrival of stage actress turned royalty Lady Enid (Michael Lorre) to the Estate of Lord Edgar (Kevin Remington). Lady Enid is there to take up her new station as lady of the Manor. However, it appears that her predecessor, Lady Irma, although dead, may not yet be done. Werewolves, Vampires, Mummies and Curses run amok in this loving tribute to 1930’s era Universal Monster films.

Lorre and Remington are truly magicians. The two men glide in an out of about four roles apiece with such graceful ease, you almost forget there are only two actors in the piece! Assisted by dresser Henry Senecal, an actor will walk off stage in one complicated period costume and reappear, barely a minute later with another complicated period costume and a wig! Sometimes one of the actors’ characters has to converse with another character played by the same actor. However, there is nothing lost in the process. Each character is crisp and specific. Although the play is parody, Lorre and Remington bring true depth of feeling to each character.

The tragedy is that this was the final weekend and that this show, although extended, was not playing through Halloween. Here’s to hoping Michael Lorre and Kevin Remington will be bringing their brilliant production of The Mystery of Irma Vep back to Los Angeles very soon!

You Like Me! You Really Like Me!

...is hopefully what I will be saying in about two weeks after the screening of Dead in Love at the Staten Island Director's Chair Film Festival! I, along with several members of the cast and crew of the film have had the honor of being nominated for awards in the following categories:


Best Directing
Best Soundtrack
Best Screenplay
Best Actor - Gerard Marzilli
Best Actress - Kristin Minter
Best Film

Wish us luck! I'll be crossing my fingers and thinking happy thoughts for the next two weeks!!

Look out Sam Bailey...

Wow...this guy doesn't look so happy about what he's seen on http://www.whoissambailey.com/. Check it out:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IOHGwgT_RY

The reports of my death have been gravely...awww whatever

The truth is that I have been busy and super lazy about blogging this summer. First off I had the pleasure of working in a Summer program that used art (performance and otherwise) and games to show Middle school students how much advertising plays into what kind of foods they choose to eat. We also let them know how much sugar they may be taking in without knowing and how they could cut down. Conventional wisdom says kids gravitate towards sugary, fatty snacks. However there was only water, veggies and lean meats available to them for the entire day for weeks and I heard not one complaint from anyone. Meeting these students and watching their personalities and idiosyncrasies emerge over the course of a couple weeks was a truly great experience!

Also, the play Carved in Stone closed last night after a 3 month run! I had the honor of playing the author Truman Capote alongside the generous and talented Kevin Remington. This was an astounding cast and crew to work with. Everyone was helpful and ready to share knowledge and ideas. This is likely why, in spite of some difficulties we had in mounting the show, we eventually when on to rave reviews and an extension!

On the Festival front, Dead in Love continues to be accepted into film festivals nationwide, most recently the 2009 Director's Chair Film Festival in Staten Island, New York where it will be playing in October. Please visit thedirectorschairtv.com for details. I am very happy to see audiences connecting with this film in such a positive way.

Finally Heartsgaard is chugging ahead and was recently joined by a new cast member! The talented Christie Insley has joined the cast as Conrad Ellison’s best friend Simone Goddard. Christie has an energy and commitment that few actors have. She is always ready to jump right into a scene or help with a production issue with a “put me in Coach!” attitude. I look forward to the pleasure of working with her with great anticipation.

In other news we have a few more parts to fill before we can begin workshopping that play and are currently engaged in the search. I expect we will find the talent we need soon and the fun will commence this fall! Updates as they come! (no really…I mean it this time!)

Heartsgaard's lockin' and loadin'!

Things are moving right along on the Heartsgaard front. Yesterday, I finished reading the second draft of the Heartsgaard play, delivered to me by the talented Mr. Stead. Well...let me just say...things are rockin' and rollin baby!! Tennyson's prolific pen continues to amaze me like no other scribe I've met. The man's a machine and an efficient one at that! The script is 50% more active and twice as personal. It cuts me deep folks and the knife is pokin' out the other side. This has been one of the few scripts that I can read out loud by my self and not get tired of talking to myself. It is eloquent and beautiful and it feels like the words are my own. Simply put, I want to say these words!!

Towards that end, Tennyson has will be sending out the script for reads from various other actors we are interested in using and we hope to begin workshoping it in the very near future.

I would also like to thank the people who read the first draft and gave extremely valid and helpful feedback. Namely, Ms. Kelly Decker and my Mother Francine Marzilli. We truly couldn't have done it without you. Watch for more updates as they come and visit www.secondfrontfilms.com for all your heartsgaard swag needs!

Power to the People!

I'd just like to take a brief moment to say how proud I am of the Iranian protesters and how excited I am for their future. I could be being overly optimistic or naive. This whole thing could end like Tiananmen 20 years ago, but we have reason to hope. This is not Hungary or Poland 1956, Czechoslovakia 1968, or even China 1989. In 2009 information can travel with the click of a mouse, information that even 10 or 15 years ago would have to have been quintuple encrypted or sent out in a hidden compartment in a horse drawn cart over a mountain range. Now a protester can make a video on their phone and transmit it to millions in a flash. This is what makes what has gone on in Iran so astounding.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the forces of Tyranny seized the means of mass communication and production away from the people and had the sick, ironic gall to say it was in the name of the people. Now, the people have it back...

R.I.P. David Carradine 1936-2009

As many of you out there now know, yesterday, the world suffered the loss of an actor who Quentin Tarantino once described as "One of Hollywood's Mad Geniuses", Mr. David Carradine. Carradine, whose father John Carradine was a noted Hollywood actor himself, did not set out immediately to become an actor, dabbling in a myriad of art forms and arenas until receiving his big break at the age of 39 in the film Bound For Glory in 1976, in which he essayed the role of Woodie Guthrie. I myself had the pleasure of working with David in the film William Shakespeare's Richard III.

I received several phone calls and text messages from friends yesterday informing me of Carradine's death, just as I was about to go onstage for a performance. Words escaped me. Whenever someone you have known or worked with passes in that manner, it doesn't even seem real. I really didn't even know how to react. I had admired Carradine for years before working with him and found him to be pleasant and very content with his path in life. He seemed to be at the height of his career at the age of 72, working more now than ever. I have often thought to myself, "If I could be like that guy when I'm his age, I'll be all right!"

Since the initial news broke, there are now several theories regarding his passing from suicide to just a tragic accident. For all our sakes, I hope it was the latter. For if a man like David Carradine, who spent decades working in a career he loved and by all accounts was living life to the fullest, could be so overcome by personal demons that he saw no other option than to take his own life, that my friends has dark portents for us all.

I prefer to remember him as the man he was, a good natured, hard working guy with boundless energy and committment to his craft. Rest In Peace, brother. We'll miss you.

Hey, look! I'm on the interweb!!!

Here are a couple quick looks at some projects I've been working on. The first is called Blowout and is a lesson in why 80's buddy cops would make terrible used car salesmen. Please see here: http://www.filmaka.com/archives.php?film_id=069e58b2-8990-102c-ad35-00301b4506f4.

Next up is a short film about the perils of interoffice facebook "poking": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfgFi_Pgq7A.

Finally, here is an innovative little advertisement for the play Carved in Stone, in which I will be understudying the role of Truman Capote: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8I91XyDcks.

Enjoy!

ACTORS: Do you have what it takes to play Sam Bailey?

If you do, you could wind up with your own DVD feature on a theatrically released motion picture!

For those who haven't heard, Sam Bailey is an upcoming independent film about a six hundred year old man looking to erase the very last record of his existence. Through the friendship of a salt-of-the earth cabbie in Boston, he winds up reconnecting to the world instead.

On the one hand, our best "hook" for audiences is the mystery of Sam Bailey's arcane life. Who is this man - or woman, for that matter? Why has he lived so long, and how has he changed the world? On the other hand, it's the simple, human approach to this story that makes it funny, truthful, and special... and that's where you come in!

Over the last few months, internet speculation about the existence of Sam Bailey has been growing. Websites like www.whoissambailey.com have been generating theories about the nature of Sam's unusual longevity. Historical evidence has been unearthed. More than that, people are actually claiming to be Sam Bailey on social networks like Facebook and Twitter.

It's time for the REAL Sam Bailey to step forward.

If Sam Bailey saw the world waking up to the reality of his existence, what is it he would need to tell them? What would you say?

Put it on video. Make it a testimonial, a rebuttal to the mounting internet fuss, or even just a greeting to the people of the world! Put together a video message that really shows your stuff as an actor, and put it up on YouTube. Make the title of the video "I AM SAM BAILEY."

Then, e-mail a link to scoop@whoissambailey.com along with your name. Make sure to put I AM SAM BAILEY in the subject line.

As we put together the DVD package, we'll be selecting at least twelve of our favorite Sam Bailey monologues for inclusion as a special feature!

If this seems unorthodox, guess what! It is! As the team behind Sam Bailey, we have access to the production and distribution channels to put a fantastic film in theaters. What we need is an audience to meet us when we get there. One way to address that is to cast "name talent." That's the tried and true method. As an actor, you know it well.

Instead, we've opted to use this film as an opportunity for our own creative community.

To do that, we need to build a superstar audience from scratch. If you're willing to put yourself out there with a "Sam Bailey" that commands our interest, our imaginations, our funny bones and our hearts, we're willing to share that audience with you. Simple as that.

And remember - Sam could stand for Samantha too!

See you round, Sam Bailey!

Sam Bailey Surfaces in Northridge

Yesterday afternoon I had the pleasure of taking part in the first table read of Tennyson Stead's upcoming motion picture Sam Bailey, of which I am a co-producer, at the offices of Unified Pictures. To put in ineloquently, it was awesome!!! One of the actors, there made a comment about how many of us go to reads where the script is...eh, and we all come out thinking well that would be great if it could happen but well, pie in the sky and all. However, he went on to say, this was different. I whole-heartedly agree. It is very rare that I am lucky enough to be in a room with such solid talent and charm that it shines through even in a first table read. I had an excited feeling that I was at the start of something special, something that would have reverberations down through cinematic history. It was electric. The Actors involved were offering intelligent and energetic suggestions on everything from the script to the film's viral marketing campaign already underway at http://www.whoissambailey.com/. I thought to myself, if I could spend the rest of my life working with people like this, on projects like this, there would be no need to die and go to heaven, I'd already be there! We have a plan, we have the talent, we have the drive...and were coming!

Of Car Wrecks, Near Misses and Landings You Can Walk Away From

At approximately 10:20 am on Thursday morning I was involved in a car wreck that I was very lucky to walk away from. Basically my brand new car, just purchased 4 short weeks ago, looks like the Incredible Hulk jumped on it and promptly started stomping the yard.

It's amazing how time slows down in an accident. Like you have all the time in the world and none at all. Even thinking about the crunch of the impact makes me shudder. The employees of the towing yard that the corpse of my car was sent to, people who see cars that were involved in fatalities, looked at the car, looked at me and said "you walked away from that?"

I'm not the most religious guy in the world. I don't believe in fate, preferring to think instead that I can build whatever future I choose for myself. I fear that if I deign to rely on fate just a little, then it will make me get lazy. I've seen too many times in my life when luck is simply when opportunity meets preparation. However, this was one of those times when I think to myself, "it just wasn't my time".

I am humbly grateful for the outpouring of support I received from facebook, text messages and phone calls from family, friends, co-workers and cast members. I love you all and consider myself truly rich to be surrounded by people like you.

However ...

One of these people (who gave me a lot of support, even leaving a facebook message letting everyone know I was okay) wishes to be blogged about in the following manner (because he is insane). Ahem... here goes:

So I got in this horrible car wreck the other day and this miserable, sociopathic piece of human filth by the name of Tennyson E. Stead (what kind of cock calls himself a name that was obviously stolen from a Victorian Romance novel??? Nice try Wuthering Heights!!! Go back to your character sheets and try again, nerd!!), all this guy can say when he finds out is "The scripts man!!!! The scripts were in your car!!! Did you save the scripts for this weekend's reading of Sam Bailey???!!!! Those things cost me 40 bucks to print up!!!!!" So the day after my car wreck, this piece of garbage makes me limp 45 minutes downtown, on Vicodin to rescue his precious damn scripts from my car!!! This is the man I call my business partner (spits)! Welcome to Hollywood kids!!!

Famous Writers Resurrect in Carved in Stone

Yesterday, I began rehearsing for the Los Angeles Production of Carved in Stone by Jeffrey Hartgraves. Carved in Stone had a very successful run in San Francisco and is now set to wow audiences in Tinseltown. The play follows the adventures of Gryphon Tott, a young man who awakes in the afterlife to find himself surrounded by dead literary luminaries. The big question is, why is he there? Carved in Stone is a fun, insightful and thought provoking examination of the ownership of literature and famous personalities by the public at large as well as the tenuous line between fact and fiction in the work of an artist. Carved in Stone opens June 19th at Theatre Asylum in Hollywood and yours truly will be understudying the role of Truman Capote in performances on July 19th (1pm Matinee), August 2nd (7pm) and August 7th (7pm). Also watch for the talented Matthew McCallum understudying the role of Tennessee Williams in these performances as well. Tickets and info can be found @ http://www.carvedinstonetheplay.com/home.html.

Heartsgaard coming to a Theatre near you!

Yes, you read it right, that was Theatre with an "re" and not an "er". Heartsgaard scribe and Director, Tennyson Stead recently turned in the first Draft of the Heartsgaard stage play script! The play wows me (I know, pretty eloquent, huh?). It is like no theatrical experience I have encountered as an actor or audience member. I don't want to reveal too much but suffice to say that the Heartsgaard stage play is no simple screen to stage adaptation. It is it's own animal entirely. The play, soon to be staged in the City of Angels and it's inevitable film counterpart, will be companion pieces to each other. Each work will both stand on it's on and compliment the other. You can see the Heartsgaard film and still come to the play having no idea what you are in for and vice verse. I happily look forward to collaborating with Tennyson in bringing the Heartsgaard story to it's first ever audiences. Please visit my production company's website at www.secondfrontfilms.com where you can follow Heartsgaard's progress and pick up some cool Heartsgaard swag! Impress your friends by being the first kid on your your block to display a cryptic rune on your person!!!

Audiences fall in love with Dead in Love

I just received word this week that a film that I headlined and executive produced "Dead in Love" , took home Audience Choice Best Picture from the 2009 Barebones Film Festival in Oklahoma last weekend! This film and it's Director, Chris Watsone has valiantly slugged it's way through production and is now enjoying acclaim from it first groups of many audience members to come. "Dead in Love", a heartfelt comedy about a pair of best friends making their way through the afterlife in search of love for one of them, is a testament to the hard work of Chris and the fabulous cast he assembled. I had a great time working on this picture and am happy to see it start to get the attention it deserves. Please visit the film's myspace page at: http://www.myspace.com/deadinlovemovie for all the news thats fit to print about the film and when it will be coming to your town!

New Year, New Projects

Welcome to the first Young Gerard Marzilli Chronicles post of the new year (took me long enough, huh)! Well it's been an exciting couple of weeks to say the least! At the beginning of last week I optioned the rights to produce the screenplay Heartsgaard by Tennyson E. Stead. I am incredibly excited about this story and its writer. Tennyson is very simply the most driven and visionary artist I have ever met. He has an energy and a confidence about him that most of us would be lucky if we had 10% of.

As a Writer, his stories are as varied as they are visionary. His scripts are not only ferocious page turners but also immediately human. As a Director, Tennyson has a calmness under pressure and a maturity that is second to none. I had the pleasure of assisting him on the set of his science fiction short film Farther and was deeply impressed by his professionalism. He also has an innate understanding of and respect for actors which is in extremely short supply in young directors.

Heartsgaard is the story of a man who meets the girl of his dreams...and then promptly sets about destroying his life. However, before his odyssey is over he will grow and change in ways he never suspected were possible.

The lead role of Conrad offers acting challenges, the likes of which I have never encountered, but which I humbly and respectfully take up. The script also features great roles for all of its supporting cast. It will be a boon to the career of those courageous enough to take on the material.

Although I have just gotten started on work for this project, I intend to be shooting it before the year is out. Big things are comin' down the pike for the kid in 09!