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This page is dedicated to information about The Shakespeare Guy which premiered at the Dreamworks Employee Film Festival in April of 2004.

Director's Statement  As I track the body of work in my productions, I can see in retrospect, that I have an obsession with humorously rendering the flawed condition of interhuman communications. In this story, the Shakespeare Guy discovers an inner peace by redefining his perceptions-his inner communication. A lesson we can all take into our lives. You know how sometimes things click? Well other times things dis-click! This film is essentially a monologue of a guy experiencing a "dis-click". He speaks in an elevated poetic Shakepearean style and sees no reason to be concerned with the world's inability to relate. And when his problematic communication skills lead him to being cuckholded by his wife and scammed by his shrink, he manages through his obsession with eloquent ranting to assuage his pain, emerge joyfully renewed, and be, once again, desired by the game loving Mrs. Shakespeare Guy. I feel the viewer experiences the Shakespeare Guy himself in the same way the rest of the characters in the story do. Most of those in the story can not grasp the meaning behind the eloquent language- the modern world disregards elevated and poetic communication via language. What are those who, like Mr. Shakespeare Guy, have standards of bygone eras, supposed to do? Compromise our ideals or can we in fact live in an insular world where our personal perceptions define our pains and our joys and in fact have no relationship to anything or anyone? Is Mr. Shakepeare Guy's insulation any different than the ordinary person? Are we all speaking what appears to be the same language and not understanding the depth and meaning of any of it? How did this get started? This project began with my fortuitous meeting with Jonathan Phillips, who had written a series of Shakespeare Guy monologues over ten years earlier. Inspired by our mutual love of Michael Chekhov's Acting, Writing and Directing theories, we set out to do a low budget production applying the concepts to all aspects-casting, rewriting, cinematography, acting, editing and producing. Michael Chekhov's theories include the law of triplicity, feeling of ease, form, beauty, wholeness, ensemble, dynamic rhythyms, creative characterization, atmosphere, psychological gesture, rhythmic repetitions and additional compositional elements. In each rehearsal and during the shoot, we aimed for an easy going production atmosphere. We dug deeply into the script to create the dynamics, to create the camera movement in harmony with the atmosphere, to develop detailed characterizations of the smallest part. The entire Chekhov Connection Acting Company assisted as crew along with doing supporting roles. We managed the whole shoot in Studio City, Glendale and Pasadena in two days without ever losing our feeling of ease. We chose to see every obstacle as an opportunity-see anecdotes as an example! Through Jonathan's skill and connections in post production(see his bio), the musical talents of Zara and my computer, we were able complete this film with production values that supersede the minute budget. We believe the spirit of Chekhov that we brought to the work lifts the audience above the sum total of the individual parts, to a greater delightful experience. Production Notes "The Coffee Machine Nearly Fried!" Our entire third and final scene revolved around the cappuccino coffee machine with all of our shots and comedy bits surrounding the output of the machine. Our leading actress provided the machine, which proves to be her livelihood when not acting and singing. We were on location at the Dreamworks Animation Lot and needed long extension cords to power up the machine. After finally securing enough stingers to reach, they overheated and nearly fried the whole coffee machine, taking our leading actress's livelihood along with our meager budget. We opted to not have a functioning machine. This, however, ruined many images I had for the scene, the sound and the bits. Fortunately our Psychiatrist's wife was there to observe and managed to find us several cans of whipped cream which filled the bill-perhaps even better than the original plan!