The Resident Acting Company Releases A Short Film TIME PASSES (SOMETHING DIGITAL) By Brian Dykstra

The Resident Acting Company, formed three years ago by members of the Pearl Theater Company, has just released "Time Passes", a short film written by Brian Dykstra and directed by Margarett Perry. It is available to watch for free on The RAC website: racnyc.org until March 8th, 2022.

The Resident Acting Company commissioned Dykstra to write something inspired by the company's experience of the last two years, and that would also look at the nature of theatre and how this related to the "pandemic theatre" that has been happening online. When asked about the creation of this piece Dykstra says, "Getting to create something akin to 'Theatre' during a pandemic when we can't actually do the things we do, that are some of the best things we do, means we have to resort to making a 'Film.' Which was a dichotomy that was too delicious to ignore. When the Resident Acting Company approached me to write something for a kind of oddly hybrid medium, I figured, 'Why the hell not?' The only thing that could go wrong was it might crash and burn in a raging dumpster fire. Which wasn't much different than some of the other 'online theatre' I'd already seen. It's fun to get to play in a new kind of sandbox. I think the creative team found something, here. But, the audience will be the final arbiter. As it always is. But, I'm really happy with the process."

Initially set in a theatre, the film starts with a man named Eddie who is talking to the camera about the differences between theatre and film. The piece moves on to some other locations, somewhere in the universe, and a Zoom meeting, where we meet what seems to be a theatre company discussing these questions. Eddie acts as our host for the proceedings. He is watching the film with us. Artistic Director Bradford Cover says, "Brian Dykstra is an acclaimed spoken word artist and actor, and so it made so much sense to work with him on something about theatre and what we were all going through during this strange time. He manages to delve into all the questions with such exciting language and humor that it really brings to life the stuff that has been knocking around in our brains."

Appearing in the film are RJ Foster as Eddie, Carol Schultz as Lorelei, and Dan Daily as Rand. Lorelei has something important to say but we won't really know what it is till the very end. Chris Mixon plays Pete, a curmudgeon who doesn't play well with others, and Bradford Cover plays Will, who gets a kick out of provoking him. Torrie Wiggans is Lizzie, a no-nonsense actress who keeps the discussion on planet earth, and Alani iLongwe plays Andrew, a poet, who helps move things towards some kind of understanding. Margarett Perry, the director, says "During the shutdown I thought a lot about what makes theatre, well... theatre. I've always loved plays that ask questions and start conversations and I hope this piece does that. I'm still not sure if it's a film or a play. But I don't think it's theatre. Or maybe it is. Or maybe it doesn't matter how we define it. Brian's use of language has always excited me. He is a master at the argument, and so it was a lot of fun exploring and debating with this extraordinary group of artists." Post production on this project was executed by Shaunn Baker at World Stage, and Darian Dauchan composed the music and sound.