Live Source Theatre Group Announces New Short Film Series LIVE SOURCE FILMS

Live Source Theatre Group has announced the formation of Live Source FILMS, a new program to support theatre artists in the development and production of short filmmaking during the time of COVID-19. The inaugural season will include the digital release of two new short films What Do I Owe You? and Crow God, written for the company by television writer Claire Downs (Visible: Out On Television, Ask Dr. Ruth, Nickelodeon), both to be released for streaming in December 2020. Another two films will be announced at a later date for a Spring 2021 release. What Do I Owe You? and Crow God will be directed by Tyler Mercer and Katia Koziara (The Artist Apartment, The Bracket Theory, Blue Bloods) respectively, with Koziara producing both films with Live Source.

Through the creation of this program, Live Source Theatre Group is returning to its roots, as during their 2011-2014 seasons, the company regularly created grassroots film and video content for online distribution. Live Source FILMS was officially launched in April 2020, in response to the limiting realities that the COVID-19 pandemic inflicted upon the arts community. By reviving this work, the company is able to provide safer production models for short films to be created, shot, and edited during various periods of social distancing.

What Do I Owe You? follows a day in the life of Sylvia, a struggling New Jersey diner waitress whose luck turns when the lottery ticket she's tipped by a stingy customer turns out to be a winner... and her subsequent battle to fend off friends, family, and co-workers who claim entitlement to her winnings.

Crow God asks, "is it ethical to take money from animals who know not of currency?" Debt-ridden Millennial, Kay, is faced with this moral issue after the crows whom she feeds and tends to begin delivering her $100 bills. What at first seems like a golden opportunity to settle her debts and pursue a life of grandeur quickly devolves as Kay begins wondering the crows' intentions and where this money is coming from.

Claire Downs (Writer) is a writer living in Los Angeles. Born and raised in downtown Chicago, Claire attended Tisch School of the Arts at New York University before being hired to write on a house sketch team at Upright Citizens Brigade comedy theater. Through comedy writing, Claire sold a television pilot to Nickelodeon (Jenny Kim Can Spit?!) and moved out west, where she acted and wrote in the webseries, These People starring Jim Rash. Claire has written for a variety of fiction and nonfiction projects, including Visible Out On Television (Apple TV), Ask Dr. Ruth (Hulu), Bitter With Baggage (Hulu), EQUAL (HBO Max), and The UnXplained (The History Channel). Her original scripts have been developed with Stoopid Buddy Stoodios, Forward, Technicolor VR, and Audible Originals. Claire's script Tourist Town was in the top 10% of scripts for the Academy Awards Nicholl Fellowship, she was a third round finalist for the 2020 Women in Film Blacklist Lab, and a current Women in Film 2019-2020 Writing Mentee. A passionate labor organizer, Claire has been involved with Los Angeles' TimesUp Movement, IATSE successful effort to unionize TV Writers' Assistants, nationwide strike solidarity campaigns through the Hollywood Labor Movement, and Soldiers of Pole's efforts to organize exotic dancers. Claire is repped by Jermaine Johnson at Zero Gravity Management.

Katia Koziara (Crow God Director & Producer) is a New York City based filmmaker whose most recent film The Artist Apartment premiered at Zero Film Festival where it won the Audience Choice Award. Katia's debut short film The Bracket Theory premiered at the Manhattan Film Festival where it won Best Short Romantic Drama, and went on to continue an acclaimed festival run including screenings at the Soho International Film Festival, Mammoth Film Festival, and Big Apple Film Festival. Most notably, Katia has previously been the assistant to DGA/Emmy Award winning director Reed Morano (Executive Producer/Director The Handmaid's Tale), Joseph Iberti (Executive Producer Watchmen, Mr. Robot), David Barrett (Co-Executive Producer/Director Blue Bloods), and Broadway Director Walter Bobbie (Chicago, Bright Star). Katia is currently adapting a novel into a feature film for Lifeboat Productions, and is the assistant to showrunner Mark Friedman on the upcoming Apple TV+ series Severance. Katia is a winner of the Manhattan Theater Club's Jonathan Alper Directing Fellowship and a voting member of the National Board of Review. Katia is a graduate of the Bard College.

Live Source Theatre Group (Producer) was founded in 2011 with the mission to elevate the role of design in the creation, development, and production of new multidisciplinary works. The group uses both classic and original plays to reveal and explore contemporary themes, drawing from a blend of styles, stories, and live sources. With innovative design and technology in constant play with highly stylized performances, Live Source engages audiences through a bold new theatre aesthetic.

The company's inaugural production in 2012, Macbeth, was a multimedia reimagining of Shakespeare's violent tragedy, invoking midcentury influences from Watergate to On the Waterfront in an exploration of political corruption. Additional company works include We Are Live, a devised work which blended Anton Chekhov's The Seagull, with Alfred Hitchcock's Stage Fright; the English-language U.S. premiere of Bohemian Lights, adapted after Ramón Valle-Inclán's masterwork Luces de Bohemia; The Incredible Fox Sisters, a world premiere by Jaclyn Backhaus based on the true events following the infamous séances held in 19th Century by the Fox sisters in upstate New York; the world premiere production of Solstice Party!, a new play by Susan Soon He Stanton (HBO's Succession), at the A.R.T./NY Theaters, commissioned and developed by Live Source. Critics called it "superb" (The Huffington Post) and "a thrilling and compelling cauchemare" (Stage Buddy); and Suddenly, a new play adapted from the 1954 film starring Frank Sinatra about a botched Presidential assassination which The New Yorker called "admirable and refreshing."

Live Source Theatre Group's Board of Directors includes Dr. Elizabeth Cornell, Chris Dieman, Sarah Dunn, Kathryn Giaimo, D. Mara Lowenstein, and Tyler Mercer.

To post a comment, you must register and login.