About The Rotogravure

Helen's daydream...

What is a cine play?

It's a multimedia production with film projections and live stage performers
interwoven with music, dance and the audience's imagination.

How do you pronounce it?

Row toe grah vyour
(but feel free to just call it Roto like the cast and crew)

A brief synopsis...

Time: The Present

Helen was rarely asked to dinner parties.  But she is merely biding her time.

While waiting for her Real Life to begin, Helen daydreams in glorious Technicolor
of dashing off to elegant sit-down dinners with hordes of admirers.  The black-and-
white reality of rent is paid by a combination of waiting tables and copy editing.

Helen tolerates, but barely, phone calls from a guy named James.  James works in
an office, wears a tie and dreams of sidekicks and chivalry.

An invitation is extended and it seems that their fantasy worlds are coming to life. 
Helen has an Occasion worthy of her fantasies; James has Someone to bring
as his date.

Then reality makes its entrance...

The history of the production

Note from writer/director Roell Schmidt: In the years it took for me to finish Roto and then get it to the point of full production, I spent a lot of time trying to find a kindred example in another writer, director, artist, filmmaker.  Someone who had worked on something for a long time and couldn't seem to put it in a drawer and walk away, someone who wasn't in her 20s when she finished it; someone who would give me confidence to keep going. 

So this timeline is basically a let-it-all-hang-out for anyone who might find it interesting or curious and also just in case someone else is secretly writing away or dreaming a big dream and needs a boost (and finds one simply in the fact that I may have taken longer or meandered more...).

1996 - while working on independent films in Chicago, Roell sees a dance performance that involves projecting video footage of ancient Colombian ruins on a sheet while a solo dancer moves around it; later while interning at the Independent Feature Film Market in NYC, she starts sketching stick figure drawings for a half play/half film in which live actors play with the projection surfaces; begins to jot down story inspired by a woman she waited tables with at the Medici in Hyde Park because she read that Tennessee Williams wrote all his plays first as stories; changes heroine's name from Ellen to Helen

1997 - takes full-time job in corporate PR agency for the health insurance thinking regular paycheck will allow for structured time to write (HA HA HA); does not factor in working 70+ hours per week or having to travel a lot with job

1999 - leaves corporate PR job for Lookingglass Theatre Company; ends up as Development Director for capital campaign; works 80+ hours per week; writes opening scenes of "Helen & James" and dream sequence; moans and groans about not having enough time to get more done; distracts herself from "H&J" by throwing dinner parties

2002 - friend Karen Maude - who has been hearing about this idea for years - demands Roell join a camping-in-a-cabin expedition to Fairy Stone State Park in Virginia as a mini-writer's retreat; Roell leaves VA with first act (nearly complete) and outline for entire play

Lookingglass Artistic Director and playwright Laura Eason reads nearly-finished first act and sends extremely inspiring email.

Roell's mom, Barbara Schmidt, is diagnosed with ovarian cancer and Roell is back and forth from Chicago and St. Louis; reads email from Laura to mom, who asks for a printed copy; Barbara proceeds to read email to everyone who calls to see how she's doing

July - Roell's mom dies (same day as Jane Austen - one of Barbara's favorite authors: read Pride and Prejudice to 10-year-old Roell a chapter a night) the week before Roell's 30th b'day. At funeral, many people approach Roell to tell her how "proud your mother was of her daughter the playwright."  Anguish intensified by fact that Roell doesn't even have a completed first act. Feverishly works on play when not at work to do justice to mom's pride 

2003 - heads to NYC for book launch of Fashionistas by college roommate and published novelist Lynn Messina; first reading of script-in-progress by Lynn, Deena Rubinson (college roommate and singer/songwriter) and Roell playing all the parts; incorporates feedback from Deena and Lynn

Heads to Michigan with Twania Brewster, Angela DePaul, and Kathryn O'Day for a blizzard-y weekend; group reads revised partial script; Roell incorporates feedback from Twania, Angela and Kit

In February, Roell visits dad and ends up in St. Louis emergency room from stress.  Realizes needs to get new Lookingglass theater open before can return to writing

In June new theater opens - calls husband Matthew on documentary at 3 a.m. from inaugural party to share joy; dances every dance

In August takes vacation camping throughout Canada with long-suffering husband

In September, resumes writing

2004 - early a.m. in March types "The F*&^$*# End;" proceeds to break down in wracking sobs

Initial readers find first draft very hard to read due to stage and film directions; Roell had written down everything exactly as she pictured it which made for a lot of hyper-detailed pages; worries that maybe it's just an exercise; puts script in a drawer; feels really, really depressed

Houses Philadelphia actress Ceal Phelan for Lookingglass' Hard Times production; Roell and Ceal converse over dinner about theater and writing; Ceal mentions she is working on her first adaptation; Roell confesses to having written a play; Ceal asks to read it; Roell reluctantly takes it out of drawer, warns that it's really hard to read; Ceal reads script and says it has to be produced

Roell's great aunt Cele Schaller dies at 102, leaving Roell $2,000 in will; Matthew and Roell decide to use to do a staged reading of script to see if it can really engage an audience

Changes title to "The Rotogravure" from "Helen & James"

Actor Rich Leff, whom Roell wrote the role of Milton for, dies after 20 years of fighting kidney disease

September staged reading at the Athenaeum Theatre featuring: Jennifer Bienemann, Cheryl Lynn Bruce, Eiren Caffall, Jasmin Cardenas, David Catlin, Thom Cox, Sue Demel, Christine Dunford, Mark Habert, Michael Kass, Elizabeth Rich, Linara Washington; Brian Sidney Bembridge lights it, Chad Willetts creates the opening soundscape; Matthew Hickey, Kathryn McCray and Roell Schmidt produce it; 100 people, including Nicole Woods, attend, laugh, respond, and fill out surveys

2005 - UMA Productions requests copy of script; declines due to scope of project; husband queries why first play has to be most complicated play on planet

Leaves Lookingglass for 3/4 time position at The Chicago Chamber Musicians

Meets Byron Johns at Illinois Arts Alliance conference; both start talking about dreams of writing (Roell) and music (Byron); Byron invites The Rotogravure to be project for Producing Live Entertainment course he's teaching at Columbia College

Meets with Fred Solari at the Athenaeum Theatre; Fred agrees to mentor project and serve as fiscal sponsor of full production

2006

Roell receives first CAAP grant from the City of Chicago to hire illustrator and filmmaker Janet Arvia to storyboard the script

Fred Solari dies of heart failure to shock and sadness of entire Chicago theater community

Lookingglass invites The Rotogravure to be one of 13 scripts read at its gglassworks reading week; script is read by: Eva Barr, David Catlin, Laura Eason, Sara Gmitter, Doug Hara, Louise Lamson, Phil Smith, Heidi Stillman, Tracy Walsh, Troy West, and Andy White; much encouragement, constructive feedback and assertion that Roell would need to direct if ever makes it to the stage

Byron invites The Rotogravure to be the theater portion of new Producing Live Entertainment course at Columbia where students will actually produce an evening of dance, music and theater at the South Shore Cultural Center

December - Song, Dance, Action! workshop performance of portion of Roto's first act; shot and edited by Matthew Hickey and Jason Betke; music by Andra Velis Simon; choreography by Akiko Nishida; lighting by Hiroko Arai; featuring Christopher Chantson, Mark Habert, Lauren Ritchie, Vergia Siovan, Zack Turner, Jacquelyn Zook; 350 people attend, laugh, respond

Group of individuals involved with previous readings and workshop give Roell a talking to that she has to move forward with full production; offer financial support

2007 - Roell receives second CAAP grant from the City of Chicago to hire composer Andra Velis Simon to write the original music

The Field based in NYC becomes Fiscal Sponsor for the project; Ben Wolf signs on as cinematographer; Andra Velis Simon signs on to compose and music direct; Chris McCray signs on to choreograph; Kirsten Sloan Casey signs on to edit; Jim Andre of Filmbranch signs on as gaffer

November - First dinner party held by Twania Brewster to discuss the full production and how to attract an audience to attend indpendently produced show with title no one can pronounce; idea of asking people to host dinner parties is born

Pre-production up the ying yang; final revisions to script; Roell writes second full-length play The Whole World Is Watching about the 1968 Democratic National Convention

2008 - Roell receives third CAAP grant from the City of Chicago to hire Jeanne Trepanier to produce the films for The Rotogravure

February - Liz Barrett hosts second dinner party - first one shot by Mark Kenseth of Sipsitter Films; four guests (all previously known to Roell) agree to host dinners

Roell is accepted to Ragdale Artists' Retreat; spends two weeks in April working on animated feature film script The Land of the Roses

July - Christy Uchida hosts third Roto dinner party - huge success; three guests spontaneous decide to host their own dinners (none of whom previously known to Roell!)

Jeanne takes full-time job and cannot produce films; Matthew steps into the breach to produce three-week shoot in August; shoot wraps with all footage captured in 19 rather than the originally planned 20 days

Dinner parties continue in August, September, October and November (10 to date); more scheduled for December and January (another 10+ expected to take place!)

Meanwhile, music workshops took place in September; weekly editing meetings began in October; movement workshops took place in November; rehearsals began December 15 and then...we opened January 16 and closed January 31.

Thank you to the legion of everyones who made Roto come true!

-Roell