SUMMIT, NJ — Vivid Stage is branching out.
The 30-year-old theater company will be making a movie.
An initial pre-production fundraising goal of $65,000 was met and efforts to raise more money will resume in the future.
The story was written by David Lee White, a New Jersey-based playwright who has worked with Vivid’s Co-Founder and Artistic Director Laura Ekstrand in the past.
“We had done a lot of his works over the years. I knew from the beginning that this particular White play was the one that we were going to base the film on,” Ekstrand said.
The title is “Jacqueline Remembers All of This” and the story centers on the matriarch of a family preparing for her daughter’s wedding.
Like many pre-nuptials, this one isn’t a smooth ride. It must contend with Alzheimer’s, a deeply religious groom-to-be with ties to a cult and a con man of a brother among other things.
White worked with poet and novelist Maribeth Theroux, and actor and visual artist Dave Maulbeck, to transform “Jacqueline Remembers All of This” from a play with a limited cast into a film with auxiliary roles and settings.
“One of our goals was to feature our core acting ensemble. For that reason, we needed to expand the number of characters,” Ekstrand said.
Fundraising for the project was the focal point for many months and the company reached out to multiple sources for financial assistance before attaining their pre-production goal of $65,000.
“Most of this budget is being held for the moment as we make pre-production plans,” Ekstrand said. “Soon we’ll have to begin renting sets, purchasing production insurance, paying salaries, and buying set, prop and costume pieces. Then there’s post-production editing.”
Meanwhile, those involved in pre-production are creating schedules, informing the actors when and where they will be needed during the filming, which they hope to start in August.
Vivid Stage, which began 30 years ago as Dreamcatcher Repertory Theatre, is based at the Oakes Center in Summit. The company’s productions range from comedies to musicals to serious drama and are often by New Jersey playwrights.
“Through the years our goal has been to tell life-affirming stories,” Ekstrand said.
In addition to a full theater schedule that features members of a resident ensemble plus other professional actors, the group’s repertoire includes summer workshops for teens, improv opportunities for all ages, new play readings and outreach programs.
During the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, when they were unable to perform publicly and personally on stage, they branched out into other forms of media, such as podcasts and music video recording.
Photo Courtesy of Vivid Stage