EXPLORING SYSTEMIC ISSUES PERVASIVE THEN AND TODAY - IN A FILM BASED ON A PLAY ABOUT A PLAY ADAPTED FROM THE NOVEL

First there was the 1940 novel "Native Son", Richard Wright’s groundbreaking novel - which explored systemic oppression and its impact on African-Americans.

Close on its heels was the 1941 Broadway play "Native Son", adapted from the novel of the same name, written by Green and Wright, directed by Orson Welles.

In 2015, North Carolina playwright (& former Piedmont Laureate) Ian Finley wrote a one-act play about Green and Wright's final argument over the script during the rehearsals of the 1941 production of the play "Native Son", adapted from the novel of the same name. This modern play has toured the eastern US, playing to enthusiastic audiences & favorable notices for the last several years (pre-Covid).

From 2019 to 2022 EbzB Productions produced a film based on Ian Finley's 2015 play about the 1941 Broadway play "Native Son,” adapted from the novel of the same name.

Exploring societal issues then and now, in a film based on a play about a play adapted from a novel.

The style is practiced and reserved. Nothing handheld, though this is not meant to discount movement. The camera will move fluidly throughout the scene when necessary. We have been rather bold in production as well as the cut, holding for longer than expected in order to capture the measure of the moment.

There are several moments when the story demands a transition between the present and the past - or a reminder that we are in a theatrical space. These were shot seamlessly through a clever camera move (a la John Sayles in Lonestar) or a match cut. Much of the film takes place at the majestic Carolina Theatre in Greensboro, NC, standing in for the St. James, the stage itself standing in for the location of memories through these careful transitions.

In one instance, imagine a conversation between Wright and Green: where the dialogue continues, but the camera, as if distracted from the conversation, slides off to cross the stage. The dialogue continues, but never becomes truly indistinct, nor is there any substantial ambient sound to compete with it. We track past the continuous stage activity and finally come to rest in the wings, on a young woman. Though dressed and be-wigged as a university student and Green’s secretary, Ouida Campbell, this is actually played by the same actress as Anne Burr. She is smoking a cigarette, waiting to go onstage. The backstage cue light illuminates. She stubs out the cigarette, fusses her hair one last time, and rushes on stage. The camera tracks with her back toward the two men, and their dialogue comes to the fore again.