Gallaccio & Street from 2004

Joe Gallaccio and Carly Street have worked together before. Here they are in 2004 in a rough edit clip as MacBeth and Lady MacBeth from my low budget indie film "Tomorrow Tomorrow Tomorrow", which re-imagined MacBeth in a post-apocalypic future (the film is currently in perpetual post-production).

Paul Kimball

Meet... David Connellan

David Connellan is a Halifax based actor who studied theatre at Dalhousie University. After university he spent a year and a half in Croatia developing rehabilitation-based theatre programs for children in war-torn homes. Upon his return to Halifax, he appeared in a number of theatrical productions, including Jailbait at the Halifax Fringe Fest, Halo for the Theatre Arts Guild, and Nightwatch with the Dartmouth Players. David has also appeared in many TV and Film productions over the years, and most recently wrapped production on a short film about... vampires (it's called The Other Side)!

David is one of the co-founders of Halifax's critically-acclaimed le Theatre de Boheme, for which he has acted in or directed six shows, including a sold out run of No Exit at the Prague Fringe Festival.

I directed David for le Theatre de Boheme in 2007 in a version of Marat / Sade. Ace Halifax theatre critic Ron Foley MacDonald called it right when he wrote that David gave "an intense, highly-fuelled and deeply thought-out performance," which is typical of all of David's work, and which is why I'm looking forward to working with him again on Eternal Kiss!

Paul Kimball

Dream EK Soundtrack - Vol. I

Existence well what does it matter?
I exist on the best terms I can.
The past is now part of my future,
The present is well out of hand.
The present is well out of hand.
Heart and soul, one will burn.
Heart and soul, one will burn.
One will burn, one will burn.
Heart and soul, one will burn.

I'm a big Joy Division fan. This is a song that would definitely fit on the Eternal Kiss soundtrack!

Paul Kimball

Meet... Carly Street

Since graduating from the prestigious National Theatre School of Canada, Carly Street has appeared in major productions across the country with The Canadian Stage Company, the Stratford Festival, the Tarragon Theatre, the Atlantic Theatre Festival, the Grand Theatre, Theatre Calgary, and others. With two Best Actress nominations and over forty professional productions under her belt, Carly is recognized among the A-list of young Canadian theatre actresses.

In addition to her stage work, she has appeared in numerous commercials, television programs, and can be seen in three large American feature films, opposite Gene Hackman, Rachel MacAdams and Martin Short.

In 2006, she landed the role of Arwen Evenstar in the world premiere of the stage show The Lord of the Rings, and received international attention for her performance.

Richard Ouzunian of the Toronto Star featured her on its’ front cover “Ten To Watch in 2006”, and Robert Cushman of the National Post has hailed her as part of the “super-ensemble of great Canadian actors.”

Although frequently out of town for various projects, Carly keeps a home in Toronto, where she was born and raised.

I had the pleasure of working with Carly in 2004, and look forward to teaming up with her again on Eternal Kiss - she's a fantastic actor, and I have no doubt that she will create a truly memorable character in Elisabeth Langstrom!

Paul Kimball

Carly Street - "Simply Splendid"

A review from North Country Public Radio of Carly Street in her current role as Sonya / Pixie in The Russian Play and Essay, which is running at the 1000 Islands Playhouse:

Carly Street is simply splendid as both Sonya and Pixie. Her dialect as Sonya is excellent and her translation of the song hilarious. She believably moves the character from humor to pathos in the blink of an eye. As Pixie she shows us the character’s gradual marginalization becoming, as she says, a footnote to the two men’s debate. Her use of lip-gloss is an inspired choice.

[Full review here]

Well done, Carly!

Paul Kimball

Meet... Joseph Gallaccio

Joseph Gallaccio was born in Montreal to Italian immigrant parents. His father was a master cabinet maker and Joe apprenticed with him from a young age, learning the tools of a trade he still practices today. As he grew, it became clear that Joe was very artistic. His gift for drawing, in particular, was recognized as soon as he was old enough to pick up a pencil. Nevertheless, as a teen Joe became more consumed with sports, diving into many active pursuits and eventually working his way up to playing in the Junior Hockey leagues.

The artistic muse prevailed, however. Joe graduated from college in Graphic Arts, after which he went to work for several major ad agencies. From there, he took another step and joined his father in establishing Gallaccio Design Inc, a premiere interior design firm, specializing in custom woodworking. After that, he returned to University to study Fine Art, majoring in painting and sculpture. His three dimensional work led him to an interest in Theatre Arts, and so he took the acting class which set him on the path to full time theatre school in Montreal.

Upon graduating, Joe moved to Toronto and soon found work with Second City, as well as with several companies who were engaged in creating new work. From improv comedy, to playing Dean Martin in the musical revue “the Rat Pack”, to the title role in Shakespeare’s Coriolanus, Quentin in Arthur Miller’s After the Fall, Joe has worked in a wide variety of performance styles, venues and mediums, across the country. He played “Nino” in the original cast of the hit, Mambo Italiano during which time a showing of his paintings speaking to the Italian immigrant experience was also presented. And, perhaps fittingly, one of his most enjoyable roles to date was that of the vampire king himself, Dracula. He is also still enjoying the fruits of his labors on the original X-Men movie, shot out of Toronto.

I first met Joe back when he was playing Coriolanus in the summer of 2003 with Shakespeare by the Sea (he was also hilarious in their production of The Merry Wives of Windsor that summer). He is a great actor, and an even better person, and it's going to be a real thrill for me to team up with him again on Eternal Kiss. He was in town a few months ago, and we had a few beers and chatted about the prospect of working together again (Joe played Macbeth in my still-unfinished indie, "Tomorrow Tomorrow Tomorrow" four years ago). I told him I had something "cooking", and that if it came together, he would be the first person I would call.

It did.. and he was.

Paul Kimball

Meet... Tara Slone

Tara Slone, a native Haligonian, is the former lead singer of the Juno-nominated rock group Joydrop, where she had a very successful run with hits like "Beautiful" and "Sometimes Wanna Die". After a stint as a finalist on the CBS series Rockstar: INXS, Tara returned to performing and penning her own music, and last year released her first solo disc Just Look Pretty and Sing.

No stranger to stage and screen, Tara attended Concordia University’s theatre performance program. She has appeared in numerous television shows and films, including an appearance opposite Ryan Reynolds in Foolproof, and a recurring role on the popular USA Network show La Femme Nikita. Most recently, she performed in a March production of The Vagina Monologues in Toronto.

As well as working on her own career, Tara encourages as much young talent as possible as the co-host of the entertainment show Inside Jam on Toronto’s SUN TV.

Tara will be playing Deputy Mayor Amanda Doyle in Eternal Kiss, but it won't be her first appearance in a horror film - she played "Lois" in the 1997 film Night of the Demons III!

Tara is an entertainment industry "Renaissance Woman", and I'm definitely looking forward to collaborating with her and bringing Doyle to life... or is it death? I guess it depends on how one reads the script!

Paul Kimball

P.S. note to self: direction must not consist of telling Tara to "just look pretty and act"! ;-)

Vamplitude

If you're looking for some tasty vampire fiction to tide you over until Eternal Kiss is available, I heartily recommend the novel Vamplitude by my friend Kathleen Mendelin. The story is inspired by the music of Kathleen's good friend Rick Springfield, from his 2004 Shock/Denial/Anger/Aacceptance album, and features - naturally - a bad boy rockstar vampire!

And in a weird coincidence, kind of like filming on a sound stage where part of the Shag Harbour UFO case occurred, one of the people Kathleen thanks prominently in the acknowledgment section of the book is renowned UFO researcher Stanton T. Friedman, who was the subject of the first documentary I directed, Stanton T. Friedman is Real.

Again, cue the Twilight Zone theme!

Paul Kimball

Meet... Laura Bleasdale

Having found her calling at an early age, Halifax born Laura Bleasdale has been professionally pursuing her passion for acting since her stage debut as Nancy in a production of Oliver. Shortly thereafter she was cast in a principal role on an episode of the Canadian comedy series Blackfly starring comedy great Colin Mochrie and east coast comedian Ron James. In 2000 Laura was scouted by Montreal’s Da Vinci Talent Agency and made the move to Montreal, where she lived and worked for 3 years. During that time she was fortunate enough to have trained under professor & author Carol Zucker, and gained invaluable experience on set in both film & television.

Since her return to Halifax, Laura has been an active member of the Dartmouth Players Theatre, having starred in productions of Prelude To A Kiss and Bus Stop, playing to sold out audiences.

In May of 2007 after having auditioned for both the founder and director of Circle in the Square Theatre School on Broadway, Laura was offered the chance, on the spot, to train in the prestigious intensive summer training program in NYC. She was told she had that certain something which “can not be taught”. Her passionate portrayal of characters paired with a keen insight, was taken to the next level during a summer of training under recognized professionals in both the Broadway and film community.

Laura has recently been featured on a national commercial for Canada Savings Bonds, and a guest staring role on the TV series G-Spot. She has also been active on the local independent film front having shot several shorts in the last two years, which debuted at the Atlantic Film Festival.

Laura is also a member of the Dalhousie School of Medicine faculty, having worked for the past 3 years as a simulated patient actor. She is also actively involved in community work, including Big Brothers, Big Sisters and fundraising campaigns for Cancer Research, with a fun loving impersonation of Marilyn Monroe.

Laura is currently represented by my friends at the Atlantic Talent Agency, who believe in her as much as I do, and believe that she does indeed have that "certain something". She and I have already chatted a number of times about her character in Eternal Kiss, Laura Watson, and I can't wait to see the real-world Laura bring the fictional Laura to life!

Paul Kimball

Meet... Christina Cuffari

A former ballet dancer, Christina Cuffari caught the acting bug at an early age. An Ottawa based actress, Christina graduated with her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Acting from the University of Windsor in 2006, where her favourite roles included Lady Anne in Richard III, and Mollie in Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap.

Christina has been working in theatre and film constantly since. Her film credits include Lacey in a SAW video production titled Autopilot Off and commercial and fictional roles with Seventh Sense Studios. While living in Toronto, she performed with Solar Stage Children’s Theatre, after which she returned to Ottawa to play Joan in a production of Caryl Churchill’s Far Away.

She then journeyed out to Halifax in a critically-acclaimed turn as the AI jailer "Jane" in the sci-fi play Doing Time for Semaphore Theatre Company, a role she will be reprising in August at the Boulder International Fringe Festival, in Boulder, Colorado, after which she will rack up even more frequent flyer points with a return to Halifax to play Stephanie Fielding in Eternal Kiss.

In the meantime, Christina has just recently finished a run with Ontario's Acorn Theatre, in a new comedy called A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Farm.

Christina is a great young, up-and-coming actor, and you can expect to see a great deal of her in the years to come. I can't wait to work with her again, this summer in Boulder, and then immediately after in Eternal Kiss, as she brings her own unique interpretation to one of the characters I had the most fun writing in the screenplay, the repressed young lawyer who discovers her darkside and embraces it!

Paul Kimball

Meet... Amy Kerr

A native Haligonian, Amy Kerr began her career as a model at the age of fifteen. A multiple award winner at myriad modeling and acting competitions, as well as beauty pageants, Amy has booked print campaigns for Nova Scotia Tourism, Colonial Honda, Pedigree Dog Food, UMM Magazine and was featured on the cover of en.Vision Magazine. Her passion, however, has always been acting.

Shortly after she graduated high school, Amy auditioned for a local agency to represent her for acting, and she began to take acting classes. Her first audition, for a commercial for ‘NS tourism’, was a success, and she wound up as the ‘Titanic Girl’. Shortly thereafter, she landed a guest starring role as Desh in a sci-fi tv series Lexx: The Dark Zone.

Amy has since worked with many leading actors - opposite of Cybil Sheppard and Tim Matheson in Martha Inc., where she played Martha Stewart’s daughter, Lexi; with Dean Cain, Brian Bosworth, and Mimi Kuzyk in the action flick Phase IV; and with Sebastian Spence, Chris Shuyer, Ryan Scott Greene and Nigel Bennett in the feature film A Bug And A Bag of Weed. She can also seen as J-Roc’s baby’s mama in multiple episodes of Trailer Park Boys in seasons 3 and 4. Most recently she worked opposite of Flava Flav in the new sit-com Under One Roof as his probation officer Candy.

Amy has recently taken her success in both modeling and acting to the next level by becoming a spokesmodel.

She is the face of Metrin, an all natural, scientific skin care company, and she is the new spokesmodel for Coors Light. Most recently, she was named 2008's "Hottest Chick on the Internet" by Hot Chick Magazine.

In Eternal Kiss, Amy is cast as Emily Parker, a young woman who gets much more than she bargained for when she tries to pick up David Manners in a Los Angeles bar. I'm really looking forward to working with her again.

Paul Kimball

P.S. For more information on Amy’s career, check out her website.

That Was Then - Joseph Gallaccio, 2004

A review for Arthur Miller's After the Fall, an Equity Showcase production from 2004 that featured Joseph Gallaccio.

"Quentin carries the bulk of the intervening drama on his lawyer's shoulders. Joseph Gallaccio was up to the challenge, navigating the persona around, above and beneath him with great conviction."

Paul Kimball

Carly Street in The Russian Play

Carly Street is currently performing in The Russian Play. May 30 to July 5. Showtimes are Tuesday to Sunday at 8 p.m., with 2:30 matinees on Thursday and Saturday. It's running at the Thousand Islands Playhouse, Firehall Theatre.

Tickets are $32, $30 for seniors, $25 for people under 30 and $16 for students. People who want more information can call the playhouse at 1-866-382-7020. Tickets are also available online.

The Brockville Recorder Times writes: "Carly Street does a superb job as Sonya in both her sincere and ironic incarnations."

Break a leg, Carly!

Paul Kimball