They're somewhat rare, but theater prequels and sequels are out there. There are two prequels actually running now on Broadway: “Wicked,†an origin story about the witches from “The Wizard of Oz,†and “Peter and the Starcatcher,†about the life of a young Peter Pan.
Often a stage prequel is created after its source material - a movie, book or show - has already been mounted. But in an unusual twist, the film and theater production company One21Collective is offering audiences the chance to see the prequel to the play “Men to Be Feared†before it comes to this year's New York International Fringe Festival. Just not onstage.
In collaboration with the director Daniel Leigh and the playwright Rebecca Jane Stokes, the author of “Men to Be Feared,†the company has come out with a short film. Shot over a long weekend in the Poconos, the film introduces several of the characters and their dystopian envir onment, a kingdom that's been isolated after years of war. Audience members do not need to have seen the movie to understand the film, or vice versa. But it might help: the closing monologue in the film is the opening monologue of the play.
The film was financed in part by a campaign on the fund-raising site IndieGoGo, where the company, just over a year old, also raised funds for the stage production at the Fringe, which begins Aug. 10.
Nate Faust, the company's artistic director, recently spoke with ArtsBeat about the decision to produce a show and a film at the same time. Following are excerpts from the conversation.
How did you develop the idea of making a film that's a prequel to your play?
I've been playing around with this concept of trying to integrate audiences from the theater and film worlds. I asked if she had any scenes that she wrote and didn't like or never made it into the play. I read those and rewo rked them and came up with a story that acted as a prequel to her play. She loved it.
This is one of the biggest projects I've ever tackled in terms of producing a play and a film at the same time. We set achievable goals. We obviously couldn't do helicopter shots or have massive armies of people. We just focused on the story.
How does the film fit with your company's mission?
You have stories on Broadway or on film, and for whatever reason people aren't going to see them. They're not paying attention long enough. It has to do with how accessible media is in your living room. What we set out to do is hook people in their living room so they're inspired to go out and look for a broader spectrum of entertainment.
But Broadway has had a record year. In New York going to the theater is still a very popular thing to do.
This is going to sound silly. I have two younger sisters, 17 and 18. I'm 31. I would ask them about a play or a movie a nd for them it was like, I'm going to go online and see if it interests me. Something clicked for me. There's a cultural shift that's happening. In order to pull someone in you have to get them early so they are interested. For us, artists that are starting off with a low budget, making the film was a way for us to get poeple to come see our stories.
How is the film different than a trailer, which many theater companies are doing these days?
It's not a trailer in terms of, how cool the show is. Theater and film have existed together for the longest time. We've even tried putting film elements in as part of the scenic design on stage. Trying to approach film and theater in a totally new way for us was about having them exist independently.
It's kind of like deleted scenes on a DVD. It's hard to recreate that on stage. If somebody wants to know more, and they see the film and are intruiged enough to know more, they can see the play. Or, if you see the p lay and you want to know why the one of the character becomes a certain way, see the film. You don't have to see both. For me it was an intruging way to try to mash up film and theater and see if it would work.
How are you letting people know about the film, and that it's something that they can watch before seeing the play?
We have a social media plan on Twitter, Vimeo and other places. We're going to show the film in the lobby of the theater. In the program there's a QR code that you can scan and the movie pops up. If you've got ten minutes before the movie starts, you'll get some backstory before you go in.
One of the risks of making a trailer is that people might watch it and say, that's not for me. On paper a show or movie may sound interesting, but a trailer may turn some people off. Are you afraid of that happening?
I guess I never thought to it. For me if the the film is compelling enough and the story holds weight, then people will go . That's throwing caution to the wind. I think we all knew that this might fail horribly. It was an idea that we had a few years back and didn't do anything with. We're not trying to create some kind of super-play. I just refuse to quit.
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