CERISE Casting: Character Specs/Descriptions

Welcome to the Cerise Casting Call! What follows is a list of characters, specifications, and descriptions of the characters I'm currently seeking for my off-beat short screenplay.

ACTORS & ACTRESSES

Please read the descriptions and send an email to cerisemovie@gmail.com with (1) your headshot, (2) your resume, (3) a link to your reel, and (4) which character(s) you would like to audition for.

I will contact you to have you come to the auditions; they will be help outdoors, most likely at Washington Square Park, NYC. Date and time TBA.

Principles

Josh Kermes (Caucasian male, 28 – 35) The protagonist of Cerise. He feels that he has all he wants in life, though everything in his life boxes him in. Josh has become complacent in his job as sole writing tutor at the Tutoring Center of N.E. Given University. For years he’s been okay with this, until recently, when that which kept him down all these years rears its ugly head once more.

Supporting

Shivam Shah (Indian/Middle Eastern male, 28 – 35) The antagonist for the first half of Cerise. Very “Mac Guy” in personality, Shivam is cool, calm, collected. To him, a job is just that; whereas Josh is a great writing tutor, Shivam simply plays the part of a great writing tutor (and gets away with the charade). He throws Josh’s world into disorder because he is also the person who cost Josh his seventh National Spelling Bee championship.

Other Characters

Sam White (Caucasian male, 30 – 40) Josh’s other coworker and math tutor. (Speaking)

Young Josh (Caucasian male, 15) Josh as a young boy. (Speaking)

(NOTE: Because Young Josh needs to look somewhat like the actor playing Josh, I must cast Josh before I can cast Young Josh, so please be patient in waiting for a reply to audition. Thank you.)

Josh’s Mother (Caucasian female, 35 – 40) A brief role. (Speaking)

Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum (Any, 28 – 32) Two brief comic characters. (Speaking)

Little Girl (Any, 12 – 15 years) A girl in a spelling bee. (Speaking)

(NOTE: This role will be shot prior to principle photography on Cerise.)

Man (Any, 30 – 35) A masked samurai figure that haunts Josh's dreams. (Non-speaking)

(NOTE: Samurai sword skills and/or experience in samurai films preferred.)

Barista (Any, 22 – 28) A brief role. (Speaking)

Receptionist (Caucasian, 40 – 50) A brief comic character. (Speaking)

Students (Ages 18 – 22; speaking)

Sascha (Hispanic)

Cory (African-American)

Kwame (African-American)

Student #1 (Brief)

Student #2 (Brief)

Update: The Rewrite and One More Bite

Man, it's been quite a week!

First, I want to once more offer my deepest gratitude to all those who contributed to Cerise, my next short film project about a former spelling bee champion who, 24 years later, is still haunted by the word that took him down.

Thank you once more:

• Larry (Dean) Wilson
• David L. Ulery (@davidlulery)
• Alain Aguilar (@Alain_Aguilar)
• Gary King (@grking)
• Cielito Pascual (@cielitopascual)
• Sheri Candler (@Shericand)
• Walter Enders
• Lucy Ann Philips
• Larry Goodman
• Frank Guzman Jr.
• Jessica King &
  
• Julie Keck (@kingisafink)
• Chrissy Zurawski
• Jon Crefeld
• Daniel Arol Jahns
• Pamela Craig
• Ray Addas
• Mohamed Elmaksoud
• CineKink (@Cinekink)

Your support and contributions are going to make Cerise the best it can be!

Cerise Pitch from John Trigonis on Vimeo.

Cerise Sees Red: The Rewrite
Regarding my rewrite for Cerise, I've been working on tweaking the first act so that I know how to play my second act to its utmost potential. Today I made some excellent progress, and I should be moving on to finish up the polishing of acts two and three sometime next week. I'll keep you posted.

A Beautiful Unlife: One More Bite!
I got my feature-length script A Beautiful Unlife back from my script analyst Michael Ray Brown (@MichaelRayBrown) and it looks like my timeless vampire movie is one last polish away from being ready to hit the studios one more time.

More Ideas, But Where Does the Time Go?
Time is always the thing there never seems to be enough of in a single day. I've got so many ideas, some stashed away in the leather folds of my manvelope, others plugged not-so-neatly into the Notes of my iPhone, and still others that I've lost touch with; they live in the lines of retired writing tablets, journals that are overstuffed, and random Dunkin' Donuts napkins that have managed to avoid the trash can.

I've managed to pull one short film idea out of my phone this past weekend and I started brainstorming. I've got a very loose storyline, but one with lots of promise. There are some interesting characters, too, and soon I'll write up a basic screenplay for this intriguing little Twilight Zonish tale about a small place called the Mnemosyne Café.

That's it for now. Check back next time for another peek inside my manvelope! In the meantime, please check out Cerise on IndieGoGo and show your support.

So Just What IS in My Manvelope?

The question is frequently asked:

"What's in the bag?" (it's so not a bag) or "...folder?" (it folds but it's not a folder) or "...manpurse?" (really?)

I prefer the term "manvelope" and yes, there are tons of things squirming about inside my manvelope just aching for release (so much, in fact, that it warranted the title of this blog.)

This particular manvelope started out as a caravan for fresh photocopies of my poetry which would be recited at spoken word and open mic events back in my Bukowski days when you could find me curled up on the #2 piecing together my master's thesis. Now it's home to ideas inked out on Starbucks napkins, script pages reddened by the scars of revision, film reviews still in the fetal stage, random copies of CREATIVE SCREENWRITING or THE NEW YORKER, a Moleskine notebook (of course), and a surfeit of other concepts fresher than most of the food in my fridge, from short film blurbs and one-minute sketches to feature-length script ideas.

The latest projects to emerge from the innards of my manvelope are CERISE, a short film about a former spelling bee champ haunted by the word that took him down, and A BEAUTIFUL UNLIFE, a feature about a vampire from the future who travels back in time to 2010 hoping to find a cure for his ills and during his stay gets a job answering a suicide prevention hotline (all the better to find fresh blood) and falls in love with a cynical young actress whom he eventually learns is his own mother.

CERISE now has a project profile on IndieGoGo where I'm hoping to raise an extra $5,000 from fans like you to add to the $10,000 I've saved up myself so that I can make CERISE the best it can be.

A BEAUTIFUL UNLIFE (currently in its sixth draft) is currently on the desk of noted script analyst Michael Ray Brown. Once I receive the new coverage, it'll be time to begin the resubmission process and hopefully snag a nice one-step deal and save the world from the shimmery of the Twi-Hards!

As my days change, so do the contents of my manvelope, so be sure to subscribe and keep up with what white rabbits and sacred dragons I pull from my magic hat!