Play Date
from executive producers J. Smith-Cameron and Academy Award® Winner Kenneth Lonnergan
a short film
Two estranged mothers reunite to make sense of their daughter's last play date.
There aren't a lot of words we could use to describe why we need to tell this story. We all know. We hear the numbers everyday. 656 - that was the number of mass shootings in the United States in 2023. 297 - the number of children aged 0-11 killed by guns in 2023. 641 - the number of them injured.
So far in 2024 there have been 70 children killed in 124 mass shootings. Over a period of 117 days.**
It's overwhelming. Numbing.
With this film we want to give a face to the people left behind. specifically, the mothers. We want to explore what it is to hold space for their grief. to be present with it, and to be affected by it.
Because maybe, if we do, it won't be so easy to go numb.
**https://www.gunviolencearchive.org
Amberlee Colson & Laura Campbell
Directors Statement
“Play Date is an attempt to comprehend not only the depth of loss incurred by the parents of school shooting victims, but also the mental contortions the rest of us have to perform in order to keep living in a world where a day at school or a night at the movies can mean the end of the world as we know it.”
- Gavin Broady
Writer’s Statement
Support
Amberlee Colson graduated from Loyola Marymount University with honors. She credits her ability to speak broken-Italian to her brief studies at Scuola Leonardo da Vinci Firenze; and her love for theatre & SoHo vibes to her time at The Atlantic Theatre Company in New York. She's an active member of The Actorswork Community, a lab dedicated to actors, writers and directors for workshopping their material. It was at this lab, where she developed her one woman play that was based on her relationship with her mother, called BIG HAIR. The popularity of this show inspired her to adapt it for the screen, becoming her first award-winning feature film, ALWAYS WORTHY. She stars along side Ian Gomez, Lukas Haas, Jason Ritter, Eric Edelstein, Gillian Zinser and Rondi Reed. The film is streaming on most major platforms in US, UK & Ireland. More recently, she's been developing a comedy series that centers around a father/ daughter relationship, called SUNRISE RUBY. She starred in and co-directed the pilot last year and it is currently being well-received on the festival circuit: winning BEST TV PILOT in various places such as Toronto, Portland, Austin and Spain. Amberlee's passionate about the power of storytelling. She is the founder of Little Lee Pictures, a production company that champions female-driven stories and celebrates diversity and inclusion.
Amberlee Colson
Co-Director / Co-Star
Laura Campbell was born in Northern Ireland and relocated to the United States at 10 years of age. She attended Tulane University in New Orleans where she received her degree in Theatre Studies, International Relations and Conflict Resolution. She went on to get her Masters Degree in Acting from Columbia University where she studied under some of the greats such as Kristin Linklater, Andrei Serban, and Anne Bogart. For her thesis performance at Columbia Laura worked with Tony Award-winning director Diane Paulus to adapt and stage a production of James Baldwin's ANOTHER COUNTRY. As a theatre professional she has worked locally and regionally in theaters across the country from The Clurman in her solo performance off-Broadway to multiple turns at the Tony Award-winning Alley Theatre in Houston. She can be seen on the small screen in a recurring role on ABC’s QUANTICO, as well as many guest star roles on major television shows such as LAW & ORDER, THE GOOD WIFE and BLUE BLOODS. On the big screen you can catch her playing opposite Vince Vaughn in Benedict Andrews’ SEBERG starring Kristen Stewart and Jack O’Connell. Other roles include the wild drifter, Reyna, in the Netflix released feature film DOOMSDAYS, and as title roles in a multitude of short films. Laura is co-founder of DYNAMO STUDIO, a female driven production company creating theatre and film to catalyze conversation around social issues, they will be shooting their fist feature in 2024. Laura is a proud board member of FILM FATALES, a non-profit advocating for all marginalized genders in the film industry.
Laura Campbell
Co-Director / Co-Star
Kenneth Lonergan
Executive Producer
Kenneth Lonergan's plays include THIS IS OUR YOUTH (Drama Desk Award nomination, Tony Award nomination); LOBBY HERO (Drama Desk nomination, Outer Critics Circle Award nomination, Olivier Award nomination); THE STARRY MESSENGER; MEDIEVAL PLAY; and HOLD ONTO ME DARLING. His first film as writer-director, YOU CAN COUNT ON ME, earned him Academy Award and Golden Globe Award nominations; it also won the Sundance Grand Jury Prize, Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award, New York Film Critics Circle Award, Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award, and Independent Spirit Awards for Best Film and Best Screenplay. His second film, MARGARET, won the European Film Critics' FIPRESCI Award at the Vienna Film Festival and the Traverse City Film Festival Founders Prize. Most recently, Lonergan received an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for MANCHESTER BY THE SEA, which he also directed, as well as numerous other awards, including the 2017 BAFTA Award for Best Screenplay. Other screenplay credits include ANALYZE THIS (co-writers Harold Ramis and Peter Tolan) and GANGS OF NEW YORK (2002 Writers Guild of America and Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay; co-writers Jay Cocks and Steve Zaillian). His four-part television adaptation of E.M. Forster's HOWARDS END aired on the BBC in 2017 and is currently airing on Starz in the U.S.
J. Smith-Cameron
Executive Producer
J. Smith-Cameron gained prominence for her roles in the television series RECTIFY and SUCCESSION, the latter of which earned her two Primetime Emmy Award nominations. She spent a majority of her career in theatre, making her Broadway debut in the Beth Henley play CRIMES OF THE HEART. She went on to receive a Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play nomination for the Timberlake Wertenbaker play OUR COUNTRY’S GOOD. She was also nominated for the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Play for Seán O'Casey's JUNO AND THE PAYCOCK. For her role in the film NANCY, she was nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Female. Her other notable films include 84 CHARING CROSS ROAD, MIGHTY APHRODITE, SABRINA, IN & OUT, YOU CAN COUNT ON ME, MARGARET, and CHRISTINE. She also appeared in the television series TRUE BLOOD, DIVORCE, SEARCH PARTY, and FLEISHMAN IS IN TROUBLE.
Reed Birney
Producer
Reed Birney, star of MASS and THE MENU, won the Tony Award and Drama Desk Award for his role in THE HUMANS. He was also nominated for a Tony Award and won the Drama Desk Award in for his work in CASA VALENTINA. He is the recipient of a special honorary Obie Award for “sustained excellence of performance” and he received a Special Drama Desk Award “for his versatile and finely nuanced performances over the past thirty-five years, and for his exceptional work in three different plays.” He also received Obie Awards for his performances in Annie Baker’s CIRCLE MIRROR TRANSFORMATION and Tracy Lett’s BUG. Reed has shared the stage with Ellen Burstyn and Bryan Cranston, and he has over 75 film/TV credits, including Clint Eastwood’s CHANGELING, playing Vice President Donald Blythe on HOUSE OF CARDS, as Patti LuPone’s husband on GIRLS, and on THE BLACKLIST.
Leah Meyerhoff
Producer
Leah Meyerhoff (she/they) is an award winning independent filmmaker who wrote and directed the narrative feature film I BELIEVE IN UNICORNS which was released theatrically after premiering at SXSW, winning the Grand Jury Prize at the Atlanta Film Festival and additional awards from Woodstock Film Festival, Nashville Film Festival, Tribeca Film Institute, IFP, and the Adrienne Shelly Foundation. Leah’s films have screened in over 200 film festivals and aired on IFC, PBS, LOGO and MTV. She is a fellow of the IFP Narrative Labs, Tribeca All Access Labs, and Emerging Visions program at the New York Film Festival. Leah is also the founder of FILM FATALES, a non-profit organization which advocates for parity in the film industry and supports a membership community of over a thousand feature film and television directors of all marginalized genders. Leah holds a BA in Art-Semiotics from Brown University and an MFA in Directing from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts.
Donna Morong
Producer
Donna Morong is a respected casting director, acting teacher, as well as producer, with over 30 years in the business. She spent her early years in New York City, working on Broadway and off-Broadway theatre in a variety of capacities. In L.A. she worked 15 years at The Walt Disney Company ultimately becoming Senior Vice President of Motion Picture Casting. In 2008, she won an Artios Award for casting Ben Affleck’s GONE BABY GONE for Miramax which garnered an academy award nomination for Amy Ryan. Her other film credits at Disney include 10 THINGS I HATE ABOUT YOU, PRINCESS DIARIES and CONFESSIONS OF A TEENAGE DRAMA QUEEN. Out of her work at her acting studio, she produced several plays in L.A., including EXTREMITIES in 2018, starring Laura Campbell, which got outstanding reviews. In addition to the production, audiences participated in impactful talkbacks with experts on violence against women. Since leaving Disney she has cast award-winning independent features including RUBBER, REALITE, SEE YOU THEN, and SOPHIE AND THE RISING SUN that have appeared at festivals including Cannes, Sundance, South by Southwest, and Palm Springs. She is passionate about social justice, women’s, LGBTQ and immigrants’ rights.French cinematographer, raised between Spain, China, and the Caribbean, currently based in Los Angeles and Paris. She recently graduated as a cinematography fellow from the American Film Institute where she was a recipient of a Fulbright scholarship, a Georges Lurcy fellowship as well as an ASC Vision Mentorship. She has worked professionally as a cinematographer and camera operator on narrative short films as well as documentaries throughout France, Italy, Kenya, Bulgaria, and the USA.
Melissa Johnson
Producer
Melissa Johnson is an Emmy nominated and Academy Award Shortlisted writer and director based in Los Angeles. She tells emotional stories about personal identity, the wilderness, sports, and rites of passage through an irreverent, often humorous lens. Melissa brings the social commentary and portraiture of her documentary films into her scripted work. Her docs have appeared on Showtime, ESPN, and MTV and have won top awards at the Tribeca Film Festival, Outfest and San Francisco IndieFest among others worldwide. NO LOOK PASS, about a Burmese-American basketball star grappling with her sexual identity, was selected by the U.S. State Department for the American Film Showcase. Melissa directed the Emmy-nominated film, TRANSFORMATION alongside Katelyn Howes through their company, 1/27 Pictures. The film follows a group of transgender youth who find the resources and safety to express their true selves. After airing on MTV, the film has garnered over one million views on YouTube. She has been named a finalist three times by Sundance’s Episodic Labs and placed in Austin Film Festival’s screenwriting competition as well as CineStory and Creative World Awards. Melissa’s first-person essays have appeared in The New York Times, Outside Magazine, Longreads, The Rumpus, Narratively, Salon and The Guardian, among others, including the inspiration for her autobiographical animated film, LOVE IN THE TIME OF MARCH MADNESS, about her dating life as a 6’4” tall woman — which won at Tribeca and went on to be Shortlisted for the 2016 Academy Awards. A two-time Atlantic Coast Conference basketball champion at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Melissa transferred to Harvard University where she captained the team and graduated cum laude with a degree in philosophy. Once voted “Most Likely to Live in a Log Cabin”, Melissa hopes to come back in her next life as a peregrine falcon. She is represented by Jen Au Management.
Brad Barnes
Producer
Brad Barnes saw his feature film debut as a director, THE LOCKSMITH (a.k.a. “Homewrecker”), win the Best of NEXT Award at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. Brad’s second dramatic feature, SEX GUARANTEED was released by The Orchard. His third fiction feature, HIDING PLACES is in post production. Brad is an Adjunct Professor at USC in the Division of Film & Television Production. Previously, Brad taught filmmaking for over a decade in the graduate film program at Columbia University. He’s also taught directing in the grad film program at NYU, at The New School and at Film Independent. In L.A. Brad previously directed two plays, This is Our Youth and Orphans, for the Aquila Morong studio. Brad began his career making multiple screen, gallery-based video and was formally director of exhibitions at White Cube gallery in London, UK.
Audrey Biche is a French cinematographer, raised between Spain, China, and the Caribbean, currently based in Los Angeles and Paris. She recently graduated as a cinematography fellow from the American Film Institute where she was a recipient of a Fulbright scholarship, a Georges Lurcy fellowship as well as an ASC Vision Mentorship. She has worked professionally as a cinematographer and camera operator on narrative short films as well as documentaries throughout France, Italy, Kenya, Bulgaria, and the USA.
Audrey Biche
Director of Photography
Kelly Soll
Editor
Kelly Soll grew up in Plano, Texas and moved to LA in 2010 to pursue a career in editing for television and film. She got her start working as an Assistant Editor and Editor on reality TV on shows such as: The Bachelor, Celebrity Wife Swap, and The Victoria's Secret Fashion Show. In 2017, Kelly was invited into the ACE Diversity Mentorship Program and shortly after made the jump to scripted, working on The Last Black Man in San Francisco, as well as Yellowstone, Atypical, and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. After editing several short films, Kelly cut her first feature in 2020, then, As Real As You Make It, in 2021. She most recently edited on season 2 of Netflix’s hit show Sex/Life. In 2018, she started a group to mentor women and BIPOC where she teaches free Assistant Editing classes to help people get their foot in the door.