CAMERA OBSCURA
10 people, 4 years, and a Park
Directed by Miles Millikan
Co-written by Miles Millikan and Samantha Ozeas
It started with 5 friends in a classroom saying they wanted to make their own work.
It split off into myself and another friend, Samantha Ozeas, co-writing it over the Summer.
We split duties, she produced it, I directed.
We held auditions and cast it with ourselves, familiar faces, and strangers whom we'd never spoken to
We rehearsed every day after school, whether it be in one of the classrooms or behind the school on concrete blocks.
We toured theaters around L.A., settling on The Complex in Hollywood. Though we were both 16 at the time, we signed (maybe illegally?) our first theater contract.
After a few months of rehearsals, we had 3 sold-out shows over a weekend, causing a reprisal show the following Friday.
TRAILER
Our Lighting Designer Allie Hunter volunteered to make a promo for our show. It was the first time I'd ever seen a trailer for a theater show, and since then it has inspired me to make them myself.
POSTER
Going to a performing arts high school, we also had the opportunity to collaborate with a visual artist, Keiji Ishida, to make the design for the poster.
When investigating the concept for this show, we were pulled to the idea of people passing through a park; all the little snippets of life we get from their momentary pass-throughs.
What would it be like to just watch that one park over a long period of time? What stories could we watch birth? Die? We explored the evolution of human relationships over time, and asked what about us really changes?
Getting to do a project like this was one of the greatest gifts I've gotten. I had never directed before, and thus it was a massive learning experience. There were plenty of wins and plenty of yikes. And most of all, it was the first introduction I had to the forming of a family in the theater. To form a family. To fall in love. To fall over and over.
It taught me why I want to do this for the rest of my life, whatever shape it takes.
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