Saturday, February 11, 2012

Seventh Street Playhouse Board Member filmed in 2011 Academy Award Documentary

Congratulations are in order! Seventh Street Playhouse Board member Robert Trifiletti was filmed in the 2012 Academy Award nominated film “Best Short Documentary” God is the Bigger Elvis, a film about Mother Dolores Hart. She is Prioress of the Benedictine Abbey of Regina Laudis in Bethlehem, Connecticut and she has a new claim to fame: Oscar nominee.

This short documentary film about her journey from Hollywood starlet to cloistered Catholic nun, received an Academy Award nomination for best short documentary film. Running 37 minutes long, God is the Bigger Elvis was directed by Rebecca Cammisa and Julie Anderson, and is one of five nominees in the Documentary Short Film category. The documentary will be aired on HBO in April. Robert has maintained a forty-two year friendship with Mother Dolores, corresponding and visiting the Abbey regularly.

Dolores Hart is an American Roman Catholic nun and former Broadway and Hollywood actress. Nominated for a Tony in 1959, she made 10 films in 5 years, playing opposite Stephen Boyd, Montgomery Clift, George Hamilton and Robert Wagner, having made her movie debut with Elvis Presley in Loving You (1957) . Miss Hart at that time gave up an engagement and a movie contract to enter a longer lasting relationship and contract. She took her final vows in 1970 and chants in Latin eight times a day. She has also taken the lead in raising awareness for peripheral idiopathic neuropathy disorder, a neurological disorder that afflicts many Americans, including herself.

Robert adeptly produced Margherita at the Harvard Club of Boston on Commonwealth Avenue in 2009. Seventh Street Playhouse Actors Helen Mary Ball (Margherita), James Howard (Benito Mussolini), Brian Doyle(James Bullock) Julian Ball (Narrator), and I were graciously hosted by Bob and Maria at their beautiful Newton Center home and what superb Italian Cuisine! And his wife Maria(Lombardo) was just appointed Chairman, Board of Trustees of the Christopher Columbus Fellowship Foundation!!

Robert will be attending the Academy Award Ceremonies on February 26 for the fifth consecutive year. Impressive indeed!

We (Eastern Market Studios) have nearly completed the shooting of our first film Charleston Revisited, based on my stage play of the same name. Director Roland Branford Gomez, Cinematographer Albert Liesegang, Editor Matt Lolich, Actors Bonnie Jourdan, Colin Davies, Jan Forbes, Mellicent Singham and the entire cast and crew will be rooting for “God is the Greater Elvis” while having our own dreams of grandeur.