Me and Orson Welles

Synopsis: Feature film. In New York in 1937, seventeen year-old Richard (Efron) meets theatre director Orson Welles (McKay), whom he convinces to give him the role of Lucius in the Mercury Theatre’s production of Julius Caesar. Welles, who is having an extramarital affair with the leading actress while his wife is pregnant, couples Richard with production assistant Sonja Jones to rehearse.
Language: English
Country: United States
Medium: Film
Technical information: Black-and-white / Sound
Year of release: 2009

Director

Richard Linklater

Producer

Ann Carli; Marc Samuelson; Richard Linklater

Cinematographer

Dick Pope

Screenplay

Holly Gent Palmo; Vincent, Jr. Palmo

Music

Jools Holland

Production Design

Laurence Dorman

Costume

Nicolas Ede

Art Direction

Bill Crutcher

Cast

Production type: Fiction Films
Plays: Julius Caesar
Subjects: Drama
Keywords: drama production; theatre directors; Welles, Orson (1916-1985); Shakespeare, William; Stage directing; Rehearsals; Shakespeare on radio
Related items: Front Row [20/11/2009]; Me and Orson Welles - Study Dvd; Night Waves [02/12/2009]

Notes: To facilitate use of the film by schools, Film Education has created a website of study materials and film clips http://www.filmeducation.org/meandorsonwelles/ designed to stimulate debate, discussion and reflection on Orson Welles, Shakespeare, performance, theatrical production and filmmaking. This resource is accompanied by a free 34 minute Study DVD which can be ordered through the website.
General: Adapted by Holly Gent and Vincent Palmo from the novel of the same name by Robert Kaplow.

Locations included the Gaiety Theatre, Douglas, Isle of Man and Crystal Palace Park where a facade of New York’s Mercury Theatre was set up for a scene.
History: Selected footage was screened at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival; the first full showing was at the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival.
Reviews: Roger Ebert in Chicago Sun-Times (September 14 2008) writes ‘Richard Linklater’s "Me and Orson Welles" is surely one of the best movies about the theater I’ve ever seen. And of the many screen portraits of Orson Welles, it is the one that best embraces the brilliance, the ego, the contradictions and the tempers of the man’.