Just a couple months ago, a group of four artist friends sat in a house breathing the first signs of life into a first-draft sci-fi comedy screenplay. On Monday night, a dozen cast and crew members gathered for a table read at East Haven Public Television.
Those friends were Deven Ladson, along with filmmaker Josh Stasko, Josh’s photographer wife Bridget Stasko, and Ladson’s cousin Marc Harris II. They were getting together at the Staskos’ house, and their concept of a fun, chill time was to voice all the roles in Josh’s script and give him feedback on his draft.
“Think, like: Adventure Time,” Ladson told me, referencing the cartoon show about a dog and his kid getting into and out of trouble in an eccentric, chaotic wonderland. Just a bunch of friends hanging out and turning fringe ideas into reality.
On Monday, at the community media center — which broadcasts three public, government, and educational channels and provides equipment and rental space to podcasters, live-streamers, and singer-songwriters — Ladson found himself mid-pause for a character’s next line. Harris was now one of the film’s producers, along with Kris Wingo.
For the past few years, Josh and his growing community of filmmaking friends have been making the local filmmaker scene more approachable one project at a time, with intentionally low-pressure events like Hang Out and Film Day and Hang Out and Film Festival. This short film is Josh’s biggest project yet.
That doesn’t mean a change in energy.
“It doesn’t have to be a really cutthroat and mean place,” Josh said about his hopes for a new style of making movies. “Filmmaking can be really fun and can be really empowering.” He said he believes it is possible to create a film and be good to each other at the same time; his group is set on proving it.
Ladson waited patiently for someone to fill in a noise so he could continue with the scene.
“Oh, I’ll be the larva,” Josh said, supplying extraterrestrial baby babbles.
Ladson played Krant, a soft, nervous alien who just became a father to a cute, gross hatchling he loves with all his heart (or whatever sentimental circulatory system his species has). Krant deals with the simultaneous strains of new parenthood and his fractured trust with his own dad, Galvor.
Together, Krant, Galvor, and a ragtag crew of unlikely friends experience the battle between everyday anxieties and the power of love. Josh’s script takes the audience through a VHS home movie, claymation, a dive bar, a roller skating conspiracy theorist podcaster, watergun-armed government agents played by Mariah Sage and Seamus Herriman, a ballad about Pluto, and hazmat suits.
Luckily enough, one of the cast members, Ernst (“just like Ernest except the ‘e’ flew out the nest,” he said), had a hazmat suit already. It was one small example of the general production plan for the movie: People happened to have things, or they asked around.
The cast and crew varied in experience levels, with many working on their own projects. Marissa Conklin makes comedic skits, Ladson writes sketch comedy and does improv, and Woubalem Tezeta and Jair Pinedo are both writers as well as actors.
Melisa Alvarado, on special effects, is a face painter. “I do whatever I can to make it either as gross or as real as possible,” she said. Eamon Linehan, on sound, does AV production for the city.
Kim Espinal came because she heard about the film project on Instagram. She was welcomed just like everyone else.
Stephen Bisaccia walked in straight from a game with his softball league, the Mailboxes. He is working on a documentary right now following New Haven sandlot baseball teams Elm City Char and the Bat and Ball Society. For the night, he would just be “Guy in Hazmat Suit,” a role with no lines — or so he thought.
As the cast settled in to begin, Josh called out, “Stephen, I do have a line for you.”
“Oh, fun,” Bisaccia said. “Hope I don’t forget it.”
Bridget floated around the back of the table, snapping behind-the-scenes photos.
Jay Miles, board chair of East Haven Public Television, played three-line character Miles the Scientist. He was proud to welcome the team to his station. The DIY, down-to-earth atmosphere of the space lent itself naturally to Josh’s style of filmmaking.
Aliens Krant and Galvor, voiced Monday night by Ladson and Harris, were funny, relatable, and most of all charming. For the film’s actual production, Galvor will be played by an actor named Robbie who wasn’t able to make it to the table read.
Harris’ rendition, though, was more than just a producer’s duty to fill in the gaps; it was a return to the early days.
“You were the original Galvor,” Ladson reminded Harris, who took a moment to understand. Back when the script was in its larval stage and the four original actors had to split all the roles amongst themselves, Harris lent his voice to the first iteration of Galvor.
Between then and now, a lot has changed. Somehow, though, I felt like I could picture perfectly what Ladson was describing when he talked about that first informal read-through of Josh’s draft. I didn’t need to imagine too hard because I saw what was in front of me: friends looking to have fun and make art together.
