John Oak Dalton

"Not 'Hollywood Independent' - writer John Oak Dalton is the real Real Thing." --Cinema Minima."Very weird and unpopular b-movies and comics."--Blogalicious. "After watching the film I am left to wonder if he had some childhood trauma he is not telling us about."--IMDB user review. "Screenwriter John Oak Dalton wanted to be in Hollywood. Instead, he's in the rustic kitchen above the Germania General Store, stirring a pot of boiling hot dogs." --The Harrisburg Patriot-News.

Sunday, April 13, 2008

Dramatis Personae

A few summers ago I got an idea that some perceived was completely insane; do a modern dress, original prose screenplay based on Shakespeare's most obscure work, TIMON OF ATHENS. TIMON is rarely performed and is considered a "broken" or somewhat incomplete play that may not even be written by the Bard himself. What better than a b-movie writer, then, used to staving off disasters in rewrite, to take on the challenge?

I actually did a lot of research and saw both a video and listened to an audio version to create my own modern dress version, set in the crazy world of the dotcom boom and bust. A lot of work went into it that is probably not of much interest here; suffice to say I couldn't get anybody much to read it who would be interested in producing it. My two biggest supporters were my brother and longtime Polonia Brothers collaborator Jon McBride, who actually recorded some monologues for it and is a pretty talented dude; and wouldn't that be interesting to see on YouTube some day?

I think it has a place in the world, though, and it wouldn't be that hard to reverse-engineer it back into a play. So I have decided to release it on my website using a Creative Commons license, hoping it will find a home.

Today, then, we meet our cast:

TIMON OF ATHENS

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

TIMON, a noble dotcom CEO
APEMANTUS, a churlish liberal
FLAVIA, assistant to Timon
SEMPRONIUS, a painter, and false friend of Timon
ALCIBIADES, an aggressive CFO
VENTIDIUS, a poet, and false friend of Timon
VARRO, on Timon’s dotcom Board of Directors
LUCIUS, a flattering peer
LUCULLUS, a flattering peer
CAPHIS, assistant to Demeas
DEMEAS, a corporate lawyer
SERVILIUS, a Help Desk employee
HORTENSIUS, assistant to Isidore
FLAMINIUS, a Help Desk employee
TIMANDRA, mistress of Alcibiades
TITUS, assistant to Varro
ISIDORE, on Timon’s dotcom Board of Directors
PHRYNIA, assistant to Alcibiades

PHILOTUS, a news reporter
TISAPHERNES, a “man on the street”
AARON, a soap star
DEMETRIUS, a soap star
PISANDER, a “man on the street”
GNATHONIDES, a “man on the street”
HOSTILIUS, a “man on the street”
PHILIADES, a “man on the street”
EUTRAPELUS, a “man on the street”
LACHES, a banker
THRASYCLES, a venture capitalist

EVANTHE, girlfriend of Servilius
BLEPSIAS, a bandit
GNIPHON, a bandit
MERCER, a talk show host