Actors and ghosts at the center of new film 'Ghostlight': NPR

SACHA PFEIFFER, HOST:

The title of the independent film “Ghostlight” refers to a theatrical superstition. This is because a light bulb kept lit on stage keeps the ghosts of the theater company even when the actors are not present. Critic Bob Mondello says that in the film, the actors and the ghosts are very present.

BOB MONDELLO, BYLINE: Dan is a construction worker who may be an artist with a jackhammer, but is messy with anything that requires a more delicate touch. A family tragedy leaves him struggling to manage his character. And her 15-year-old daughter, Daisy, didn't make things any easier by bumping into a teacher at school.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, “GHOSTLIGHT”)

KEITH KUPFERER: (As Dan) Is there anything we can do – community service, letter of apology? Can I give you a kidney?

CHARIN ALVAREZ: (As Principal Santos) Daisy has had plenty of chances already. It's his last. Have you contacted the therapist I recommended?

MONDELLO: The whole family needs therapy. Dan and his wife, Sharon, are at their wits' end…

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, “GHOSTLIGHT”)

TARA MALLEN: (as Sharon) I have no idea what to do.

MONDELLO: …As Daisy acts.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, “GHOSTLIGHT”)

K KUPFERER: (as Dan) Get off the street.

MALLEN: (as Sharon) Are you kidding?

MONDELLO: But even after a crisis at work that risks getting him fired…

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, “GHOSTLIGHT”)

K KUPFERER: (as Dan) Stop. Stopped.

MONDELLO: …Dan is not inclined to ask for help. Witness to the collapse, a little woman named Rita…

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, “GHOSTLIGHT”)

DOLLY DE LEON: (as Rita) Hey.

MONDELLO: …It seems…

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, “GHOSTLIGHT”)

DE LEON: (as Rita) Hey.

MONDELLO: …That Dan won't ask, so she's the one who asks.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, “GHOSTLIGHT”)

DE LEON: (as Rita) I need your help with something.

MONDELLO: The something is a community theater “Romeo and Juliet,” and Dan reluctantly misreads a role during rehearsal.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, “GHOSTLIGHT”)

DE LEON: (as Rita) That's your line.

K KUPFERER: (as Dan) What a noise…

DE LEON: (as Rita) Louder.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character) Remember – all the way home.

MONDELLO: …And about an hour later, he finds himself being treated like a new actor.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, “GHOSTLIGHT”)

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character) Welcome aboard, sir.

K KUPFERER: (as Dan) I'm just helping tonight.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #3: (As character) That's what I said three years ago.

MONDELLO: Although he has no plans to return, Dan is curious enough that evening to see his daughter, a veteran of middle school plays.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, “GHOSTLIGHT”)

K KUPFERER: (As Dan) Do you know this play, “Romeo and Juliet”?

KATHERINE MALLEN KUPFERER: (As Daisy) Two households, both of equal dignity, in beautiful Verona, where we set our scene. From the old grudge breaks a new mutiny, where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.

K KUPFERER: (as Dan) Whoa.

KM KUPFERER: (As Daisy) We had to learn it for AP English.

K KUPFERER: (as Dan) Well, I've never seen it.

KM KUPFERER: (as Daisy) Seriously? The film is a classic.

K KUPFERER: (as Dan) What's going on?

KM KUPFERER: (as Daisy) Here's a clue. It's a tragedy.

MONDELLO: A tragedy that intersects with Dan's family tragedy in “Ghostlight,” though filmmakers Kelly O'Sullivan and Alex Thompson lean into the humor of the theatrical bits, like when a suspicious Daisy follows her father into town and stumbles upon a rehearsal with an intimate coordinator…

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, “GHOSTLIGHT”)

KM KUPFERER: (as Daisy) Hey.

K KUPFERER: (As and) Daisy.

KM KUPFERER: (as Daisy) Say hello to mom, cheater.

MONDELLO: …Where he kisses Rita.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, “GHOSTLIGHT”)

DE LEON: (as Rita) Is your daughter? She's lovely.

KM KUPFERER: (as Daisy) Did you know he had children? How could you do this?

HANNA DWORKIN: (as Lanora) Excuse me.

MONDELLO: The director comes out of the shadows.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, “GHOSTLIGHT”)

KM KUPFERER: (as Daisy) Oh, my God. Is it a trio?

K KUPFERER: (as Dan) That's not true. It's for a play.

MONDELLO: As the drama on stage begins to mirror Dan's life…

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, “GHOSTLIGHT”)

KM KUPFERER: (as Daisy) What room?

MONDELLO: …He is both anguished and comforted by the misfit amateurs with whom he interacts, all amusingly played by veteran Chicago stage actors. And the filmmakers added frames to frames by casting Keith Kupferer as construction worker Dan, his wife Tara Mallen as Dan's wife Sharon, and their daughter Katherine as their daughter. the screen, Daisy.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, “GHOSTLIGHT”)

K KUPFERER: (as Dan) How did you memorize all those lines? And it never seems to stress you out.

KM KUPFERER: (As Daisy) Dad, the lines are the easy part. The hardest part is the emotional journey, living honestly in imaginary circumstances, blah, blah, blah.

MONDELLO: The central theater's concept of varying emotions is a bit far-fetched, but the performers keep things grounded and authentic. Dolly De Leon, the scene-stealer of “Triangle Of Sadness,” is an empathetic marvel as Rita, a fifty-something Juliette who is by turns as amusing, endearing and entirely believable as ” Ghostlight” itself. My name is Bob Mondello.

(SOUNDBITE OF THE FUGEES SONG, “READY OR NOT”)

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