Michigan-made 'Myth of the American Sleepover' nabs awards and a national release

David Robert Mitchell remembers going to Royal Oak's Main Art Theatre before it was arty.

"I saw Disney movies there when I was a kid," says the 36-year-old director, who grew up in nearby Clawson.

Now the Main will be home to Mitchell's own independent movie, which has done what films with a shoestring budget and an unknown cast aren't supposed to do. It's won big awards, impressed critics and actually made its way into U.S. theaters.

"The Myth of the American Sleepover" opens here Friday as part of a limited national release. It debuted last year at the SXSW music and film festival in Austin, Texas, where it won a special jury prize for best ensemble.

After that, it moved on to the 2010 Cannes Film Festival in France, where it was an International Critics Week selection. At the prestigious event, Mitchell suddenly found himself in the world of press conferences and TV interviews. The movie traveled to other European festivals, winning an award in Munich and tying with the Oscar-nominated "Winter's Bone" for a prize at Deauville.

Made in the summer of 2008 in metro Detroit, the film is a neat illustration of the potential of filmmaking in Michigan. It didn't benefit financially from the state's film incentives, but it did from the buzz about the then-uncapped program, which was just beginning to draw movies.

With a budget of around $30,000 at the time of shooting, "The Myth of the American Sleepover" was too small to qualify for the state's tax credits. But it arrived at a time when local residents were enthusiastic about the new visitors from Hollywood, whether from big movies, like Clint Eastwood's "Gran Torino," or small ones like Mitchell's first feature.

Mitchell's story line -- he also wrote the screenplay -- follows a group of teens on the last night of summer as they ride bikes, make small talk, goof around, go to sleepovers and grapple with experiences like holding hands.

"Not a single moment rings false in 'The Myth of the American Sleepover,' " said the Associated Press review, hailing its calm, unaffected style and timeless feeling.

Mitchell, who grew up loving movies, made a bunch of short films as a student at Wayne State University. He went to graduate film school at Florida State University before moving to Los Angeles. There, he worked as an editor for a movie marketing company that made TV ads and trailers.

The first draft of "The Myth of the American Sleepover" was written right after he finished grad school in the early 2000s. After trying to get the project off the ground by knocking on Hollywood's doors, a grad school friend, producer Adele Romanski, suggested that they try to make the movie themselves.

Marriott Theatre writes its own scripts again | Business Of Life ...

With ticket sales rising even in a tough economy, Marriott Theatre in Lincolnshire is embarking on one of its boldest ventures in a long time as rehearsals start this week on a world premiere musical titled “For the Boys,” with a book penned by Aaron Thielen, left, the group's co-artistic director.

No stranger to new works through its 36-year history, Marriott mounted its last big premiere in 2008, a show called “The Bowery Boys.” Recently it's concentrated on more commercially safe works such as “The Music Man,” a hit late last year. Already, “For the Boys,” which is based on a 1991 film starring Bette Midler and James Caan, is slated to be followed next season by another new work, called “Hero” and co-written by the prolific Mr. Thielen.

“New works are what challenge us. They keep us artistically invigorated,” says Terry James, Marriott's executive producer. He reports that season subscription sales have risen to 40,000 from 37,000 in the past three years, solidifying Marriott's standing as one of the biggest-drawing commercial theaters outside of New York. “That faithful subscriber base, which trusts our choice of shows, is what allows us to take risks on premieres,” Mr. James says.

Mr. Thielen, 39, who has worked at Marriott since the mid-1990s, adapted “For the Boys” several years ago, then became engaged in long negotiations with 20th Century Fox and the original authors to win the rights to stage it. The show has a cast of 19 and follows two USO performers episodically from World War II to the Vietnam War. The two lead roles went to actors imported from New York, Michele Ragusa and Timothy Gulan.

Marriott's chief rival, the Drury Lane Theatre in Oakbrook Terrace, has had its own success of late, with subscription ticket sales rising 25% to 25,000 in the three years since Kyle DeSantis took over as executive producer. The theater continues to follow a safe course reviving vintage works, but Mr. DeSantis says he'd like to take his own stab at an original work sometime in the future. A big show at either Marriott or Drury Lane can take $2 million or more to mount, Mr. DeSantis says. “We're not ready to take a chance on something like ‘For the Boys' yet ourselves,” he says. “But in a few years we'd like to be able to do that. I think it's a great concept and ought to do well for them.

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