Act As If
Feature Film – Conceived, Directed and Edited by Shari Berman
A playwright watches in horror as a theatrical troupe attempts to mount her play in New York City. As the rehearsals progress, the cast members reveal their needs to create personas not just on the stage, but in real life as well.
“For this short film, I gave each of the actors in the film a piece of paper with their character’s bio and what they thought of the other characters in the film. The actors were instructed to keep this information to themselves. Then, in this psychological experiment, the actors were thrown into structured scenarios that made up a rehearsal process and with only their bios to arm themselves against each other. In this way, the actors replicate real life in this mockumentary about the theatre. ”
— Director's Statement
This film is one of Shari’s first endeavors into filmmaking.
Fun fact:
Shari put herself in this film because she was sure she had an impending disaster on her hands making a film without a script. She thought she had gone insane and was wondering if perhaps she should look into becoming a sheep herder, alone in a field, away from everyone. Turns out the actors did an amazing job and she ended up being in less than ten minutes of the film.