On all sorts of Teasers

Some of the cast and all of the crew of Teaser, the video

At the Providence Journal, where I used to work, the union put on an annual production called The Follies, a spoof of the news, that drew a minimum audience of one thousand.

One year, I played one of the Brown University students who were nabbed in an Ivy League prostitution ring in the mid-eighties. Another year, I sang in a chorus of hookers. As my husband noted, I got cast as a floozie of some sort pretty much every year.

Until that great day when the director noticed that I looked exactly just like Claudine Schneider, a Republican US Congresswoman.

A star was born.

Okay, that’s an exaggeration. I wasn’t exactly Tina Fey playing Sarah Palin, but Claudine Schneider did come up to me afterward to congratulate me on my performance and said something like, “Oh my God. You DO look just like me.”

Unfortunately for my acting career, Claudine retired from politics. Then I left the newspaper.

Fast forward more than ten years. My fourth book is coming out and I’ve decided to do a book trailer. A teaser for Teaser.

Most authors do slide shows or animation. Because I almost never do things the easy way, I decided I need a real production with real live actors and actresses. Luckily for me, I had a friend with a production company. Dave Emmerling, founder and a partner in Midnight Media Group of Millburn, New Jersey. He offered to help me -- making me the luckiest author on the planet.

This was the deal. I would write the script, site the scenes, cast the actors, and provide costume and props. I wrote one script, realized what it would require in locating and getting permission to shoot the sites, and immediately rewrote the script. I scoured I-Party and second-hand shops for props. I cast the actors through Craig’s List and by calling local colleges and universities. The hardest part was casting the teenagers.

There were nights when I woke up at 2 in the morning worrying that I’d never find those teenagers, or the wigs ,or the Catholic School kilt. And what if no one showed up after Dave drove all the way to Massachusetts from New Jersey? I was dealing with people I’d only met over the Internet for goodness sakes.

But there's no business like show business. The actors not only showed up exactly on time, but were professional and prepared. They either looked just like the characters I’d envisioned in my head – or a little better. The Russian accents required were dead-on. Everyone took direction. I even got a bit role.

Our makeup artist, Vera, made everyone feel relaxed. And Dave did his magic with his high definition cameras and lighting and duvateen. Just like a night at the Follies, we felt a bond as the curtain came down. I was high for days.

So take a look and tell me what you think. Do I have a new career in Hollywood? Maybe not. But was it one of the most fun and rewarding experiences of my life?? You betcha.