Dewitt & Maria, is a happy movie about love. When Dewitt comes to the end of his journey, everyone in the audience feels happy and satisfied that, somehow, the world has become a better place.
How does the writer, Jim Mueller, achieve this? His storytelling isn't sugary. He doesn't deny or ignore the difficulties of big city life. Both Dewitt and Maria face daunting challenges at work and in their relationships. Each has a traumatic past. They make mistakes. Dewitt sets off in the wrong direction, as does Maria. Both need help from those who care about them. Even though the movie ends with a happy event, the future is as uncertain for Dewitt and Maria as it is for any two people in this world.
Dewitt & Maria is an adaptation of a one act play written by Jim Mueller in the mid 1980's to win a contest. The prize was to be a fully staged production in a prestigious and beautiful theater in Rochester, New York. The play won the prize, but little did Mueller know that the production was to be in the basement of the theater, not on its main stage.
“Herb Katz, the director, led me to a bare basement room about 20x50 feet. Imagine my disappointment. But, over the next two months, Herb showed me that the great collaboration that is theatre brings ideas to life anywhere there are actors and an audience,” Mueller said recently. “The bare basement became a place of magic.”
Encouraged and inspired, Mueller expanded Dewitt & Maria into a full length play and won a grant from the New York Council on the Arts for a full production which was mounted in Rochester in 1989, this time on a main stage.
“The labor and trials of production and the performances were some of the most gratifying times of my life,” said Mueller. “Artistic expression of ideas communicates more powerfully than plain words.”
Years later, after retiring in Southern California, Mueller gravitated to the Los Angeles theater scene, which has an intimate relationship with the movie industry. By chance, he met Dennis Devine, a director of more than 30 feature films, and one of the most generous and resourceful of artists.
Mueller and Devine discussed the possibility of adapting Dewitt & Maria into a movie. After putting together the financing, Mueller set about adapting the screenplay with Dennis Devine's technical guidance. More dimensions to the story emerged from that creative effort.
Further incentive to produce the play was that Mueller's son, Kurt Mueller, is an award-winning photojournalist and cinematographer with several short documentaries to his credit. Feature-length film experience was a next logical career step for him. The team was now set: Jim Mueller would produce and provide the screen play, Dennis Devine would direct, and Kurt Mueller would be Director of Photography.
The team was determined to hew to the highest possible standard of artistic and technical professionalism and produce a film that appeals to the widest audience. Professionals were hired for all the main artistic, technical and craft positions, as well as acting. Several of Mueller's theater group buddies agreed to take small parts and be extras. The film was shot at locations local to Mueller's home.
The result is a warm, funny and inspiring feature film about love..The movie version of Dewitt & Maria, is the next evolutionary step for a one-act play, produced in the basement of the Jewish Community Center in Rochester, NY.
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