Story courtesy of Charles Cassady Jr.

My Life as a Dogma

BY CHARLES CASSADY JR.

Kitao-Lapolooza. The average American schoolkid worries about mundane matters this time of year, like finals, prom, and how to avoid being shot by a psycho classmate. Cleveland Heights resident Kitao Sakurai, on the other hand, has a different set of concerns as he shuttles back and forth between courses at University School and the Pittsburgh set of Dogma, the fourth feature from trendy director Kevin Smith (Clerks, Chasing Amy). Filming in Pittsburgh and New Jersey, Dogma is a phantasmagorical religious farce, spanning the centuries and depicting a battle between good and evil, with A-list names Matt Damon and Ben Affleck as outcast angels. Emma Thompson was supposed to be God, but she got pregnant (which might as well have been a detail lifted from Smith's script) and bowed out; her role is being taken by a mystery actor, not to be named until just before the film's projected end-of-1998 release through Miramax.

Others confirmed in the cast include Salma Hayek, Chris Rock, Linda Fiorentino, Alan Rickman, Alanis Morissette and George Carlin. More details than that we dare not reveal because Kitao was compelled to sign a loyalty oath to Miramax promising not to reveal anything about Dogma in advance (so you may not want to get on the Internet and visit Kevin Smith's extraordinarily exhibitionist web site at ../dogmarc/ where the whole freakin' script is proudly posted, along with detailed on-set diary reports), but it's probably safe to reveal that the 14-year-old Sakurai plays one of the "Stygian Triplets," three punk-street-gang demonic types on inline skates. Sakurai, who started acting in features at age nine, with roles in Best of the Best III (shot in Jackson, Ohio) and the Canadian feature The Best Bad Thing, landed the current assignment through his connections with the locally based talent agency David & Lee. He's the only Cleveland resident in the production, which is otherwise being coordinated by Los Angeles people and a handful of Pittsburgh production assistants.

Write Away. Question: what are some things that come in sets of 12? Answer: jurors ... eggs ... hours ... and, in some parts of the state, fingers and toes. And, ideally, Cleveland Screenwriters. The group has recently been launched by eight local graduates of the Writer's Boot Camp, a Los-Angeles based program that tutors aspiring scriptwriters in how to develop and market their feature scenarios, walking each enrolled scribe through an intensive course that guarantees a finished (and hopefully filmable) draft by the end. Last year, some affiliates of Writer's Boot Camp and its Chicago extension staged a one-off course here in Cleveland. Now this hometown Hollywood Eight - Frank O'Grady, Mary Faktor, Mary Keating, Dave Kuehls, Michael Paley, David Portorreal and Kelly Rose - plan to continue meeting roughly twice a month to pool their experiences, comment on and critique each other's material. O'Grady says there's still space open to newcomers, but he hesitates to throw the door open for absolute beginners. "What we really would like to find is more writers who are experienced in format and structure, who have completed at least one feature screenplay - then you've done your homework." Membership fees and other considerations are still in the planning stages (it looks like Cleveland Screenwriters will soon have some sort of affiliation with the well-established Cleveland Film Society), but O'Grady would prefer that the group's size stabilizes around 12 or so, to maintain an intimate atmosphere. If the right people come along, O'Grady said he might expand the ranks a little (hey, Jesus settled for 13 ... okay, bad example), but he's looking for committed individuals. Scripts so far developed by the team tend to be down-to-earth, character-driven pieces - a spiritual drama, a romantic comedy, a baseball farce - rather than giant lizard flicks. Qualified applicants interested in joining Cleveland Screenwriters should phone Frank O'Grady at 440-356-3113. -Charles Cassady Jr.