Boston Public Works
  • Home
  • Our Seasons
    • 2017
    • 2015 - 2016 Season >
      • Hard and Fast: a love story
      • The 5th Annual Boston One-Minute Play Festival
      • Citizens of the Empire
      • Unsafe
    • 2014 - 2015 Season >
      • Turtles
      • The One-Minute Play Festival
      • From The Deep
      • Three
  • The Playwrights
    • John Greiner-Ferris
    • Cassie M. Seinuk
    • Emily Kaye Lazzaro
    • Jess Foster
    • Kevin Mullins
    • Jim Dalglish
    • Laura Neubauer
  • Press
    • 5th Annual Boston 1MPF
    • Citizens of the Empire
    • Hard And Fast: a love story
    • Unsafe: a psychological thriller
    • For The Media
    • Our Story >
      • The Back Story
  • Work With Us
    • Benefactors
  • Blog
  • Contact Us

The inspiration Behind From The Deep

3/2/2015

0 Comments

 
In Cassie M. Seinuk’s From the Deep, we watch Andrew and Ilan’ interaction in captivity – a place full of trauma and uncertainty. Loosely inspired on Jonathan Dailey and Gilad Shalit, the real-life counterparts for these characters were also countries and years apart, never having even met. Despite this, Seinuk draws inspiration from local and international cases, bringing attention to not just prisoners of war but missing persons everywhere.
Picture
Jonathan Dailey (Inspiration for Andrew)

Early Life: Born and raised in Charlotte, Norh Carolina, Dailey studied architecture with his friend Miles Smith at Appalachian State University.

Boston: Dailey moved to Boston with Smith for graduate school at Boston Architectural College. During the time of his disappearance he had taken a semester off due to financial reasons.

Disappearance: Went missing on October 2, 2012 and was last seen in Allston, Massachusetts by Smith. He didn’t answer phone calls or show up for his job as a sales associate in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Finding: On October 9, 2012, Boston University rowing coach saw a body in the Charles River, ankles in chains and tied to a cinder block. The dental records were later matched with Dailey’s, though.

Picture
Gilad Shalit (Inspiration for Ilan)

Early Life: Born in Nahariya, Israel, Shalit excelled in science at his high school before beginning is military service in July 2005.

Capture: On June 25, 2006, an attack on the Gaza Strip left Shalit wounded in his gunner’s seat in a tank; he was captured.

Life in Captivity: To keep his sanity, Shalit maintained a daily schedule and itinerary and was constantly active, making up lots of games to keep his mind occupied.

Timeline:

June 2007 — Audio released that proved he was alive.

April 2008 — Hamas leader confirmed Shalit was alive.

June 2008 — The last of a series of letters Shalit sent to his family.

October 2009 — A video was released where Shalit appealed to his family and the Israeli Prime Minister to release him from captivity.

October 2011 — Shalit is released after five years in captivity.

Andrew and Ilan in Rehearsal
Working on characters who have real life groundings comes with perks and challenges. Through dramaturgical research, Charles (Ilan) and Jeff (Andrew) have learned about the back-stories that inspired the fictional figures they portray, and this research informs their understanding of these people. But it’s also up to them to decide: when do you remain true to these characters’ real-life counterparts, and when do you create your own unique interpretation that isn’t connected to them? Andrew and Ilan are very much their own people; Andrew’s personality is more closely connected to his scripted lines than to Jonathan Dailey’s life, and Ilan’s demeanor is written as much more of an energetic go-getter than Gilad Shalit. By both using the background material on Jonathan and Gilad, and letting the creative juices run freely while we play in rehearsal, Jeff and Charles have crafted an Andrew and Ilan that pay homage to their inspiration, while becoming their own unique characters in a very similar situation.

Back to From the Deep >>
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Boston Public Works Theater Company

    We're a group of playwrights in Boston who have banded together to produce one play each, then we will disband.

    Get Tix to Los Meadows

    Archives

    June 2017
    April 2017
    October 2016
    September 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014

Boston Public Works is a sponsored project of Fractured Atlas, a non-profit arts service organization. Contributions for the charitable purposes of Boston Public Works must be made payable to Fractured Atlas only and are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.
Home page and header image courtesy of 
Boston Discovery Guide 
(c) Copyright BostonDiscoveryGuide.com
Picture
This project is made possible in part by funding from
Eastern Bank Charitable Foundation and
The Particle Foundation

Picture
Picture
You can follow our journey through The Works, Boston Public Works Newsletter. Sign up here. 
Home
Our Story
The Playwrights
News & Reviews
Collaborate
Blog
Contact BPW
Donate now