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SHARON GLESS in
Hannah Free is a feature-length motion picture for distribution in
worldwide theatrical and ancillary markets. Coming Summer 2009.
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Hannah Free Executive Producers
Tracy Baim, Claudia Allen
Producers: Sharon Gless, Wendy Jo Carlton, Martie Marro, Sharon Zurek
Cast
Sharon Gless
(Cagney & Lacey,
Queer As Folk, Burn
Notice, Nip/Tuck)
Taylor Miller
(All My Children)
Ann Hagemann
Maureen Gallagher
Kelli Strickland
Jacqui Jackson
Logline
Executive Summary
Hannah Free is a feature film about the lifelong
love affair between an independent spirit and the
woman she calls home.
Hannah and Rachel grew up in the same Midwest
town, where traditional gender expectations eventually challenge their deep love for one another.
Hannah becomes an adventurous, unapologetic
lesbian and Rachel a strong but reserved homemaker. Weaving between past and present, the
story reveals how the women maintained their love
affair despite a marriage, a world war, infidelity,
and family denial.
Kelli Strickland as younger Hannah and Ann Hagemann
as younger Rachel.
The Project
Hannah Free is a feature-length motion picture
shot in HD for exploitation in worldwide theatrical
and ancillary markets.
Sharon Gless as older Hannah and Maureen Gallagher as
older Rachel.
The Budget
Budget U.S. $200,000
Timeline
Financing:
Summer/Fall 2008
Principal Photography Finished:
Nov. 2008
Premiere: Summer 2009
The Hannahs and Rachels pose together on location in Beecher, Illinois, from left:
“Hannahs” Casey Tutton, Kelli Strickland and Sharon Gless, and “Rachels” Maureen
Gallagher, Ann Hagemann and Elita Ernsteen.
Executive Producers
Tracy Baim
Claudia Allen
Producers
Sharon Gless, Wendy Jo Carlton,
Martie Marro, Sharon Zurek
Music and Sound by Martie Marro
Makeup Designer Jillian Erickson
Costume Designer Iris Bainum-Houle
Edited by Sharon Zurek
Production Designer Rick Paul
Director of Photography Gretchen Warthen
Written by Claudia Allen
Based on the play by Claudia Allen
Directed by Wendy Jo Carlton
Director of Photography
Gretchen Warthen
Director Wendy Jo Carlton
Play, Book, Film
The play Hannah Free was written by Claudia Allen, a
playwright-in-residence at Victory Gardens Theater in Chicago.
She has won two Jefferson awards—Chicago theater’s Tonys—
and written many plays, including Movie Queens, Hanging Fire,
Xena Live!, and The Gays of Our Lives. A hallmark of Allen’s
plays is their portrayal of strong, compassionate women.
Hannah Free was among four Allen plays published by Third
Side Press under the title She’s Always Liked The Girls Best.
Author’s note: “Few plays are written about elderly lesbians.
Fewer plays deal with their extreme vulnerability in a system that
doesn’t recognize our rights. I wanted to deal with those issues
while also creating a love story about two women who loved each
other for decades despite a few flaws and more than a few differences.”
Ripe Fruit Films
Ripe Fruit Films was founded to produce Chicago-based
films and other media with a focus on gay and lesbian issues. The
first project is the feature film Hannah Free, which focuses on two
older women who have shared a lifetime of friendship and love,
and who are now separated physically but not in their minds. We
see, through flashback, the passion of their early life together.
Writer Claudia Allen
Scenes from the film Hannah Free. Top two photos, Kelli
Strickland and Ann Hagemann. Below, Sharon Gless and
Maureen Gallagher.
Biographies of principal team
Tracy Baim, Executive Producer
Tracy Baim is the publisher and managing editor of
Chicago’s largest gay and lesbian publications. Windy
City Media Group (WCMG) reaches 50,000 readers
with its weekly newspaper Windy City Times (founded
1985), OUT!, Nightspots, and Identity. WCMG also
produces Chicago’s oldest gay radio program, Windy
City Queercast. Baim is founding co-chair of the
Chicago Area Gay and Lesbian Chamber of
Commerce, was recognized as one of Crain’s Chicago
Business 40-Under-40 leaders, received the 2005 Studs
Terkel Award, and is an inductee to Chicago’s Gay and
Lesbian Hall of Fame. Baim served as vice co-chair of
Gay Games VII; she also co-produced the event DVD.
In 2008, she edited the first history book of Chicago’s
gay community, Out and Proud in Chicago: An
Overview of the City’s Gay Community (Surrey Books,
224 pages), a companion book to the WTTW film Out
and Proud in Chicago. She is author of Half Life, which
has been adapted for stage and screen, and Where the
World Meets: Gay Games VII. See www.windycitymediagroup.com.
Claudia Allen, Executive Producer,
Writer
Claudia Allen is perhaps the most prolific contemporary
writer of lesbian-themed plays. Born in 1954, she grew
up in Clare, Mich., and moved to Chicago in 1979. Of
Allen’s repertoire of 24 produced plays, 11 have either a
lesbian relationship as the central focus or a major character who is lesbian or bisexual.
Allen is playwright-in-residence at Chicago’s Victory
Gardens Theater and has been associated with that playhouse for more than two decades, but her plays have also
been produced at many other Chicago venues and at
theaters around the country. Her works are wide-ranging
and always contain elements of humor; Allen describes
a recurring central theme as “people finally getting the
nerve to do what they want.”
Chicago magazine chose Allen as Best Playwright in
1999. She has won two Joseph Jefferson Awards and five
Jeff nominations. She was given the Trailblazer Award
from the Bailiwick Repertory Theatre.
Allen teaches playwriting at Victory Gardens and has
also taught at the University of Chicago and Lake Forest
College. Four of her lesbian-themed plays were published as a collection, She’s Always Liked the Girls Best
(1993, Third Side Press).
Wendy Jo Carlton, Producer, Director
Wendy Jo Carlton is a filmmaker, writer, and photographer
with a background in radio, teaching, and media activism.
Wendy Jo is a former artist-in-residence at 911 Media Arts in
Seattle and a recipient of the Navona Fellowship and Provost
Award from the University of Illinois Chicago, where she
earned a graduate degree in film/new media. Her award-winning narrative and experimental short films have screened
internationally, including the American Film Institute,
Sundance, and many other film festivals. In addition to founding a media literacy program for teen girls called Chicks Make
Flicks, Wendy Jo was a co-producer of the official Chicago Gay
Games 2006 feature-length documentary and is a field producer for Sirius Radio.
Martie Marro, Producer,
Sound, Editing, and Music Score
Martie Marro, head of Materville Studios, has extensive sound,
music and editing experience. Her team of sound and video
experts have worked on dozens of projects, including music
videos, short films, and music CDs. They have expertise in Web
site design, sound design, post-production editing, film music
scoring, and more.
Sharon Zurek, Producer, Editor
Sharon Zurek is the owner of Black Cat Productions in
Chicago and enjoys working on independent features, short
films and social issues documentaries. Her film and video experience includes producing, directing and editing commercials,
broadcast and corporate programs and independent films. She
is happy collaborating as an editor with many talented Chicago
filmmakers like Mike Meiners who produced and directed the
soon to be released, The Trouble With Dee Dee and production team Jennifer Vincent, Christina Varotsis and director,
Bruce Terris on Dirty Work. Earlier feature film editing work
includes Runaway Divas, Stray Dogs, Constructing Mulligan's
Stew, The Chameleon, and the video mockumentary, The
Orphan Saint. She has worked as the post production supervisor on The Merry Gentleman, Root of All Evil and
Drunkboat.
Gretchen Warthen,
Director of Photography
Warthen is an experienced filmmaker and has operated cameras on the set of numerous realty TV programs, including
The Real World, The Apprentice: Martha Stewart, and
Treasure Hunters. She has served as director on TV shows
including The Real World, Love Cruise and Road Rules. She
also directed a dcoumentary about growing up as a lesbian,
and she has been director of photography on short films.
Sharon Gless, actor, producer
Show business is in Sharon Gless’ blood. Her grandfather, Neil
S. McCarthy, was the most respected entertainment lawyer of
Hollywood’s Golden Age. His clients included Howard
Hughes, Louis B. Mayer and Cecil B. DeMille. The famous
McCarthy Chopped Salad at the legendary Polo Lounge was
named after him. He also drew up the first contract between a
studio and a player – a fact that is of special interest to Gless,
as she has the distinction of being the last contract player in the
history of Hollywood. She was under exclusive contract to
Universal Studios, where she learned and flourished for 10
years, leaving “The Lot” in 1982.
In April of 2008, Gless was the recipient of The Theatre
School at DePaul University’s prestigious
Award for Excellence in the Arts. In 2007,
she celebrated the Silver Anniversary of
Cagney & Lacey, the first season of which
was released on DVD in 2008.
Gless co-stars in USA Network’s hit
series Burn Notice, currently in production
in Miami. In the series she plays the chainsmoking, hypochondriac mother to Jeffrey
Donovan’s character. She recently completed a multiple-episode arc in the hit FX
series Nip/Tuck as Colleen Rose, an ambitious Hollywood agent with dark secrets. In
2006, she received rave reviews, both in the
US and UK, for her starring role as US
Secretary of Defense Lynne Warner in the
BBC/BBC America miniseries, The State
Within.
Beginning with her starring role in Faraday & Company in
1973, Sharon Gless has brought her own brand of humor,
intelligence and dramatic flair to each of her roles. She is best
known for her portrayal of New York Police Detective,
Christine Cagney, on the hit series Cagney & Lacey, a role that
garnered her two Emmys®, a Golden Globe®, and six Emmy®
nominations. Following Cagney & Lacey, Gless re-teamed with
the show’s executive producer, Barney Rosenzweig, on The
Trials of Rosie O’Neill, for which she was awarded her second
Golden Globe® and two more Emmy®nominations. Gless married Rosenzweig in 1991.
In 1994 and 1995, Gless and her television partner, Tyne
Daly, joined together to recreate their title roles in a quartet of
critically acclaimed and popular Cagney & Lacey television
movies which they fondly call “The Menopause Years.” Other
television series in which she starred include Switch, House
Calls, and the short-lived but critically lauded Steven Bochco
half-hour, Turnabout. Gless has received much acclaim for her
dramatic roles in such television movies as Separated By
Murder, Hard Hat and Legs, Honor Thy Mother, Hobson’s
Choice and Letting Go, among others, as well as the miniseries The Immigrants, The Last Convertible, Centennial, and
Garson Kanin’s Moviola: The Scarlett O’Hara Wars, in which
she played screen goddess Carole Lombard.
In 2000, Gless created the role of the outrageous and beloved
Debbie Novotny in the groundbreaking Showtime series
Queer as Folk, and remained with the series throughout its fiveseason run. Wherever she goes, Gless is regularly approached
by fans wishing to express their appreciation for her honest
portrayal of a loving parent of a gay child.
Gless’ theatrical film credits include the suspenseful and
provocative film, The Star Chamber, in which she played the
wife of Michael Douglas. She has recorded several ‘Books on
Tape’ and has starred in numerous radio plays, one of which,
’Night, Mother, for the BBC, earned Gless the International
Sony Award. She continues to do radio plays for L.A. Theater
Works and the BBC.
She has starred twice on stage in London’s famed West End,
the first time in 1993 with Bill Paterson, when she created the
role of Annie Wilkes in the stage version of Stephen King’s
Misery at the Criterion Theater, and four years later, opposite
Tom Conti, in Neil Simon’s Chapter 2 at the Gielgud Theater.
She starred at Chicago’s Tony Award-winning playhouse, The
Victory Gardens Theater, in Claudia Allen’s Cahoots, and at
Madison Square Garden with the National Company of Eve
Ensler’s The Vagina Monologues. Gless made her stage debut
in Lillian Hellman’s Watch on the Rhine at Stage West in
Springfield, Mass.
Gless is an active participant in the ongoing struggle for a
woman’s right to choose, and joined hundreds of thousands of
women in Washington, D.C. for the first-ever “March For
Women’s Lives,” where she stood in solidarity with her entertainment industry colleagues. In 2005, she was honored by
Norman Lear’s PEOPLE FOR THE AMERICAN WAY for
her unwavering support of human rights. Gless spends her
time at home in three of her favorite cities: Los Angeles, Miami
and Toronto.
Additional Cast
M A U R E E N
GALLAGHER (OLDER
RACHEL) has appeared
in the films Road to
Perdition, Mercury Rising,
Uncle
Nino
and
Everything He Touched.
As a Chicago actor, she has
performed in many of the
city ‘s theaters, including
Steppenwolf, Goodman,
Victory Gardens, Chicago
Maureen Gallagher
Shakespeare, and American Theatre Company, where she is an Affiliate Artist. She has
been nominated several times for Joseph Jefferson Awards and
Citations. She received the Jefferson award for principal
actress in a play for her portrayal of Emily Dickinson in The
Belle of Amherst. In recent years, she has begun writing plays
and screenplays. Martin Furey’s Shot, her play about photojournalists in South Africa preceding the election of Mandela,
was produced at Chicago’s TimeLine Theatre.
TAYLOR MILLER (MARGE) studied in NYC with Max
Gartenburg doing emotional recall work. She was able to put
her training into practice every day for ten years starring on
ABC’s All My Children
as Nina Cortland and
then as Sally Frame on
Another World. While
on break from AMC she
did a comedy in NYC
with Judith Ivey and
Christine Estabrooke
called Pastorale. Taylor
moved to LA to do night
time TV and films. She
studied with the late,
great Peggy Fuery, but
as luck would have it,
true love brought her
back to the East Coast
Taylor Miller
and
eventually
to
Chicago. She has raised a family in Chicago over the past twenty years. She has a flourishing voiceover career, has become a
great cook and is on her way to becoming an avid golfer. Over
the last couple of years, she has worked with Victory Gardens
theater once doing Claudia Allen’s play Unspoken Prayers and
then going with Sandy Shinner to the Humana Festival in
Louisville Kentucky, performing in the “best play” of that season, Memory House. It was reprised in Chicago later that year.
ANN HAGEMANN (YOUNGER RACHEL) is very proud
to be a part of the
Hannah Free family.
She received her theatre/film training from
Edgecliff
College,
American
Dramatics
Academy and Actors
Center of Chicago, with
her favorite medium
being film. Some of her
on screen credits include:
Dixie in the feature film
Sand Prairie, Carol in
Stalling,
Annie in
Ann Hagemann
Bully Breath, Detective
O’Neal in Cracking, Wicker Park with Josh Hartnett, and
Becky’s Mom in One Hour Fantasy Girl which just played at
the 2008 Toronto Film Festival. She played Vi Petty in Mercury
Theatre’s production of The Buddy Holly Story, directed by
Janet Lauer, and performed in both the Chicago and Ft.
Lauderdale’s productions of Respect. Some of her other
favorite stage roles include: Kate in Taming of the Shrew,
Nancy in Oliver, Catherine Holly in Suddenly Last Summer,
and Nora in A Doll’s House.
KELLI STRICKLAND (YOUNGER HANNAH) is on faculty at Loyola University Chicago in the Department of Fine
and Performing Arts
where she has taught
Introduction to Theatre,
Theatre History, Dramatic
Literature and Theatre in
Chicago. She is also the
director of Education and
Outreach at the Raven
Theatre where she advocates for arts education in
the Chicago Public School
system. As a dramaturg,
Ms. Strickland has worked
with Guthrie Theatre,
Kelli Strickland
Missouri Repertory and
locally with Shattered
Globe. She has acted or directed with Bailiwick Repertory,
Women’s Theatre Alliance, 20% Theatre Co., Zebra Crossing,
Entelechy Theatre, and Avenue Theatre Co. Her articles have
appeared in American Theatre and The Mamet Review. She
has presented multiple times before the Mid-America Theatre
Conference.
JACQUI JACKSON
(GRETA) received her BFA
in acting from DePaul
University. She has been in
Chicago plays and film. Her
stage work includes A Dream
Play, SOSX2, The Bald
Soprano, Life’s A Dream,
Antigone, and Talking to
Terrorists. In Hannah Free,
she takes on the role of Greta,
acting opposite Sharon Gless,
Taylor Miller, and other stage
and screen veterans.
MEG THALKEN (MAIL LADY) has extensive staff, TV and
film credits. Her films include The Company, US Marshall, A
Family Thing, The Babe, Poltergeist III and Class. Her work in
TV includes What About Joan?, E.R., Chicago Hope, Turks,
Early Edition, The Untouchables, Jack & Mike, and The
Richard Speck Case. Her work in theater has included numerous productions for Victory Gardens Theater and Northlight
Theater..
Jacqui Jackson
ELAINE CARLSON (NURSE) has had the privilege of working on the Chicago productions of many Claudia Allen stage
plays including Winter, Change, Reunion and Gays of Our
Lives. She played Rachel in the 1992 premier stage production
of Hannah Free and is thrilled to now be looking at the same
world through the eyes of the nurse. Elaine has appeared in
many Chicago area theaters. She can be seen at the Royal
George Theater as Sister in the long-running, one-woman
comedies Put the Nuns in Charge! and Sunday School Cinema.
After an early career in stage and television as an actor/director,
LES HINDERYCKX (OLD MAN) joined the academic
world as a director and teacher of theatre. For more than 40
years he has concentrated on sending new talent into the theater
world from Northwestern University. While teaching he has
kept in touch with the professional scene. He has most enjoyed
originating roles for the world premieres of such plays as
Grover’s Corners at Marriott, The Angels of Warsaw for
Victory Gardens Theatre, The Great Gatsby for Wisdom
Bridge Theatre, and two Chaim Potok works for the National
Jewish Theatre. Les has also earned many television and industrial film credits over the years.
PATRICIA KANE (MINISTER) is an Artistic Associate at
Chicago’s About Face Theatre where Pulp premiered, garnering After Dark Awards for “Best New Work” and “Outstanding
Production” and four Joseph Jefferson Award nominations,
including “Best New Work” and “Best Original Music.” Her
previous play Seven Moves (adapted from Carol Anshaw’s
novel) premiered at About Face in 2002. As an actress, Pat has
appeared in numerous productions throughout Chicago, including Seven Moves, Fascination, The Gift, Terrible Girls,
Whitman, Dancer from the Dance, Cloud Nine (About Face);
Finding the Sun, Dancing at Lughnasa (Goodman Theatre);
Hannah Free (Victory Gardens); and All in the Timing
(Northlight).
BEV SPANGLER (NIGHT NURSE) is a veteran Chicago
actor. Her theater work includes plays with American Theatre
Co., Viaduct Theatre, Strawdog and Bailiwick. She has a wide
range of sketch comedy, music and variety experience, including All Girl Revues, Pow Wow, Estrojam, Girlie-Q and
Gurlesque Burlesque. She also co-produced Half Life, a stage
play about lesbians and gays in the Gulf War.
This is the third feature film for 11-year-old CASEY TUTTON
(YOUNG HANNAH) can be seen the 2008/9 releases of The
Key Man and The Poker House. She appeared as Kathy
Buchanan in the TV movie Gifted Hands airing on TNT
throughout the month of February, 2009. When she was four
years old she did her first, of many commercials, for Berkeley
Farms, where she had a lively conversation with a dairy cow. She
has been acting, singing and dancing ever since. Theater credits
include Gossamer (Littlest), Jakes Women (Molly), Lilly’s Purple
Plastic Purse (Amy), Laurel’s Love (Young Laurel), and
Milwaukee Ballet’s Nutcracker (Goose).
This is the feature-film debut for 10-year-old ELITA
ERNSTEEN (YOUNG RACHEL). She was in the 2008
Sound of Music Asian Tour and has acted in student films
including Random Acts, Get Well Prince and Nightmare. Her
theater experience includes roles in Annie and Jungle Book,
both for the South Park School. She has training in tap, jazz and
ballet, and training in drama at the Apletree Theatre in
Highland Park, Ill.
Casey Tutton and Elita Ernsteen.
Chicago Tribune
Nov. 7, 2008
AfterEllen.com
November, 2008
The Advocate
December, 2008
ReelChicago.com
November, 2008
Windy City Times
November, 2008
Stage
Productions
of
Hannah Free
Chicago
Boston and Oregon