The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Connecticut woman makes directing debut
Actress Joanna Gleason pays homage to gay actors who helped her along the way
There’s just something about those darn lights.
As Alice — the protagonist in Connecticut actor Joanna Gleason’s first feature film as writer and director — inherits a gay nightclub in the California desert and attempts to save it, the energy powering the bar is a spiritual homage to the women and gay men who looked out for Gleason (and, through the transitive power of storytelling, Alice) during turning points in their lives.
“I owe my career and a lot of my actual sturdiness to the gay community, to gay men,” Gleason said in a Zoom interview. “Stephen Sondheim (composer), Arthur Laurents (writer-director) just to name a few. These men were not only people for whom I worked, but became friends and gave me advice.”
“Them, and some other men and a couple of women… it was just like, ‘here’s the real me,’” she said. “‘Here’s what we see, here’s what we think you should do. You know you can do this. What are you waiting for? ’ It was women and gay men, frankly, who got me through.”
Gleason’s film, “The Grotto,” serves as a love letter to the people who helped her through tough times. The film follows Alice, a woman in her 40s who manages Latin American musicians and lives in a house owned by her fiancé’s parents. But when the fiancé, Nick, dies in a hang gliding incident, the rug is pulled from Alice’s life.
Her career is in turmoil, and she loses the house she lived in. When she learns that Nick left her a 50-percent investment in a nightclub called the Grotto, she also learns a shocking secret: Nick was living another secret life as a gay man. The owner of the other half of the nightclub is Victor, Nick’s partner for more than 20 years.
Gleason will host a screening and discussion of “The Grotto” at the Sacred Heart Community Theater in Fairfield on Aug. 6. The theater is not charging for tickets, only suggesting donations to benefit the Connecticut Food Share, a charity important to Gleason and her husband of nearly 30 years, actor Chris Sarandon.
“When it comes right down to it, I think we can all agree that it’s very painful to watch a kid not have enough to eat,” she said. “One of the toughest things to calculate in this astonishing country is that there are huge numbers of people, particularly children, who have not enough to eat. It’s not mandatory, just whatever you feel. Every little bit helps.”
The story of “The Grotto” is one Gleason, 73, said she’s been thinking about writing for nearly 30 years. The Canadian-born performer got her start with television and theater roles in the 1970s. Her star rose in the ‘80s with a “Best Actress in a Musical” win at the 1988 Tony Awards when she originated the role of the Baker’s Wife in “Into the Woods” on Broadway. Over the following decades, Gleason continued appearing on stage and screen with roles in “Friends,” “Boogie Nights,” “The West Wing” and more.
But she found herself a little lost and forlorn when she was in her 40s, she said. She was moving a lot and going through her second divorce, asking questions about what life and her future had in store.
“What is my authentic self? What is the work I want to do and can I be in a relationship that is stronger for the two of you together?” she recalled.
That, she said, is when Alice’s story came into her mind.
“I started to write what would happen to a woman — let’s make her in her late 40s — who’s been living this life, and this life, and going along being somebody’s something,” she said. “Being a temp (worker), being a quote-unquote fiancée perpetually with this guy she’s living with and living in a house his parents own. What happens when all of that disappears?”
For Alice, what happens is shock and betrayal before she finds a supporting cast of characters, including the Grotto itself, and embarks on a journey of discovery and self-actualization.
While Gleason’s own journey with the film started in 90s, it began in earnest about 12 years ago when she started sitting down to write the story. But, as the #MeToo movement revealed, the entertainment world can be a cruel and unforgiving place for women, especially as they age.
“It was 12 years of my writing it and putting it away because I didn’t have any faith in myself to put it out there and say, ‘Hey, I wrote this and I want to direct it.’” Gleason said.
“The voice in my head saying, ‘Who do you think you are? Don’t you have enough to do as an actress? You didn’t go to film school. You’re too old. You’re not famous enough for them — the ‘they’ you create —they won’t let you.”
It was Connecticut-based producer Laure Sudreau, Gleason said, who gave her the final push to make her passion project. The two teamed up to shoot a short film in Connecticut before moving on to “The Grotto.”
Gleason relied on the “campus” of performers and filmmakers she’d encountered over the years to cast the film, including Besty Brandt (“Breaking Bad,” “Magic Mike”) to play Alice and Jonathan Del Arco (“Picard,” “Star Trek: The Next Generation”) as Victor.
Gleason said there were still some doubts as the production came together, but once on the set of the actual Grotto, things clicked.
“I think it was the most emotional and happy I’ve ever been in my professional life,” Gleason said. “Topping everything. Because I had brought together this world, this family of creators and artists behind the scenes and in front of the camera who loved being together and got it done.”
“The Grotto” isn’t available on streaming yet and the production team is still looking for distribution. But it’s made it into a few festivals, even winning “Best Premier Picture” at the Heartland Film Festival.
Gleason said, the most rewarding part of the experience has been the response. For some, Gleason is the one in the lights.
“It’s the people who come up to me after having watched it,” she said.
“A lot of men. A lot of straight, middle-aged men and older at these festivals. A lot of women, young and older, come up to me and say, ‘I was so moved because I feel like I have only been part of someone else’s life for so long.’
“The greatest sense of fulfillment with this movie is less about, ‘I got a part of my story told,’ and more about it resonating with people.”