Mission
CHAR-LEN houses and nurtures new found creative processes through an eclectic mix of elemental and innovative play shaped from both historic and contemporary styles and techniques honoring humanity and truth in storytelling.
Our Story
A Cottage Industry: a Visionary Haven Founded In 2020
Just after WWII, John’s grandparents, Joseph and Isabelle Simmons built this summer cottage and named it after their two daughters, Charlotte (John’s Mom) and Lenore (John’s Godmother).
The Cottage was the hub of celebration, retreat, rumination and creative play. For summer after summer, his family returned to the cottage, with their primary sources of entertainment being a cultural mix of novels, comic books, a 78rpm phonograph, an AM radio from the 1930s, an ocean, and all of the anticipated visits from family and friends, offering the discourse that continues to inspire John’s creative life.
The seeds of many projects were nurtured inside of Char-Len. John says, “In my heart I will always remember it as a kind of creative retreat where practical means were found to see imaginative projects flourish.” With Char-Len what seemed impossible became quite possible with the support of collective thought and action.
Nature, of course, helped more than he realized in seeing things through. At night dreams were directed and jostled by the pull of the ocean tides. The memory of Char-Len still holds the promise of playtime. Play is a vital and powerful thing.
NEWS FROM THE COTTAGE
From its inception in 2020, Char-Len continues to engage in an eclectic array of creative collaborations. We’ve much to share with you. Visit us here as often as you can. You’re always welcome!
Dollars and Sense Trailer
Dollars and Sense Goes International!
Dollars and Sense is a meditation on parents and children. Freely adapted from a story by Anton Chekhov; a prodigal son returns home and attempts to share his success with an uncomprehending father—a man who measures success and happiness on very different terms.
Dollars and Sense acted as Char-Len’s FLAGSHIP PROJECT. In co-production with Bay One Entertainment, we provided opportunities for talented young filmmakers. The cost of a film school education can be an overwhelming prospect financially, and there are plenty of skilled young directors out there looking for an opportunity to prove their talents on professionally helmed projects of merit. We continue to provide talented young artists the chance to express themselves in an economical, non academic environment supported by professional crew members and actors.
Dollars and Sense has played a big part in our goal to foster a generation of directors interested in making films in sharp contrast to our current cultural trends, and has been recognized for its modest and moving storytelling.
Along with having been awarded the Grand Prize for Best Narrative Short Film by the Culver City Film Festival in 2020, Dollars and Sense was identified by the judges of The 2021 Brighton Rocks Film Festival in the UK. as contender for both Category Winner and the BRIFF Best Film Award.
Coming in 2024
The Unsymmetrical
Being released in the Fall of 2024
In a recognizable parallel universe, citizens of the world are chomping at the bit for the purplish poetry of Rex Timberlake. Because of the unorthodox means used to publish endless volumes of Rex’s salacious work, The Timberlake Factory is now being held accountable for an eco-disaster of apocalyptic proportions.
Meanwhile, on an isolated island somewhere in the Pacific, fate has brought together the four overprivileged socialites responsible for this calamity. Each suppresses an intimate sexual secret entangling one of the other three. As an unnatural storm begins to brew outside, their collective desires are unleashed and a new societal order begins to emerge from their chaos.
The Unsymmetrical is an immersive radio adaptation of John Alban Coughlan’s play, Timberlake, American Pulp; originally presented by The Working Artists Theatre Project in 2008. Audio production is slated to start this summer, and will be engineered by sound designer Matt Straub.
The Unsymmetrical! continues further development in the spring of 2024 with the inception of four short films adapted from the radio play’s recorded performance. Each film will be conceived to represent the work of one of four groundbreaking twentieth century filmmakers; Kenneth Anger, Jean Genet, Douglas Sirk and Sergei Eisenstein.
Eleanor And The Aliens
Beginning in the Winter of 2024
As she attempts to nurse her six year old son’s peculiar fever, Eleanor, a distraught single mother, spins evocative tales of her girlhood obsession with a 1950’s male pop idol.
Charlie and The Barflys
Beginning in the Fall of 2024
A belabored young man tramps and shuffles his way through three disastrous attempts to engage with men in three seedy city bars. Charlie and The Barflys is an anxious dark comedy pondering the fate of a hypersensitive young pilgrim in a too loud world.
Charlie And The Barflys is adapted from a section of The Side Show, winner of the Panelists Choice Award at the Edward Albee Last Frontier Playwrights Conference.
Char-Len plans for two short films to be made from the same screenplay shot simultaneously in Amsterdam and NYC in the Spring of 2022. We’re currently organizing an international collaboration between Char-Len and recent graduates of both NYU’s Tisch School for the Arts and the prestigious Amsterdamse Toneelschool en Kleinkunst Academie.
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