Welcome to 2024!
This is Jason Cannon with Ibis Books, and this week I've got some accolades to share with my colleagues.
First, check this out!
Yessiree, that is Ibis author Carrie Seidman's recently released A PLACE AT THE TABLE right next to Stephen King of the mountain on Bookstore1's best seller list.
Pretty darn good company.
And check this out!
Those laurels are smooshed right on the head of my dear friend Scott Ehrenpreis, the actor in the one-man show we created last year, CLOWNS LIKE ME. The filmed version of the show recently won "Best Feature" at the 2023 Conquering Disabilities with Film International Film Festival, and is now an Official Selection for the 2024 Central Florida Film Festival.
The festival is January 19-21 in Mount Dora, and you get can info and tickets to screenings HERE.
CLOWNS LIKE ME was also just featured in the Sarasota Observer's Arts & Entertainment Wrap-Up for 2023. I'll paste in the article below, or you can read it HERE. Just scroll down a bit and you'll come across the sub-headline: "A One-Man Show with a Difference" and a pic of Scottie doing his thing.
Stay tuned. The next few weeks I'll have more updates for you on events and upcoming books and classes.
And if you bump into Carrie or Scott, give 'em a big ol' high five!
Jason "Laurels are Not for Resting" Cannon
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A one-man show with a difference
In a town where many take the old Mickey Rooney cry, "Hey kids, let's put on a show!" to heart, Scott Ehrenpreis' one-man show, "Clowns Like Me," was a standout.
Sure, Ehrenpreis got some help from his father, Joel Ehrenpreis, who recruited Florida Studio Theatre veteran Jason Cannon to write and direct the play. Joel also helped drum up publicity and funding for the courageous project, in which Scott confronts his struggles with OCD, bipolar disorder, Asperger’s syndrome, social anxiety and depression.
Because the play was written in standup style, with audience interactions, Cannon and his star even did a stint at McCurdy's Comedy Theatre Boot Camp to prepare for the show.
“Stand-up is a very different skill set,” Cannon said in an interview. “You break the fourth wall; you open yourself up; you directly address the audience. Scott lacked those skills. As an actor, he didn’t need them! In scripted theater, that’s not the way it’s done. To perform the play I had in mind, he’d have to learn how.”
"Clowns Like Me" connected with its sold-out audiences during its initial run May 18-28 at the Cook Theatre in FSU Center for the Performing Arts and came back for an encore Aug. 3-6.
The website of the Ehrenpreis family's company, Lifeline Productions, reveals plans to tour "Clowns Like Me" nationally and internationally and to create another production for release in May 2024 to coincide with Mental Health Awareness Month.
Their vision is being backed by local donors and sponsors such as Michael Saunders & Co., the Community Foundation of Sarasota County and Aviva Senior Living, to name just a few.
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