ATTILA
On the eve of his infamous March to the Sea, General William Tecumseh Sherman is confronted by an escaped slave who questions the legacy of total war in healing a divided America.
ATTILA was the first one-act play I wrote in a fever dream while my father battled cancer. He'd been in the 1982 production that won the Samuel French Short Play Festival and I envisioned him recovering and returning to the New York stage for the first time since he changed careers to raise us kids. We got accepted and I drove dad back and forth to the city, his body exhausted from treatment, bravely soldiering on through every rehearsal and finally Opening Night at Playwrights Horizons. We made the semifinals of Samuel French and knew right then and there we would make a short film adaptation. Co-Directed with my brother, Oliver.
Executive Producers
Kate Samuels & Brian Cuce
Original Music
Michael Brennan
Director of Photography
Jamal Solomon
CAST
Neil Samuels as William Tecumseh Sherman
Vladimir Versailles as Abraham
Dan Yaiullo as Cadet
Matt Riker as Corporal