Writer’s Statement
I’m a Wilkes-Barre native who left the area to study screenwriting at USC Film School in Los Angeles. That’s where I met my wife and screenwriting partner, Stacy. Though she grew up in California, Stacy soon came to know and love the Wyoming Valley almost as much as I do.
From the moment we first conceived the idea for THE ENGLISH TEACHER, we knew that it had to be set in Northeastern Pennsylvania. While it would have been easy to place the story in a major city (or perhaps in “Anytown, USA”), we never considered any other setting. Our characters, with their strong and sincere personalities, felt like Wyoming Valley natives through-and-through.
As the film made its way toward production, we feared that our producers would ask us to change the setting to something more “practical.” Lucky for us, that never happened. In fact, everyone involved with the film production fell in love with our version of Kingston. While the limitations of independent filmmaking required us to film in the NY region, our director, Craig Zisk, and his production design team researched the area in order to give the “movie” version of Kingston an authentic flavor.
One of the great pleasures of making this film was getting to share the spirit of NEPA with our cast and crew. It was a thrill to be on set between takes, telling Julianne Moore about Wilkes-Barre’s history... while she was wearing a WVIA sweatshirt! Another pleasure has been watching audiences all over the country -- people who have probably never heard of the Susquehanna River -- embrace this movie and its setting.
THE ENGLISH TEACHER had its world premiere earlier this year at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York. As glamorous as that was, we’re far more excited about the opportunity to screen the film at the F. M. Kirby Center., the first “movie palace” I ever knew. I can’t imagine a more meaningful location to host the NEPA premiere. Stacy and I hope to see you there!
-- Dan Chariton