Young Allies is a two-man film production and photography collective from the minds of Jim Berry and Fritz Michel.

Jim and Fritz have produced, written, directed and photographed many motion picture shorts and several off-Broadway stage plays. Our experiences, collaborative and individual, in the performing and visual arts are eclectic and, sometimes, inspired.

Enjoy!

In association with the Center for Architecture, Jackie Bridgeman and Les Gutman, Fritz Michel produces Oren Safdie's new play The Bilbao Effect. Contemporary architecture goes on trial in this world-premiere play.

In "The Bilbao Effect" -- the second play of a planned trilogy focusing on contemporary architecture -- Erhardt Shlaminger is a world famous architect who faces censure by the American Institute of Architects, following accusations that his urban redevelopment project for Staten Island has led to a woman's suicide. The play tackles controversial urban design issues that New Yorkers have recently encountered in Brooklyn as a result of the hotly-debated plans to redevelop the Atlantic Yards into an architecture-star mega-development. THE BILBAO EFFECT explores whether architecture has become more of an art than a profession, and at what point the ethics of one field violate the principles of the other.

Oren Safdie and I previously collaborated on his first play about architecture "Private Jokes, Public Places" which was presented by the Center for Architecture in 2004 and New York Times wrote “an hour and a quarter of laughter...inspired and astonishing.” Other collaborations include productions at La Mama, ETC (Manhattan), Malibu Stage Company, The Elephant (Los Angeles), and Columbia University.

Performances of THE BILBAO EFFECT run May 12-June 5 at The Center for Architecture (536 LaGuardia Place, between Bleecker Street and West 3rd Street in Greenwich Village); Wednesdays-Saturdays at 8pm. Tickets are $18. For tickets call (212) 352-3101 or (866) 811-4111 or visit www.theatermania.com.

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Fritz Michel directs Ira Levin's thriller "Veronica's Room" at Theater Workshop of Nantucket. A taut psychological mystery that blurs the subtle distinction between reality and delusion in a sleek web of deceit, "Veronica's Room" runs from August 11-August 28. Rehearsals start on July 8. Currently casting two men (25-60) and two women (18-60) with summer housing on Nantucket. Please contact Fritz by e-mail if interested.

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Our site undergoes some changes in the next few weeks as our hosting arrangements change. Thanks for you patience and check back soon.

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As of July, my life takes place mainly in Bronxville, New York, which is about 28 minutes from Grand Central Station by train. I lived in New York City from 1990-2002, so moving back was a homecoming of sorts.

For film, television and theatrical work, my agent is Ann Steele. Currently, I am reading plays for consideration in the Theater Workshop of Nantucket's 2010 season.

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Angels and Demons comes out on Blu-Ray and DVD on November 24th. I play a French reporter (subtitled) reporting on the death of the Pontiff from the roof of a Canal+ camera truck in St. Peter's Square.

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After a long hiatus, I've got a reason to update the site. This summer, I acted in "Angels & Demons", the prequel/sequel to "The Da Vinci Code". Tom Hanks stars, Ron Howard directs, and the release date is May 2009.

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The Theater Workshop production of "I'll Be Back Before Midnight" was featured on Plum TV, a lifestyle channel carried by cable providers in Aspen, Nantucket, the Hamptons, Martha's Vineyard, Telluride, Sun Valley, Vail, and Miami Beach. Click here to watch clips from the production and interviews with the cast.

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Set in an old farmhouse deep in the country, Jan and Greg, an unstable young couple, grow unhinged by stories about a terrible murder that took place in the rented farmhouse years ago. As night falls, they are tormented by strange sounds and visions of the vengeful ghost. A comic thriller. "I'll Be Back Before Midnight!" by Peter Colley and directed by Fritz Michel. Starring John Devaney, Sarah Fraunfelder, Kevin Mohler and Erin Raftery. Production runs at the Theater Workshop of Nantucket through October 7.

Production photos are online. An interesting (biased opinion) preview of the show was published in the Nantucket Inquirer & Mirror. I am back in Los Angeles looking for the next thing.

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Fritz is directing Peter Colley's comic thriller at Theater Workshop of Nantucket. Play opens on September 12 and runs through October 9.

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For his work on the Semmelweis feature film project, Jim was nominated for a Rockefeller Arts Grant for 2007. Go Semmelweis! Watch this space for results in the Spring.

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Tracy Quinn at Himber Entertainment is Fritz's manager. Please contact her at (310) 276-2500 with professional inquiries.

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Monday, December 18, 2006

I just wrapped a short run of "Sexual Perversity in Chicago" at the Underground Theater in Hollywood. David Mamet's 1976 outrageously raunchy battle of the sexes. Danny Shapiro (my character) is a player on the rebound and influenced by his pal Bernie who takes a page from the Marquis de Sade. The 80's Brat Pack hit "About Last Night" was also loosely based on Mamet's play.

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Symbiotic. Tom Wang turned me on to these writers who keep you on your toes. Thirty minutes. Cold.

On the other end of the conitnuum, studying with Antaeus, LA's classical theater ensemble, brings dysfunction to any "CSI" audition after you've digging around in "Timon of Athens" for a couple of months.

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SYRIANA, ER, ALIAS and other scenes from my work in film and television are online in high bandwith. My agent and manager use this stream to get me in the room for a spectrum of roles. You'll see me firing guns and dancing in an African disco. It's only a few minutes long. This is me acting.

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"Dick the Host" and "Safe Word Sparrow" are both screening as part of the opening night event. The Festival runs June 9-16.

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Hollywood Reporter. April 24, 2006. Page 8. My picture (kinda) is in this article about my director and friend David Harris and the tapeworm puppet I voiced in his short film DICK THE HOST. Echoing (or plagiarizing) David's notion that it's a little lame to post about this kind of stuff but when you are an actor in a business filled with rejection you kind have to savor the victories. Cisco Systems and MTVu have greenlighted a project of David's in a venture capital approach to programming development. I'd call it a three picture deal, but it's more of a interactive internet advice column using film thus too mildly convergence-oriented for a pure cineaste . But if a menacing, French-accented, snaggle-toothed tapeworm makes the trades, shout it out!

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George Clooney wins an Oscar for best supporting actor! I haven't acted in enough big Hollywood movies to be at all blase about the critical success of SYRIANA so I think it's pretty cool that the movie earned so many awards and nominations and was named best picture of 2005 by the American Film Institute. I'd especially like to thank the Boston Society of Film Critics for naming the cast of SYRIANA as the best acting ensemble of 2005.... Damn, I was just getting started but the orchestra in my head says enough already. Cue the music. Get off the stage.

The DVD comes out June 20. Watch carefully and you'll see my brother Jake in a scene with Christopher Plummer and Jeffrey Wright at a tony men's club .

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This is a really cool movie to be a part of. As Kevin Klass, I face off with an inscrutable Jeffrey Wright over the questionable dealings of a powerful US/Mideast think tank. From writer/director, Steve Gaghan, winner of the Best Screenplay Oscar for TRAFFIC comes SYRIANA, a political thriller (remember "Three Days of the Condor") that unfolds against the intrigue of the global oil industry. George Clooney, Matt Damon and Jeffrey Wright star. The film opens on November 20 in New York and Los Angeles.

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The Museum of the Moving Image included Semmelweis as part of their Science Cinematheque online exhibition. The entire movie is streaming here along with an interview. Enjoy!

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We're proud to announce that Semmelweis is being featured on Oregon Public Broadcasting's OREGON LENS, an award-winning primetime show that features short films by Northwest Filmmakers. Semmelweis will air on Oregon Lens on OPB, Mondy, August 8th at 10pm. For more info, check out Oregon Lens.

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A shout out to our pals Erik Ryerson and Quyen Tran. Erik's NYU graduate thesis film Red Letters is winning awards on the festival circuit as is Quyen's short Tuesdays After about her Ground Zero experience on September 11, 2001 that launched her career as a cinematographer and director.

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In agency news, Fritz recently signed with Mike Eisenstadt at Amsel, Eisenstadt and Frazier for agency representation and Slamdance Media Group for management. See my bio for contact information.

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Fritz voices a gruff Japanese doctor in the anime series Daphne in the Brilliant Blue. Our shady associate Sam Riegel directs. A bit of trivia: in Japanese, the words for "gun" and "cancer" are identical so something may be lost in translation if you are fluent in Japanese or subversive anime.

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I recently shot this poignant, comic film playing an elegant S&M Dungeon Master who helps Newton, a man going through a divorce, experience a different kind of pain and free his Id. Check out the SWS trailer and our other cinematic collaborations ( Letting Eddie Go and Dick the Host ) at filmmaker David Harris' website. He gets 100 hits a day which fills me with prideful envy.

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Vincent DeVille, a Hungarian producer and owner of Free TV in Budapest, has optioned Jim's feature script and is currently in pre-production to shoot the feature in Europe. Bruce Beresford, director of such films as Breaker Morant, Tender Mercies, Driving Miss Daisy, and Double Jeopardy, has signed a letter of intent to direct in 2005.

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Jim has signed a letter of intent to produce and direct Rosalind's Helix, written by Susan Stanton. Rosalind's Helix is the winner of the $100,000 production grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. The script, which depicts the life of scientist Rosalind Franklin, is currently being rewritten with pre-production to begin in late fall.

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Season 3 is now available on DVD. A cool graphic recap of Episode 14: "Blowback" using screen captures and captions is online at Two Evil Monks.

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Fritz Michel has joined the cast of Stephen Gaghan's geo-political thriller SYRIANA starring Geroge Clooney, Matt Damon and Amanda Peet.

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The "Makemba" episode of NBC's ER (guest-starring Fritz Michel) was nominated for a 2004 Humanitas Prize which honors work which "honestly explores the complexities of the human experience and sheds light on the positive values of life."

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Fritz Michel stars in a pair of short films directed by David Harrison. In LETTING EDDIE GO, Eddie (FM), a nervy accountant plays possum to save his job from a predator boss. In THE TAPEWORM, which blends live action and animation, Fritz voices an adulterous Eastern European tapeworm who hungers for life's decadent pleasures, if only his host would cooperate.

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