Sheepwell (2026)

Hold your ears, folks. It's showtime. People pay good money to see this movie. When they go out to a theater, they want cold sodas, hot popcorn, and no monsters in the projection booth. Everyone pretend podcasting isn't boring.

Turn it off. Turn it off! Turn it off! Hey folks, welcome to a special episode of The Projection Booth. I'm your host, Mike White.

On this episode, I am talking with three of the folks that are behind the film Sheepwell. That is Sheepwell, not Sleepwell. I'm not saying that with any sort of weird accent. I'm talking with one of the writers, Danielle DeMatteo. one of the producers and actresses, Lauren Elizabeth Harris, and one of the actors, Mark Ryan Anderson, all about this new film. The movie is starting to play at festivals.

You'll hear more of the details as we go along. Thank you so much for listening, and I hope you enjoy this interview. Now let's go around the room a little bit so people can hear your voices and know who's talking when. Danielle, you're on my screen first. Can you do a little introduction and tell me a little bit about yourself?

Yeah. So hi, I'm Danielle. My main claim to fame is that I founded SheNYC Arts, which is a nationwide nonprofit organization that supports gender equity in and through the entertainment industry. So for 12 years now, we've been producing plays in four cities across the country, plays and musicals. And Sheepwell was one of those plays that we originally produced several years ago.

So when Lauren came to me and told me she wanted to adapt one of our plays into a feature film, Sheepwell came to mind first. I was so excited to see that come to life on screen. So in this particular project, I ended up being the co-screenwriter along with our director, Kim Caicedo, and the producer along with Lauren. Fantastic. Lauren, you want to go?

Sure. Sure. Hi, I'm Lauren. I play Cleo in the film, and I'm also one of the producers. I have a company called Pathway Pictures, where we have 13 features and two series that we're working on.

I'm sort of genre agnostic across the board, but usually female-led and female-driven. And I'm very excited to be bringing Sheephole to Austin. Fantastic. And Mark? Thanks, Mike.

I'm Mark Ryan Anderson. I play Officer Chris Deltnick, and I'm just happy. To be here. Mark, what's kind of your background? Well, I think, you know, there's a lot more similarities and there are differences between the three of us, ironically.

I was a musical theater actor starting off because in the middle of Southern Illinois, you know, there's no films getting started. And I think after a while, it's just a love of film had started to grow. And especially this project that has its roots in a play that has been embellished into this thing that is more shunned than told was a very interesting process and what definitely drew me to the project. As a whole. It's kind of an open question for everybody, but do you feel that there's any sort of a stigma about a movie that once was a play?

Because I know some people will say, like, oh, this feels very much like it was a play. I have to say that She-Ball does not feel like it was a play. It feels very much like it's been opened up quite a bit. Yeah, working on the adaptation of the play to the screenplay, the screenplay and the final film is very, very different from the original play. So I'm glad you think that.

And I hope many other people think that it was kind of meant to be a film. So the original play was only three characters who were basically on stage having a conversation for about 90 minutes. So our challenge was we had to take that and take all of the stories they told and the people they talked about and turn them into real characters and real settings and real plot points that we could actually see. So Mark and Lauren's characters both are not in the original play. They're just talked about.

And so we got to bring them to life for this movie. And if there's a stigma, I think there would be, like you said, if people felt like, oh, this really would be better as a play. But in our experience working on this, it seems to excite people and interest people that something started out as a play and was able to transform into something so different. Was one of the people on stage, was he naked the entire time? He was not naked the entire time.

Similar to the film, he comes in naked and then quickly puts on little pink shorts. When did you first see the play? So I read it first. At CNYC, we take totally open script submissions. So any playwright from around the world can submit their script every year.

And we read them all. And Sheepwell. was one of the first ones that one of our staff members, Ellie, read. And Ellie sent me her notes and didn't say all that much about Shewell after in her notes. But then a few days later, she called me and she was like, Danielle, I cannot stop thinking about Sheepwell. You have to read the script.

I feel like I didn't do a good enough job in my notes explaining what you have to read it. So then I read it and I felt the same way. I could not stop thinking about it. So, of course, we accepted it. We programmed it.

We performed it at our Off-Broadway Festival in New York. And then probably a year and a half went by before we then went back to Margaret, the original playwright, and asked her if she'd be interested in working with us to turn it into a film. And Lauren, I'm curious about you because you've done both writing and acting. Do you feel that the writing helps prepare you as an actress better than just just, quote unquote, being an actress? Oh, definitely.

I mean, I feel like as an actor, you get everything from the writing. And especially on the producing side of things, I think you learn how hard the crew is working to put the film together, you know, and that as an actor, you are sort of just there to tell the story. And that's your job. You're there in service of the writers and the directors to tell the story. So I think on Sheepwell, I was producing, not writing, but I was so enamored with the script.

So I think I just was able to see our job here is to tell this story effectively. Margaret gave us such a beautiful blueprint. And then Danielle and Kim took her blueprint and made it cinematic so that it would be able to fit onto the screen. And I think that we just saw like, wow, we have an incredible story here. And our job as actors is just to play.

And Mark, what were some of the challenges of making this film? Oh, my gosh. Well, the Like I said, for me, it was such a gift to come into this because I came pretty late into the shooting schedule and there was already such a familial feel. I think Connor had just wrapped. So there was this like almost this absence that everyone was mourning of this like family that they had in this world that they had built and it was changing.

So coming into that was challenging just because, you know, I'm I'm my mother's son. I'm always trying to be like running for the mayor of nothing. I'm always trying to make sure everyone's in a good mood. But I think it was a lot of fun to come into that, to be playing a character who, let me preface, unlike my not always someone to be proud of, to have to be that and to come into this and still be taken care of so much by Mitole, Alex, Denise, everyone on the team. It really freed me up to, like they said, just be the messenger in play.

And I hope that got through on the film. Definitely did. You're very fun to watch. Though I don't want to put you down in sake of lifting somebody else up, but I have to say, Lauren, your character was amazing. I loved every second you were on screen.

Oh, thank you. That's so sweet of you. I mean, how do you find a character like that? You get lucky and you beg. I mean, it's hard.

It is so hard. I mean, I started my acting career playing Hawkgirl by the pool. And that was what drove me to start a production company and begin producing because you don't get roles like that every day as an actor. And I was so lucky that Danielle and Kim were like, no, Lauren, you should play this part in Sheepwell. And getting to be on the producing side and acting in it has just made me, you know, really think of this project so much as my baby and care so much about what happens to it.

So being able to see it at Austin, I know I'm going to cry because it feels like such a full circle moment. And Cleo to me represents so much of who I am as a person. And I feel like who women are. I feel like so many women will be able to see themselves in Cleo and You know, that you're just constantly fighting to be taken seriously, constantly trying to compete with men in a workplace. And what happens when you do hit that breaking point?

So I really hope that women see themselves in Clio when they're watching it on our premiere. Was that your production or is that your production company, Hot Girl by the Pool Productions? You know, it should have been. My company is called Pathway Pictures. Because I personally love hiking and also I like thinking of our careers as pathways and how the entertainment industry especially offers no playbook to how to have a successful career in the industry.

And I like thinking about how, you know, we all take our own paths into finding success in this. Fantastic. And Danielle, tell me about this Austin screening. Yeah, so I can't believe how soon it's coming up. We have two screenings at the Austin Film Festival.

Our premiere screening is Sunday at 6 p.m. And then we have a second screening screening on Wednesday at 1.30. They'll be at the Galaxy Theaters in Austin. And you can learn more about how to see the movie at austinfilmfestival.com. Austin Film Festival's website.

Might be. I think it's. com. Yeah. So you'll be able to see all the information you need there. Fantastic.

Have you all seen this with an audience at all? Have you had a cast and screen screening at least? We had a friends and family screening and celebrate CNYC's 10 year anniversary. So the three of us have been lucky to see it in a screening, but it'll be fun to see it with our whole team because our director, Kip Kakaido, hasn't gotten to see it yet in a theater. So it'll be fun to share it with everyone.

It's wonderful. Mark, what's next for you? Well, the premiere, of course. And that is priority number one for me. And I can't wait to be there with everyone.

I did just find out that I can say that we do have a little project coming up with a Dreamcast. Talk about punching above my weight with where I play the family member of Alexander Ludwig and Emma Roberts. So I'm very excited about that one. It's a very feel good story. Very different from this, but both serving good causes.

But like I said, I'm going to be there Sunday and I can't wait to see what happens, which is well. Fantastic. And Lauren, how about yourself? You do seem to have a lot of things going on in your life. Thank you.

Yes, so I have a production company, Pape Pictures. We have 13 features and two series. So we have a project with William Shatner called Family Tree that should be shooting at the beginning of next year and another project that we may see a surprise organization getting involved with. called Pink Moon, directed by Carol Brand, who premiered her first feature at South by Southwest. So that project's called Pink Moon and will be shooting at the beginning of next year. Fantastic.

And Danielle, what's going on with SheNYC? Yeah. So the fall is our open script submission season. So we're taking in scripts from all over right now. We'll spend November and December and probably January too, reading through all of them.

And then we will pick our final show selections. So we will do eight shows at our New York festival in New York City. We'll do five at our LA festival in West Hollywood, four in our Dallas Fort Worth festival, and then four in our Atlanta festival. So we're going to. Pick all of those.

And then those festivals will be happening between June and September of 2027. Oh, that's wonderful. Is there a good place for people to keep up with you and all the projects that you're working on? Our website is sheNYCarts.org, or you can follow us on Instagram at SheNYCarts. And that way you'll get all the updates.

Thank you, Mark, for repping the merch right now. People, contact us there. On the letter. Wonderful. Mark, how about yourself?

Where are you out online? MarkRyanAnderson.com or on Instagram, Mark Ryan Anderson. I do my best to not be completely absent from internet life. And Lauren, is there a good place for people to keep up with this film and with your productions? Sure.

So my personal Instagram is at LaurenElizabethHarris and Pathway Pictures Instagram is just at Pathways Pictures. And the websites are also very easy enough. PathwayPictures.com and LaurenElizabethHarris.com. Very cool. Well, thank you all so much for spending some time with me today.

I really appreciate this. And good luck at the premiere. I know it'll go over very, very well. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for having us.

Yeah, definitely. Well, thank you so much, y'all. Have a good rest of your day. You too.