Hamlet/Horatio won Best Feature Film - Jury Award & Best Feature Film - More than $10,000 Award in the 9th Season of MP Film Award David Vando Writer of the Film Hamlet/Horatio agree to interview with us.
DAVID VANDO
Playwright, lyricist, screenwriter, translater/adapter, producer, acting coach.
Scholarship student at Columbia University, BS Comparative Literature, MFA Playwriting. Folger Library Fellowship in Shakespearean Studies recipient, Forest Robert’s International Playwriting Prize winner, whose theatre works have been performed in Europe as well as America. Published works include, THE MASK AND THE MIRROR, an anthology of three plays, and SHAKESPEARE FOR THE 21st CENTURY now in its third edition.
David Vando has been in the performing arts all his life. While still a scholarship student at Columbia University in playwriting he assisted director Jack Gelber in the Arnold Wesker play THE KITCHEN off-Broadway and INDIANS by Arthur Kopit with the Royal Shakespeare Company in London. After graduating from Columbia, David Vando did an English adaptation of THE THREEPENNY OPERA for the Lake George Opera Company, and the book and lyrics for a musical adaptation of LOVE’S LABOR’S LOST for the Folger Theatre Group in Washington DC with music by Brian Williams, and BUGLES AT DAWN, a musical play based on the RED BADGE OF COURAGE, at the ATC Chernuchin Theatre in New York with music by Mark Barkan. Vando did an English adaptation of THE THREEPENNY OPERA for the Lake George Opera Company and Vando’s comic play about the last years of Moliere’s life, THE KING’S CLOWN, won an international playwriting prize sponsored by Northern Michigan University. It was performed at the University and subsequent productions followed in Chicago and London. Mr. Vando’s play THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LEONARDO DA VINCI was translated into German and performed by the National Theatre of Weimar. His play EROICA about Beethoven overcoming his deafness to complete the 9th Symphony was performed in London at the Tabernacle Theatre
On the directing side, Mr. Vando worked as an assistant director with Patrick Bakman (TOSCA, Lake George Opera, and THE BALLAD OF BABY DOE at the New York City Opera) and with Choreographer Wayne Eagling on the ballet FRANKENSTEIN for London’s Royal Ballet, Milan’s La Scala Ballet and Amsterdam’s Royal Ballet as well as BEAUTY AND THE BEAST for the Royal Ballet in London.
Mr. Vando’s current works include SONG OF THE LARK, a musical passion play on the life of Saint Joan, SHERLOCK HOLMES’ CONVERSATIONS WITH THE DEAD, the story of the death of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and the fight over his soul between Sherlock Holmes and Holmes’ evil nemesis Moriarty, and POE, a screenplay about Edgar Allen Poe’s struggle to overcome his alcoholism in order to win the hand of the one true love of his life, and how this struggle lead to his tragic death.
When not writing, Mr. Vando teaches Shakespeare For the Contemporary Actor at the the New York Film Academy. He is also the owner of Models Mart, the only company of its kind in the world, specializing in supplying the modeling & talent industry, with directories, portfolios, DVDS, books, and other services. Currently, Vando conceived and wrote the screenplay for the film Hamlet/Horatio launched in June of 2021. He is also the executive producer and an actor in the film.
About the FIlm: Synopsis: Hamlet/Horatio Film Synopsis:
Told from the point of view of Horatio, the action transpires on an empty sound stage with the death of Hamlet. In his last moment of awareness in purgatory, Hamlet’s life flashes before him as a film within a film within a film as Horatio turns director in order to fulfill his promise to Hamlet to tell his tragic story to the unknowing world.
What was your drive behind making this film?
David Vando: To bring the spiritual subtext of HAMLET to life for a contemporary audience.
How you feel when you are awarded with the MP FILM AWARD Award?
David Vando: I cannot find the words to describe how I elated I will feel for myself and the Hamlet/Horatio team to have our work acclaimed by such a prestigious organization in the industry.
Can you tell us about the greatest moment during shooting this film?
David Vando: The death scene of Hamlet which brought me to tears.
How rigorously did you stick to the script while shooting?
David Vando: Very closely.
Where there any onset problems During the filming of the film & how did you deal with it?
David Vando: Lack of time and money necessitated last minute rewrites.
Do you have any advice for young filmmaker out there? Or like yourself?
David Vando: Sick to your guns and never give up.
Do you think it is essential to go to a film institute in order to become a successful filmmaker?
David Vando: As a rule, I think it is essential, but there are always exceptions.
Which film has inspired you the most?
David Vando: Rashomon.
Which particular film maker has influenced you the most?
David Vando: Akira Kurosawa
Which book would you love to make a film out of one day?
David Vando: Don Quixote
If you got the opportunity to go back in time & change something in any particular movie of yours, then which movie & what changes will you opt for?
David Vando: I have only done one film, and it has been selected as Official Winner at seven film festivals all over the world including Russia. I am not looking to change anything.
If you were to shoot the film again, what would you do differently?
David Vando: Raise more money.
What is your greatest achievement till date?
David Vando: Conceiving, writing the screenplay, producing and acting in Hamlet/Horatio.
How do you pick yourself up after a failed film?
David Vando: I have never had a failed film, but if I did I would pick myself up and move on to a new project.
Where our viewers can catch you (share your social media)?
David Vando: Google and Facebook.
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