The Story

Storyboards are often created for a movie to help the creative team decide on the "look" for a production. They are often just simple pencil sketches. Because Audrey has a rather tricky sequence with two conversations at the same time, one real and one imaginary, I felt it was important to create rather sophisticated storyboards to get agreement on action and camera angles. I used a software program called Poser to create, pose and light 3D "actors" and then superimposed the actors into digital photos of the actual locations.

A Rendezvous With Audrey was originally written as a radio play 25 years ago by Burt Sukhov, an actor and member of Image and is partially autobiographical. I was attracted to it, both for the universal experience it explores and for the small number of actors, locations and other logistics involved in producing it.

Burt Sukhov worked for 53 years as a retail pharmacist but never forgot his love of the theater. He studied with top instructors for many years in New York. He has performed in a wide range of roles in the Bay Area theaters. He also does voice-overs and performs on radio and television commercials. He began writing in 1983 and has created a number of original stories and plays.

The Story:

As the story begins we see a man walking and lurking in the shadows around a public park.

Suddenly he is transfixed by the sight of an attractive young woman exercising.

He moves in quickly to get closer to her and as he steps onto a pathway they collide. (This beginning is a bit of a red herring to create some drama and try to hook the audience into wondering what will happen next.)

The young woman helps the man over to a bench and we discover that the man is a harmless old man, by the name of Burt, who has come back to his old home town. He is lost and disoriented because nothing is as he remembered it. He was attracted to the young woman because she bears a striking resemblence to someone from his past.

The young woman is nothing like the shy kid Burt had been when he was in High School. She has no fear of approaching boys she finds interesting. This jolts Burt into wondering what he would do and say if he could go back to the past.

Suddenly his imagining is interupted by a vision of Audrey.

And Burt is transformed back into the young man he was when he knew her.

He has a wonderful and revealing conversation with this spirit from the past.

When the young woman leaves to resume her exercises ...

Burt is left with happy memories and a feeling of closure on this painful time from his youth.