March 11, 2022 - Film festival to serve as a farewell for The Laemmle NoHo 7 Theater
LOS ANGELES - Down The Middle, a new comedy series featuring Tom Bergeron, will be screening live at 8 pm PST Thursday, March 31 as part of the North Hollywood Mini-Cinefest, March 30-31. The series created by Michelle Lee Barton and Heather Dowling, in partnership with David Fickas and Brice Beckham of Drama 3/4 Productions, will be part of a festival line-up meant to be a swan song for The Laemmle NoHo 7 after eight years of screening excellence in the heart of North Hollywood.
"Now, due to changing circumstances, we're moving to a new home in the fall,” said Cinefest Founder and Director, Gustavo Sampaio. This mini event will serve as the NoHo CineFest farewell to the theater and all the wonderful employees that have been a part of our growth since day one.”
Drama 3/4 Productions will be featured prominently in the festival, with two more projects in the line-up on Thursday night, Spell It Out in Neon and Fulfillment, with Down The Middle being the headliner.
Down The Middle began as improvised recordings between friends Barton and Dowling, as they pursued their acting and writing goals together. As the two discovered their odd-couple chemistry, they saw a story to tell about partnership and working with people you don’t understand, and maybe can’t even stand to be around sometimes.
“I was inspired to create something with Heather that was authentic to our voices and that highlighted the comedy that lives inside our very real friendship as we navigated being vision and accountability buddies in Los Angeles,” said Barton.
“This was meant to be a fun project for us, exploring how two people as different as she and I could be empowering partners for one another,” said Dowling. “But when David and Brice at Drama 3/4 read the drafts for the two-person series we were planning to shoot, they found the premise highly entertaining and wanted to create a much bigger world.” That bigger world meant a chance to bring on Tom Bergeron in one of the series’ leading roles, “Rex,” an owner of an ad agency ready to retire.
“The opportunity to act rather than host is one of the things that appealed to me,” said Bergeron. “It was the first time in years I haven't thrown to a commercial while on camera. Working with an energized and inventive team was great fun.” So much fun that Bergeron signed on as a Co-Producer for the project. CALENDAR LISTING REQUEST: NoHo Mini-Cinefest, Screening Down The Middle
Created by Michelle Lee Barton & Heather Dowling
Developed and Produced by Drama 3/4 Productions
FOR TICKETS AND MORE INFORMATION:
https://www.laemmle.com/film/mini-cinefest-shorts-session-4
www.downthemiddleseries.com
PRESS CONTACT INFORMATION:
Monica Gleberman
631-922-2444
mgleberman ( @ ) prime-entertainment dot org
