Special thanks to Greg Cala aka Clara’s Dad (aka Mookie Dookie’s dad) for writing this blog posting!

Hi, my name’s Greg Cala, and I played the part of Clara’s Dad in the film “Adina’s Deck”.
From the first day of auditions, I had a feeling this was going to be a great production.
As I waited in the lobby and read through my scene, I could really picture myself as this goofy dad.
I didn’t know a thing about cyberbullying, so it was true to the part.
For some reason, I had a feeling I was going to get the role. Positive thinking really works!
There were a lot of people waiting to audition and when I finally got into the room, I was ready to roll.
Aside from reading the scene, we got to do some improvisation, which I love.
I kept going back in with a different group of kids so the directors could see how we meshed together.
There were so many talented kids involved, I couldn’t believe it.

I knew they were going to have a tough time making a decision on who to cast as the lead roles, but when they did, the choices were perfect. The 4 girls are fantastic. I was impressed to see how good they worked together.
My scene in the kitchen with Clara and Adina was a blast to shoot. Even though this was a serious subject, I was happy to be in a scene that was meant to be funny. Life is serious enough and I love a good laugh.
The girls were so natural and confident on the set. We all really had a good time and I think it shows.
The directors, Debbie and Jason, were great and the crew was very professional.

During production, they were extremely organized, which doesn’t often happen on low budget (or no budget) independent films. Debbie was determined to complete a successful project for her graduate program, but she ended up making an incredibly professional, entertaining and educational piece of work that has already won awards. I know they have what it takes to make more great episodes… an important subject matter, a talented cast and crew and last but not least, awesome writing and directing. I hope they get the funding.
It is important for parents and kids alike to be informed and educated on cyberbullying and other negative uses of technology. Adina’s Deck is a great way to accomplish this. I knew nothing about this topic before working on Adina’s Deck but now I realize it happens all over. Let’s help get the word out.
In the meantime, I’ll be looking forward to playing Clara’s goofy dad again on the next episode!

This entry was posted on Friday, January 19th, 2007 at 7:45 pm and is filed under Cyber Bullying. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.