Shoestring Virtual Theater was founded in the spring 2021. We are dedicated to experimental theater with content that promotes protection of the planet and support for environmental, economic, and social justice. We create documentaries, feature films, and shorts using of a wide range of techniques and technologies in what has come to be known as "virtual theater."
Our work on DREAMS FROM A PLANET IN PERIL began during the COVID-19 pandemic. Given the constraints of this period, our production process was new and challenging. Rehearsals took place primarily via Zoom. Filming took place over four months in the spring 2021 in a well-ventilated quasi-outdoor space in our barn, as well as on location. The film creation process was highly complex, utilizing a combination of green screen and outdoor/on-location filming sessions with the actors, self-filming and/or audio recording by the actors themselves, photography and video by our producer or licensed from others, and licensed music and sound effects. More.
Since landing on the Cape a decade ago, Janet has filmed and produced the documentary Icons of the Civil Rights Movement, helping to put the spotlight on Pamela Chatterton-Purdy’s magnificent art exhibition by this name. She also became the documentarian for Zion Union Heritage Museum in Hyannis, MA and researched, wrote, narrated, filmed, and produced Journeys in the Light, the 400-year history of people of color on Cape Cod. Today Janet and her associates do PR and marketing work for some of the leading artists and musicians on Cape Cod and in other locations around the country.
Janet's production credits also include several highly successful runs of A Woman's Heart by Judith Partelow and the musical version by Judith Partelow and Dana McCoy; and Three Viewings by Jeffrey Hatcher, Sorry Wrong Number by Lucille Fletcher, The House of Atreus: From Tantalus through the Trial of Orestes by Elsa Bastone, Mick Ryan's Lament by Robert Emmet Dunlap and Kathi Taylor, and numerous other plays and concerts presented on the beautiful stage of the Jacob Sears Library in East Dennis, MA.
In her prior life, Janet was a senior consultant with Coopers & Lybrand (later PwC), Vice President of two major retail companies, and President of the retail consulting firm Ogden Associates where she learned to juggle massive amounts of work and manage impossibly difficult projects!
Janet is a graduate of Vassar College where she majored in Philosophy and learned that you can do many things if you think like crazy and work like mad. She later pursued additional studies at Drew University and the University of Paris, attended classes at the Art Students League in New York, and became a Green Belt in the world class quality improvement methodology Six Sigma.
The film’s creators look beyond the iconic Euro-centric Mayflower story to present highlights in the history of the African American, Cape Verdean, and Wampanoag people in this region since the arrival of the English settlers in 1620. They find in the Mayflower Compact, and antecedents in Native American governance, powerful relevance for the divided America of today. JOURNEYS IN THE LIGHT tells its tale through the eyes, historical research, and works of art of the vibrant community surrounding Zion Union Heritage Museum in Hyannis. The documentary, filmed and produced by Janet Murphy Robertson of ArtistsAndMusicians.org, features important local artists including Robin Joyce Miller, Carl Lopes, Pamela Chatterton Purdy, Joe Diggs, Michael Alfano, Sean Cassidy, Vasco Pires, and others.
While addressing frankly such little-known facts as the existence of slavery on Cape Cod during the Colonial Period, the documentary highlights the courageous individuals who led the fight for freedom, strove for education and economic progress, transformed oppression into brilliant forms of creative expression, served the country in every war, and came to excel in sports, entrepreneurship, teaching, the arts, community service, and various other professions on Cape Cod and around the country.
The film was researched, narrated, filmed, and directed by Janet Murphy Robertson and produced by ArtistsAndMusicians.org.
Our earlier documentary, Icons of the Civil Rights Movement, is based on the stunning art and historical exhibition by this name. For more about these two documentaries, please click here: More
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