FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
DATE: Tuesday, September 30, 2025
CONTACT: Nicole Doerges
EMAIL: nicoleldoerges@gmail.com PHONE: 213-259-5475
Semester Cinema, an educational film intensive produced in collaboration with Kingdom County Productions, will show its 2022 historical indie film epic, Lost Nation, on November 7th at 7pm at the Shakespeare & Company Elayne P. Bernstein Theater – to celebrate the program’s upcoming move to Lenox. A Q&A with the film’s director, Jay Craven, will follow the film.
Lost Nation is a Revolutionary War action-drama that follows the parallel and intersecting stories of Vermont founding father Ethan Allen and pioneering Black poet Lucy Terry Prince. In the film, Allen, played by Irish actor Kevin Ryan (Copper, Harry Wild), navigates thick entanglements with allies, enemies and family as he and his Green Mountain Boys lead the resistance to New York land claims in the fight to establish Vermont as the 14th state. Kenyan actress Eva Ndachi (Beautifully Broken) co-stars as Prince, who gained her freedom after 30 years of enslavement in Deerfield, Massachusetts and upset the status quo in her assertive use of early Vermont’s legal and political systems to protect her family and secure their land – when their closest neighbor moved to force them off their homestead. Ndachi’s debut performance in a leading role was called “remarkable” by Vermont Public Radio commentator, Mikeala Lefrak and “powerful” by Seven Days reporter, Ian Dartley.
“Both Allen and the Princes found themselves caught up in turbulent times that threatened their prospects for the land and freedom they sought. I hoped to capture an indelible moment that shows the complexity and power of an early version of the ‘American dream’ – and the promise of the American Revolution,” says Craven.
The film is mainly set in western Massachusetts, Vermont and New York and has played 80+ sold-out dates across Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and the Hudson Valley since its tour began last summer. A film trailer and advance tickets for the Lenox screening are available at www.kcppresents.org.
Producers of Semester Cinema and Kingdom County Productions are also seeking local actors for consideration for all roles in their next film, set to be shot in the Berkshires during March, April and early May of 2026. Currently working under the title An Enemy of the People, the project is an hybrid adaptation of the Tony-winning play by Henrik Ibsen and Dashiell Hammett’s noir crime novel, Red Harvest. Set in 1957, the film follows Dr. Ebba Stockmann, who returns home to respond to an urgent issue at town’s newly renovated spa and mineral baths, only to find the man who called her in has mysteriously died. Suspecting foul play but getting nowhere with local police, she recruits the help of the town’s newspaper editor for a winding investigation that eventually cracks open widespread issues of corruption, contamination, and complacency.
Actors who would like to be considered should send their resume, headshot, and optional video material to producer Nicole Doerges at nicoleldoerges@gmail.com. Auditions will be at the producer’s request on Saturday, November 8th from 11am-2pm at the Shakespeare & Company Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre in Lenox, Mass. The project will be produced under an agreement with SAG-AFTRA, though non-SAG actors with strong resumes are encouraged to submit.
