10-10-10: Keith Odett and Brittany Carriger
Experienced Actors Re-Tell Casablanca in Santa Barbara
If there’s one dynamic duo of acting experience in 10-10-10, it’s Keith Odett and Brittany Carriger. Although they had arguably the least interaction of any of the scriptwriter-filmmaker pairs, their individual hours of acting experience go beyond the others. Odett is an actor and filmmaker, and Carriger is a member of UCSB’s acting program. And to top it off, Carriger’s script is about the most classically classic film of all time: Casablanca. Clearly these people like their acting.
The script is a modern retellling of the cinema masterpiece that takes place in 21st century Santa Barbara. After Carriger finished her half of the work — writing the script — she passed the baton fully off to Odett, since her school schedule made it nearly impossible for her to be on set. She told me that she trusted Odett, too; she didn’t want their partnership to be marked by writer-filmmaker disagreement, and she said that she knew he was going to do a great job no matter what.
Odett did, indeed, seize the reins. The script underwent some modifications by his hand so, he said, they had a better chance of finishing their film in just 10 days. After that, he cast himself in the lead role — for who better to play it when you’re strapped for time and resources? From then on, things were easy peasy. Odett assembled a crew, and started shooting at favorite local places like the carousel on Cabrillo and Old King’s Road. And thus their show goes on.
