As part of the 25 Days of Sine Fine Films extravaganza leading up the 25th Anniversary I have decided to write a series of posts celebrating the 25 actors who have been the most dedicated by participating in the most productions.
Actor of the Day: Morgan Dietkus
Morgan was part of the company from the very beginning when we filmed Destiny. She has participated in 9 productions as cast and/or crew.
I first met Morgan when we were both doing the Youth Summer Theatre Program at Urbana Park District. I think we met during Finian's Rainbow in 1995, but I didn't really get to know her until the summer show of 1996, Music Man. During that summer I was also filming my first movie - Destiny - and needed some actors for various parts. She agreed to take on the role of Maggie, the leader of the OOPS (the Organization of Out-of-Work Prostitutes and Singers). She was fiesty and strong as Maggie needed to be and did a great job. Morgan was also the stand-in for Telana as well as a dancer.
When I filmed Destiny II in the winter of 1996/97 I need extras for the royal court and ballroom dancers. Once again she graciously agreed to join in as an extra and danced, chatted, laughed and gossiped with everyone else in the royal court.
By the summer of 1997 I was filming the third movie in the Destiny Trilogy and asked Morgan to reprise her role as Maggie. She dutifully showed up to every film shoot she was called to even though she had very few lines in most of the scenes and often sat around just hanging out. Looking back that was a total waste of her talent and I really should have given Maggie more lines. She was also in the UPD's summer show, Mikado, with me so I know she was very busy and I'm really lucky she was willing to spend her precious free time filming.
The next production she was in was The Dragon & The Unicorn where she had a small part as one of Asarai's two minions - Eek & Squeak. She was Eek. She also once again played an extra in the final showdown of the movie which takes place at a party Asarai is throwing and I needed extras as guests.
During the fall of 1997 I took my first class in Studio Production at Parkland College. As the final project for the class I decided to do a scene from Trojan Women where Helen of Troy begs Menelaus to listen to her story and spare her life. Hecuba, the fallen Queen of Troy, insists that Menelaus should kill her and refutes all her claims. I cast Annamarie MacLeod as Hecuba, Chris Hutchens as Menelaus, and originally I had Jill Hutchison play the role of Helen of Troy.
At the last minute Jill had something come up and couldn't play the part. I called Morgan in a panic to see if she would be willing to do it. She agreed but there was a big problem: the lines. Half of Helen's lines are the big speech she gives to prove her innocence. Morgan did not have enough time to memorize a whole long monologue so we adjusted the lines in a way that didn't really work but it was good enough.
She was able to memorize all the rest of the lines - which is amazing considering she had one day to do it I think. I wish I had cast Morgan to begin with because she did such a good job at the last minute that I really would have liked to see what she could do if she's had the full two-three weeks everyone else did. Oh well. Thanks for saving the day (and my grade) Morgan!
When I decided to do The King of Eflin's Daughter I wanted to give Morgan a good role but the two main leads were already cast. However I needed five people to play the Minstrels who are basically the heroes of the movie. They're not the leads but they're good, strong parts with lots of lines - and ensemble group of singers and dancers. I cast her as Heather and she agreed to the role.
The first day of filming was in January or February of 1998 and it was COLD. Actors bundled up to keep warm - well as much as they could without messing up the costume, which should have but did not include cloaks. Because I'm mean. She did a great job that day, despite the cold, and I was really happy with the group of actors I had cast as the Minstrels.
Unfortunately Morgan was unable to make it to the shoots later on and she had to be replaced with another actor. We couldn't reshoot the footage from the first day so she ended up being credited as the stand-in for Rachel Anderson when in reality Rachel was the stand-in for her. I was sad that she couldn't continue in the role but she was very busy with school, choir, plays, and more. She did come back to the cast as an extra in the fairy dance so at least she got to be in it more. I hope she had fun.
I needed quite a few actors to play the friends of Julie, the lead character who dies at the beginning of The Vigil. Again Morgan came to mind and she agreed to play Ann Moriarity. There were only two shoots: one for the vigil itself and one of the characters sitting around a room and talking about Julie. Since there wasn't a lot to film she was able to play the part and I'm glad she did. There were not a lot of lines but there were some at least.
In the spring of 1999 I decided to make a TV show. I had already turned the Destiny Trilogy into a 12 episode mini-series that aired on PCE-TV, but I wanted to try writing and filming a TV show as a TV show from the beginning, not just a re-edit of three movies. The production I decided to do was Pandora's Box and I needed someone to star as the main heroine, Diyara DuQuois. The character is a quiet, shy and sheltered girl but is able to speak up and stand her ground when people are in trouble. She's known as the Chosen One of the druids. I immediately wanted Morgan to play this part. I had been wanting to put Morgan in a leading role because I knew she was talented and she had not had the chance to show it yet. She had a general shy and sheltered look that was perfect for the part. I also wanted to reward her for always being willing to play extras and small parts with a chance to play the lead.
Unfortunately she was too busy. She was doing a summer show and I think she was in All State Choir or something. There was no room in her schedule for massive amounts of filming on afternoons and weekends. I was crushed. I finally had a great lead role for her and she wasn't able to do it. Obviously playing a part in one of my movies was not really important compared to all the other things she had going on that summer and I really do understand why she couldn't do it. However, I am still sad that I never got to see her play that part. Mostly I'm sad because I never got to see her really show off her talents and play the starring role.
She was able to play a secondary character called Captain Jeri, Zarina's friend and bodyguard. It wasn't nearly as big of a role as she deserved to play but it didn't require much filming since she was only in three episodes. I'll take what I can get. I'm glad she was at least able to be a part of it even if it wasn't a large role or for very long.
By the time Pandora's Box was over I had settled into SIUC for college and moved my filming there. Morgan had graduated from high school and gone off to college herself. I completely lost touch with her for years and I had always kind of wondered what happened to her but never really knew.
By the summer of 2005 I had returned to CU and was working as an editor at WILL-TV. That summer Tim Hartin, a co-worker, was filming a documentary about 10 sisters who were torn apart by the court and were able to overcome hardships and eventually were all able to be reunited decades later. Most the filming that summer was to shoot re-enactment footage of the sisters that all takes place in the early 1930s. My mother was hired as the costumer and I was her assistant.
When we show up to film I was shocked to see Morgan Dietkus! She had been cast as the oldest sister and I finally got to catch up with her and find out how she had been doing. I had always seen Morgan as a caterpillar, never quite able to transform yet and I always knew she would one day be a beautiful butterfly, but dear lord I did not expect the butterfly to be so dazzling, brilliant, and glamorous!
Morgan had truly blossomed and become and amazingly talented, vibrant, confident woman. She had gotten a degree in Musical Theatre, lived on the East Coast, and been in like a 150 shows! I longed to film with her even more but I knew that we were both so busy it wouldn't be possible. I lost touch with her again and didn't reconnect with her until years later on Facebook.
Morgan was always a kind, sweet, talented young lady. She was not only willing to play any part when she had the time to, she also brought many friends to the set to be extras with her and I got to know a lot of people through her. I was always stuck in my own head and crazy busy in the early years of SFF and since we didn't go to the same school I never really had to chance or took the time to get to know her on a deeper level, which is something I do regret.
I would love to film with her again - and in a starring role of course, but since she has a family, a job, and I think still lives on the East Coast it's unlikely to happen. Maybe someday we'll both be visiting CU at the same time and I will at least get to see her, hang out with her, and get to know her better. Morgan, you're amazing! Never stop shining!
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