Casting Call

A short film of the novel Wieland will be made Tuesday, September 14 at 8:45 pm at the Old Well on UNC's campus. We are in need of actors, special effects technicians, etc. Please join us there if you would like to participate.

If you are unfamiliar with the plot of Wieland, it goes something like this:

Sometime in the mid-1700s, the father of two young children becomes a religious fanatic. While praying in his temple at the dead of night, he dies, consumed by an unexplained fire.
When his son (Wieland) and daughter (Clara) come of age, they convert the temple into a deck of sorts, for hanging out and parties. The son marries and the daughter falls in love with the bride's brother (Henry). All four young people start to hear mysterious voices calling to them at night, and they meet a strange man named Carwin. Clara begins to hear these voices in her closet, plotting to rape and kill her. Wieland becomes a religious fanatic, and hears a divine voice telling him to kill his wife, children, and adopted ward--which he promptly does. Though Clara survives the killing spree, it becomes apparent that Wieland wants to kill her and Henry, too.

Wieland is jailed and Clara learns that Carwin is a ventriloquist, and has been tricking the whole family by throwing his voice at odd hours (and hiding out in Clara's closet). (He explains that he's done these things to test their courage and their powers of perception.) Carwin fervently denies, however, that he ever threw his voice to prompt Wieland to kill anyone. During Carwin and Clara's final interview, Wieland escapes from prison and attempts to kill Clara (following, still, his divine directive to kill her and Henry). Clara convinces him, however, that it was Carwin's voice that prompted him to murder. Wieland, stunned that he's been duped (and stripped of the illusion that his murders were required by a divine commission), commits suicide.

The source of the voice prompting Wieland's killing spree, however, remains unknown.