ACTOR/PRODUCER/DIRECTOR, DAVID WENZEL:
As an actor, Mr. Wenzel has appeared in several Theatre productions Off-Broadway in NYC, as well as Film, TV, and daytime serials including Ray Donavan, Rescue Me, One Life To Live, All My Children, Guiding Light, Another World, Evil Lives Here, Who Killed Jane Doe, Wild Crime premiering on ABC Fall 2021, OLD DOGS, The Hustler.

David Wenzel is also an Award Winning Producer/Director for such films as Hamlet/Horatio, Echelon 8, Preying For Mercy, The Hostage!

David has work with such notables as Brad Pitt, Leonardo Dicaprio, Anthony Hopkins Fisher Stevens, Scott Rudin, Jace Alexander, and the great Oscar Winning Cinematographer Emmanuel “Chivo” Lubezki & Oscar Winner Gordan Willis.

Where are you currently located?

NYC

Who most inspires/influences you currently and why?

DAVID VANDO

Playwright, lyricist, screenwriter, translater/adapter, producer, acting coach.
Scholarship student at Columbia University, BS Comparative Literature, MFA
Playwriting. Folger Library Fellowship in Shakespearean Studies recipient, Forest
Robert’s International Playwriting Prize winner, whose theatre works have been
performed in Europe as well as America. Published works include, THE MASK AND THE
MIRROR, an anthology of three plays, and SHAKESPEARE FOR THE 21st CENTURY
now in its third edition.
David Vando has been in the performing arts all his life. While still a scholarship student
at Columbia University in playwriting he assisted director Jack Gelber in the Arnold
Wesker play THE KITCHEN off-Broadway and INDIANS by Arthur Kopit with the Royal
Shakespeare Company in London. After graduating from Columbia, David Vando did an
English adaptation of THE THREEPENNY OPERA for the Lake George Opera Company,
and the book and lyrics for a musical adaptation of LOVE’S LABOR’S LOST for the
Folger Theatre Group in Washington DC with music by Brian Williams, and BUGLES AT
DAWN, a musical play based on the RED BADGE OF COURAGE, at the ATC Chernuchin
Theatre in New York with music by Mark Barkan. Vando did an English adaptation of
THE THREEPENNY OPERA for the Lake George Opera Company and Vando’s comic
play about the last years of Moliere’s life, THE KING’S CLOWN, won an international
playwriting prize sponsored by Northern Michigan University. It was performed at the
University and subsequent productions followed in Chicago and London. Mr. Vando’s play
THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LEONARDO DA VINCI was translated into German
and performed by the National Theatre of Weimar. His play EROICA about Beethoven
overcoming his deafness to complete the 9th Symphony was performed in London at the
Tabernacle Theatre
On the directing side, Mr. Vando worked as an assistant director with Patrick Bakman
(TOSCA, Lake George Opera, and THE BALLAD OF BABY DOE at the New York City
Opera) and with Choreographer Wayne Eagling on the ballet FRANKENSTEIN for
London’s Royal Ballet, Milan’s La Scala Ballet and Amsterdam’s Royal Ballet as well as

What is a quote that summarizes everything you’re about as a filmmaker?

Having been an Actor for several years and having the opportunities to work with the likes of Gordan Willis, Emmanuel lubezki, The Cohen Brothers and Brad Pitt. These people showed me the craft of filmmaking which I fell in love with!

What inspired you to start creating films?

As an Actor you are often not in control of casting. As a filmmaker I have the ability to create my own clear path.

Who most inspires/influences your style and specific execution currently and why?

I love all genre of film, but one the inspires me the most is probably Franco Zeffirelli! Franco Zeffirelli, who described his style as “lavish in scale and unashamedly theatrical”, was one of the most influential, flamboyant and controversial designer-directors of the 20th century

Fear and Love!

What is your overall dream in life?

To continue making independent film that speaks to wide range of people!

What is the film’s logline?

“The power of love to transcend corruption and evil.”

Told from the point of view of Horatio, the action transpires on an empty sound stage with
the death of Hamlet. In his last moment of awareness in purgatory, Hamlet’s life flashes
before him as a film within a film within a film as Horatio turns director in order to fulfill
his promise to Hamlet to tell his tragic story to the unknowing world.

What inspired the way that you went about executing this project?

This a a project that has been in the making for 20 years, David Wenzel played Hamlet off Broadway in NYC and worked with writer David Vando to create a unique interpretation of Hamlet told for Hortio’ eyes!

It started in 2000 when I was cast to play the role of Hamlet off-Broadway at The Waterloo Bridge Theatre (which is no longer in existence.) It was a short six performance run and I felt I could have explored more with the role. From there, I contacted my colleague David Vando and we started working on a draft with the focus being on the friendship of Hamlet and Horatio. I always felt that Hamlet would have ended up going mad like Ophelia if he did not have Horatio as a springboard for his concerns. David and I ended up doing eight different productions with different interpretations. We felt that it had ran its course on the stage and was time to develop a film based on the experimental process of the stage performances that were well received onstage.

What was the most difficult part in the process of creating this film? How did you overcome it?

Financing and putting all the Actors and Crew Together, and to make sure we had the right people that understood the vision!

What was the most fun part of this entire production?

Watching the filming and Actors coming to life!

What is the single greatest lesson you learned along the creation of this particular project?

Team work and love makes the dream work!

Is there anything else you would like us to know? Or any final thoughts / things you’d like to share with our readers?

Hamlet/Horatio is a 20-year collaboration of film professionals celebrating “the power of love to transcend corruption and evil.” Can you tell us more about the process behind making this film?

The pictures I sent The one in the Suit and Leather jacket is me David Wenzel, The writer and also Executive Producer is the older Man David Vando, The Director Paul Warner in the one with blonde hair.

It started in 2000 when I was cast to play the role of Hamlet off-Broadway at The Waterloo Bridge Theatre (which is no longer in existence.) It was a short six performance run and I felt I could have explored more with the role. From there, I contacted my colleague David Vando and we started working on a draft with the focus being on the friendship of Hamlet and Horatio. I always felt that Hamlet would have ended up going mad like Ophelia if he did not have Horatio as a springboard for his concerns. David Vando and I ended up doing eight different productions with different interpretations. We felt that it had ran its course on the stage and was time to develop a film based on the experimental process of the stage performances that were well received onstage