 "Photo: Courtesy of Bill Page")
When facing a mid-life crisis, most people buy a hot red Porsche or a new set of of boobs. Richard Harrison takes a different approach.
Harrison, the main character of the dramatic comedy "All Along," escapes his reality by physically entering the world of his own daydreams and fantasies.
The film, written, produced and starring university alumnus Bill Page, follows 40-year-old Harrison through his struggles with middle age and desire for lost youth.
Harrison snaps in and out of his fantasies only to find himself in many precarious, but sometimes humorous, situations.
For example, an overweight and slightly-hairy Harrison suddenly awakes from one of his daydreams to find himself wearing only his tighty-whities at a crowded amusement park. He fantasizes about performing a strip tease for an audience of what he thought was adoring young beautiful girls. In reality, it was a group of horrified old women.
The film also stars actress Krista Allen as Sara, Richard Harrison's psychiatrist, who helps him uncover the true meaning of his fantasies. Allen has appeared in the movie "Liar, Liar" and television shows such as "Unscripted" on HBO, "Days of Our Lives." She is also currently a castmember on the hit ABC show, "What About Brian."
"All Along" was shot in 14 days and filmed entirely in Delaware at locations such as Blue Diamond Park in New Castle, Bowers Beach and Kahunaville on the Riverfront - the location where they filmed a fantasy of Harrison living out his dream of becoming a rock star.
Page, a former accounting major at the university, made the decision entering his senior year of college to withdraw from classes and pursue his dreams of acting.
After moving to Los Angeles and attending the Caroline Leonetti's School of Acting on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, Page discovered that the Hollywood life wasn't all it was cracked up to be.
"It was rougher than I anticipated," Page says. "I was making $5 an hour working in a laboratory cleaning test tubes when I decided to come back home and give up my career of acting."
Page returned to the university and graduated in 1989 with a degree in accounting and married Carol Lee, also a university alumna, with whom he has three children.
Page tested out various careers such as stock broking, selling mortgages and even acting as "The Hairman," mascot for the Philadelphia Flyers. Most of his success came from his travel agency, "All Aboard Cruises and Travel."
Page couldn't completely give up on his dream of making movies and decided to start his own production company, "Apprentice Productions" with his friend, Lou Leoni. The name actually comes from Donald Trump's TV show "The Apprentice," for which Page auditioned.
While visiting Universal Studios in Orlando, Fla. with his wife in May, 2003, Page found himself in a humorous situation that sparked his creative idea for the movie.
"I was on a white-water rafting ride with my wife and sitting across from us was this girl with an incredible body," Page says.
He describes a scene that could be right out of an episode of an MTV's Spring Break wet T-shirt contest when the "girl with the body" was splashed with a wave of water.
"I just looked at my wife and said 'Oh my God,' " Page says.
This was the inspiration Page needed to write the screen play for "All Along" and immediately started writing a movie with this idea of fantasy intermixed with reality.
After three years of working on the script with Lou Leoni and Paul Goodman of "Apprentice Productions," they passed the screenplay off to director Paul Masciantonio who helped develop the script.
The first cut of the film was shown in the Trabant University Center Sunday, Feb. 18.
Audience member Arlene Friedman says despite being slightly rough around the edges, the film was still enjoyable.
"I was extremely impressed with Bill's acting," Friedman says. "I really enjoyed the comedy in the movie."
Page's hard work and passion for the film show through in his performance. Page has also appeared in other films such as "Franks and Wieners," "Yearbook" and its sequel, "The 13th Grade," which starred former "Saved by the Bell" actor Dustin Diamond.
"All Along" is the first film produced by "Apprentice Productions," but Page says he hopes to create more.
Lee says producing movies is her husband's passion.
"Everything that Bill does, he does extra large, he does huge," Lee says. "He has always been a go-getter and always does what he says he's going to do. It's been his dream for a long time to film this movie and I am very proud of him."
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