Mod Mobilian | Notes on Mobile Bay Theater, Dance, and Film

Notes on Mobile Bay Theater, Dance, and Film

Mobile-Baldwin Theater

Mobile Theatre Guild formed in 1947
Joe Jefferson Players: The oldest continually-running theatrical group in Alabama was formed in 1947. Plays are performed in the Joe Jefferson Playhouse on South Carlen St.
- Joe Jefferson was a well-known actor in the 1800s (famous for playing Rip Van Winkle) who lived in Mobile as a teenager.
Mobile Shakespeare Company
Playhouse in the Park youth theater is located in Langan Municipal Park
Chickasaw Civic Theatre

Mobile-Baldwin Dance

Mobile Ballet originated with the merger of two local ballet companies in 1987.
Alabama Contemporary Dance

Mobile-Baldwin Film

Crescent Theater, 208 Dauphin Street, originally opened in 1885 before eventually becoming a restaurant. Max Morey reopened it in 2008 to feature independent films.
South Alabama Film Festival started in 2009. It’s is led by Hailee Kuntz.
Fairhope Film Series is held at the South Alabama Baldwin Campus Performance Center at 7 p.m. every Friday
Mobile Film Group
Mobile Jewish Film Festival
Mobile is on the schedule for the Southern Circuit Tour of Independent Filmmakers
Mobile & Baldwin in the Movies

Mobile & Baldwin in Movies and Videos

Movies filmed in Mobile:

Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), War and Rememberance, The End of August (1980), Backroads (1980), The Hunt for Red October, Under Siege, Executive Decision (1996), The Insider (1999), Love Liza (2003), Hometown Legend (2006), The Saints of Mt. Christopher (2009), USS Seaviper (2010)
Close Encounters of the Third Kind was filmed in the Bankhead Tunnel, in a large hangar at Brookley Field (alien mothership arrival) and some exterior shots near the hangar, and in a West Mobile suburb (exteriors at the Neary residence). Bay Minette stood in for Moorcroft, Wyoming in the rail-station evacuation scene.
In The Insider, Mobile doubles for a night scene in New Orleans where Lowell covers another story while taking Jeffrey’s call about receiving a death threat.
The Hunt for Red October was filmed on the USS Alabama and Submarine Drum.
Most of the Steven Segal movie Under Siege was filmed on the USS Alabama.
USS Seaviper was filmed aboard the USS Drum
Final Destination 4 was partially shot at the Mobile International Speedway in Irvington
Ken Burn’s documentary The War highlights Mobile during WWII.
- Mobilians in the documentary include Maurice Bell, Glenn Frazier, Tom Galloway, John Gray, Herndon Inge, Dwain Luce, Clyde Odum, Emma Belle Petcher, Katharine Phillips Singer, Sidney Phillips, Ray Pittman and Willie Rushton.

Mobile Bay Film Production Companies:

Scott Lumpkin produced Love Liza and Hometown Legend among others. Producer Scott Lumpkin (IMDb)
Fighting Owl Films has produced a number of short genre films. It is led by writer-director Thomas Smith, with actors including his wife Erin Lilley Smith.

Mobile in Shorts:

Mobile Bay Directors:

Margaret Brown is a film director and native Mobilian. Brown’s work includes:
- Be Here to Love Me (2005), a documentary about the late singer-songwriter Townes Van Zandt. Full movie at Snag Films
- The Order of Myths (2008), a documentary about Mobile’s Mardi Gras. It was shown at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. Brown’s mother Margaret Wilson Luce, the daughter of Margaret and Dwain Luce and wife of Milton Brown, was MCA queen in 1966.
- www.theorderofmyths.com (includes trailer)
Milton Brown wrote and directed Mi Amigo (2002), a drama filmed in southwest Alabama in 1999 which was is available on DVD from ThinkFilm.

Mobile Bay Screenplays:

A Love Song for Bobby Long (2005) was based on the novel Off Magazine Street by Fairhope author Everett Capps. The soundtrack was performed by his son, Grayson Capps and starred John Travolta and Scarlet Johanssen.
Barry Munday (2009), in post-production, is an adaptation of Frank Turner Hollon’s novel Life is a Strange Place