Review Fix Midtown International Theatre Festival Coverage: Renee McNeil Talks ‘Overlooking The Shadows’

Review Fix chats with Playwright Renee McNeil who discusses her production at this year’s Midtown International Theatre Festival.

About ‘Overlooking The Shadows’

OVERLOOKING THE SHADOWS by Renee McNeil, directed by Renee McNeil; starring Justine J. Hall and Sean Kane. A lonely writer gets a visit from a stranger who has secrets of himself and her deceased husband. (Drama)

Review Fix: What was the inspiration for this project?

Renee McNeil: The inspiration of “Overlooking The Shadows” came from a simple of idea of wanting a suspense, romance plot mix.

Review Fix: What’s your creative process like?

McNeil: My creative process always come from a strong idea, then I write out the story to see if there is a beginning, middle and end of it. It has to have a strong inciting incident, climax and resolution.

Review Fix: What makes this different or special?

McNeil: What makes this different or special?  I love the connection between the two characters. I love how the love story and connection between them grow as the story progresses but faced with a harsh truth that may have a consequence of their relationship, that may be inevitable.

Review Fix: What did you learn about yourself through this process?

McNeil: I love this play. It’s nothing like I have ever written. I’m usually very conscience of my themes and what I am portraying but this story really showed me what it wanted to be and I had to really trust it and allow it,  me discovering it through the process and be open to it.

Review Fix: What are your ultimate goals for this production and for the future?

McNeil: The ultimate goals is to see if there is a slightly longer story to get it in other theatres. It’s also easy to produce. Two characters in one location.

Review Fix: What do you think your audiences will enjoy the most?

McNeil: I think the audience will enjoy seeing these two strangers of one another come together and begin to fall in love. They will also enjoy the suspense plot of why they even came together in the first place.

Review Fix: What’s next?

McNeil: What’s next? Perhaps a hybrid of a solo/cabaret show. I will star in.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 14262 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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