Michael Ruscio (Director, Writer, Executive Producer):
Director MICHAEL RUSCIO fell in love with filmmaking in the editing room. As assistant editor on films including THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER and NOBODY’S FOOL, he learned the craft that led to his successful editing career. Collaborating with independent mavericks Alan Rudolph and Robert Altman (EQUINOX, TRIXIE) gave him the opportunity to watch a vision become a film, and the chance to direct second unit. Other films he’s edited include TWENTY BUCKS, TRAVELLER, AMERICAN PERFEKT (Un Certain Regard Cannes), A BOY CALLED HATE (Cicae Prize Berlin Film Festival), and MINI’S FIRST TIME. In television, he has been editor on the Emmy-award winning SIX FEET UNDER, for which he received an A.C.E. Eddie nomination, and THE SOPRANOS. He created a workshop for the American Film Institute on the art of editing which he also taught at the Los Angeles Film School. He is the subject of CUT BY CUT: EDITING SIX FEET UNDER, available on the series’ fourth season DVD. Michael studied directing with Judith Weston (who has coached Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, David Chase, and Henry Bean) and James Pasternak. He directed the James McClure play LAUNDRY AND BOURBON, his own play PHAEDRUS, and a stage adaptation of Heidi Mastrogiovanni’s novel DRESS LIKE A LADY, DRINK LIKE A PIG that developed into the screenplay TUMBLING DOWN. He continues to write with Heidi and together they have written WITHOUT CUSHIONS, ALMOST A DAD and SPRING BREAK-IN. He lives in Los Angeles with his talented wife, production designer Ginni Barr-Ruscio, and their two sons, Jackson and Cooper.


Heidi Mastrogiovanni (Writer, Executive Producer):
When asked what made her decide to dedicate her life to comedy, Heidi Mastrogiovanni responds, “I share a birthday with P.G. Woodhouse, Nietzsche, and the Duchess of York. What choice did I have?” After graduating from Wesleyan University, Heidi trained at the Manhattan Punchline Comedy Theatre. She was a performer and writer with the sketch comedy group Mindfield, playing in clubs and cabarets throughout New York and appearing on the syndicated television show SPOTLIGHT CAFÉ. With noted L.A. Opera chanteuse Stephanie Vlahos, Heidi appears as the narrator in a decadent evening of song, COMPLETELY WEILL, basing her character’s German accent “half on my mother and half on Arnold Schwarzenegger.” Heidi and Harvey Silberman are the authors of the book and lyrics to the musical B n’ B, a finalist in the Richard Rogers Competition. Heidi has also written and produced the short film THE DAY MY SISTER MADE ME LAUGH, as well as producing and appearing in Harvey’s short film PRENUPTIAL TANGO. In addition to IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE, Heidi and Michael have collaborated on the screenplays TUMBLING DOWN and WITHOUT CUSHIONS, which they are currently producing. Heidi and Michael are completing their third full-length feature script together, a buddy revenge comedy. Heidi is especially gratified by her work to help animals with her wonderful colleagues in the animal rescue community. Heidi and her husband, musician Tom Bishel, live in Los Angeles with their two cats and their ancient beagle, Eunice.

DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT
Reunions. They gild us with expectation and douse us with reality. They promise eternal youth and deliver inescapable maturity. And we can’t resist them. It’s as if we want to show our past we are better, more beautiful, wiser. I’ve always walked away from reunions renewed, even when, after hours of liquid fortitude, I couldn’t walk at all.

This fascination led Heidi and me to write “In Order of Appearance.” What if someone planned a reunion with a person she had never even met? Would it be worth the cost of attending? And how would the event color her life? Heidi came up with the idea of having the mother and reunited daughter bond over tunes from Jerry Herman’s “Mame.” I’d never really seen the show. Somewhere in the TV-land recesses of my brain there was a Lucille Ball version, but I didn’t relish the idea of that reunion, so I bought the original Broadway cast CD with Angela Lansbury. She sang a song with the lyric “Would I make the same mistake if he walked into my life today?” It haunted me. Sure, I could arrive at a high school reunion all “Look at me now,” but what if my past included responsibility for another person?

A few weeks later, I spoke with Jeanne Field and John Binder at a party for American Cinema Editors. I told them I was prepping a short film and discussed the content. Jeanne mentioned an article about adoption in Rolling Stone magazine that she later sent me. Often women in the 1960’s were practically hypnotized back into virginity after delivering a baby and putting it up for adoption. These women were convent raised and never saw their babies again. To find a birth mother after thirty-some years would be a daunting task if one were born in that decade. I gave this article to the three actresses in the film and we talked about their back story. We wanted to be responsible to women who had made this choice, similar to what Lorraine did when she gave birth to Elizabeth.

But then we had to let all that go because we knew we were making a sad yet ultimately comic story. The point of view had to come from Frances, the daughter who was kept. She learns that for better or worse, she was, in fact, chosen. And despite her fantasies, she accepts the deck she’s been dealt. The younger sister, Elizabeth, isn’t even sure making the connection was a good idea. Like any visitor to a reunion, she becomes merely a guest and has to mend her own house after the film is over. I like the ambiguities in this story. These characters choose to endure and as such must ultimately be thankful for what they’ve got. I hope you enjoy witnessing their afternoon together as much as we loved making this film.