The first collaborative feature film coming out of the University of Georgia will finish shooting in May. Writer/Producers Di Quon Wilms and Sofía Ruiz are joined by producer Suzan Satterfield, Atlanta co-chair of the Producers Guild of America who has come on board.

Directed by UGA Professor Sanghoon Lee, Classics Undone takes place in a small town, where a very special bookstore owned by “Sammy” (Di Quon) is the place where our character’s lives intercept. The characters, all based on classic theater plays, exist in the modern world dealing with race, class and gender issues. As their stories unfold, you find the characters experiencing tragedy at the level of a Greek play, a family conflict that only Chekov could create, and the desire for love that makes for a timeless classic story that we immediately recognize.

Sofía Ruiz, co-writer and star, noted, “this project started out of a desire to provide our campus community with an opportunity to work on a professional film set before graduation. We looked to our cohort to develop characters that would highlight their skills and make them shine. We were also interested in exploring the overlap between theatre and film and how that affects our work as actors.”

UGA alumni and Emmy-award winning casting director Chase Paris donated his time to help bring together an incredible ensemble cast. UGA alumnus IronE Singleton (The Walking Dead, and The Blind Side), Matthew Zuk (Doom Patrol), and David Atkinson (Justified), joined by Amanda Fuller (Last Man Standing and Orange is the New Black), James Kyson (Heroes and Yes Day), Lucia Scarano (Spiderman: No Way Home), Regina Ting Chen (Stranger Things), Di Quon (Grown Ups and Maid in Manhattan), Sofia Ruiz (Acapulco) and the rest of the current UGA performance MFA cohort lead the cast. Also featured in the film are Professors George Contini and Rachel Mewbron, several UGA Theatre undergraduate students and about 70 extras made up of UGA students from all over the University and the Athens community.

“During my time that I have been studying and teaching at UGA, I’ve met talented students interested in filmmaking and acting in films,” co-writer and fellow star Di Quon Wilms explained. “There are so many things I’ve learned on professional feature film sets that I couldn’t have learned in a classroom, so the idea for this was to create opportunity for both experience and education.”

The film’s production started in December 2023. In April, the Hugh Hodgson School of Music’s Contemporary Chamber Ensemble will be recording the film score written by Jeremy Wilms (Broadway Musical Fela! and Taylor Mac’s 24-Decade History of Popular Music) under the direction of Dr. Brandon Quarles. The film’s production will finish in May with the last 15 days shooting during UGA’s Maymester.

Classic Undone’s collaboration efforts extend beyond UGA and into the surrounding community to show iconic parts of Athens. The UGA Library, UGA Fine Arts Building, Shokitini Restaurant, Nuci Space and Jittery Joe’s have donated their locations. Jeanna Halik from Pageboy Salon is doing hair for the leads and costumes provided by Athens local store Community and Atlanta local designers Abbey Glass and Aleiman. Kimonos provided by Laura Jackson-Adorn Me. In addition, the film has received support from UGA Arts Collaborative, the Atlanta Mayor’s Office, SAG-AFTRA, MAC Cosmetics and Moonshine Post.

The film has set up a crowdfunding campaign at Seed and Spark for anyone wanting to be a part of this incredible project and directly contribute. Classics Undone has received help from the Collaborative Feature Film Project Grant at UGA through Franklin College’s Theatre and Film Department. Making a tax-deductible donation to that fund directly benefits this film and future collaborative feature film projects at UGA.