<![CDATA[MICHAEL JOSEPH MURRAY - Latest]]>Fri, 03 Oct 2025 16:31:23 -0400Weebly<![CDATA[My chat with CanvasRebel]]>Thu, 13 Mar 2025 21:29:34 GMThttps://www.michaeljosephmurray.com/latest/my-chat-with-canvasrebelIt was nice of CanvasRebel to reach out and talk shop.  See the full thing here!
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]]><![CDATA[NYWIFT New Works Lab 2025 Showcase]]>Wed, 15 Jan 2025 17:31:13 GMThttps://www.michaeljosephmurray.com/latest/nywift-new-works-lab-2025-showcaseGlad to be a little part of the New York Women In Film and Television (NYWIFT) New Works Lab 2025 Showcase at Manhattan Neighborhood Network!  My talented buddy, Julia Maddox, wrote "Slip Away," an excellent, dramatic screenplay about one Kentucky mother's grief. 

It was a pleasure breathing some life into it in front of a packed house. 
​
Note: Don't let the smiles on these fine folks fool you -- Julia wrote a heavy one!
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Julia Maddox (front) and (L to R) Trey Jordan, Daniel Herrerias, Florence Friebe, Michael Joseph Murray and Devi Morgan.
]]><![CDATA[Disc Course Podcast -- my podcast premiere!]]>Sun, 05 Jan 2025 18:52:41 GMThttps://www.michaeljosephmurray.com/latest/disc-course-podcast-my-podcast-premiereI make my podcast debut as a guest of Heather Dollar, Rajah Satterwhite, and Karla Montalvan on Disc Course Podcast where it's all about music.

When Heather was telling me about the podcast and suggesting the theme of "Gender Abnormal" to me as a topic to discuss, she got me to realize the prevalence of the theme of gender in my own creative work.  I played the femme fatale in The Obese Pigeon and highlighted the strains of masculinity in Marcel The Muscle Man, so I suppose I was slow to realize "hmm, maybe I do have something to say about gender". 

It was a fun and engaging experience, and I'm grateful for being invited to join!  Give the episode a listen and get some nifty song recommendations while you're at it.  I know I learned about some cool new-to-me music!  

​Added perk: you get to see the inside of my closet!  

Thanks for having me, ladies!
]]><![CDATA[Lotsa Spooky Shootin']]>Mon, 10 Jul 2023 17:01:08 GMThttps://www.michaeljosephmurray.com/latest/lotsa-spooky-shootin
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In January, I joined forces with Original Cinematic as a director of photography on a short film adaptation of Stephen King's Jerusalem's Lot entitled One For The Road.  Well, I guess we felt pretty good about it, because we teamed up again this spring to crank out not 1, but 2 features over a crazy ten-day period.  That's right.  2 features in less than 2 weeks of principal photography.  Somehow, we survived ... or so it has been alleged.  Such madness is the way of writer/producer/director, Bill Rush, who led the charge on the aforementioned short, and the original features, Group and Immersion.  We're all looking forward to sharing 'em with you!

]]><![CDATA[Marcel The Muscle Man]]>Tue, 21 Jun 2022 04:00:00 GMThttps://www.michaeljosephmurray.com/latest/marcel-the-muscle-man
Life update -

I just graduated from the MFA - Filmmaking program at City College of New York. The pandemic put a damper on many an endeavor, but my peers and I prevailed!

I'm happy to introduce to the world my thesis film, Marcel The Muscle Man. It's about a muscular but meek fella who strains under the pressures of masculinity and struggles to find work. After serendipitously landing a circus strongman gig, he proves a talented performer, but has reason to doubt if he's really man enough for the job. 

The flick runs thirteen minutes and change, was ambitiously shot in a single room (spcifically, room 290 inside the cathedralesque Shepard Hall), and took a great deal of efforts and energies from a number of fine folks (to whom I give my sincerest thanks) to bring to the screen.


The film was warmly received at City Film's showcase, Cityvisions, at the SVA Theatre on 23rd St in NYC on Jun 20, 2022


.... and ...

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Marcel The Muscle Man was awarded Best Cinemagraphy at Cityvisions!


Kudos to Ayoub El Jamal, our DP!


Marcel's IMDB
]]><![CDATA[Happy to "HoHoHo" in "Blood/Sweat/Tears" !]]>Sat, 18 Jun 2022 04:00:00 GMThttps://www.michaeljosephmurray.com/latest/happy-to-hohoho-in-bloodsweattearsPicture
Donning the Santa hat again for Ali Keller (writer, lyricist), and Emily Rose Simons (composer), under the direction of Rebecca Aparicio for the reading -- this time WITH MUSIC!!! Produced by HARP Theatricals at Ripley Grier Studios on June 18, 2022 with the creative gang above! 

Ali explains her experimental theatre piece best: 
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BLOOD/SWEAT/TEARS is a horror movie, inside of a musical, inside of a play about Ginny (and her movie and musical counterparts – the show is triple cast across the worlds) – Ginny is a bookwriter & lyricist, who’s fighting to get the final draft of her musical script approved to go into rehearsals. But as Ginny’s creative team insists on changes, she begins rewrites that drastically impact the plot of the musical and therefore the horror movie. Turning a story that should be one of determination and success into a disturbing tale about survival, as reality and fiction begin to blur during Ginny’s final evaluation. 

BLOOD/SWEAT/TEARS is like if Inception and Whiplash had a baby – and that baby sang like 50% of the time.
]]><![CDATA[Winter Film Awards 2021 ... in early autumn!]]>Wed, 06 Oct 2021 04:49:10 GMThttps://www.michaeljosephmurray.com/latest/winter-film-awards-2021-in-early-autumn
This fall, due to a pandemic postponement, we held the long awaited Winter Film Awards International Film Festival. The 2021 WFA festival ran from Oct 23 - Nov 2 with screenings once again at Cinema Village, and also included free education sessions, Q&A panels, and giveaways. The staff, made up of volunteers such as myself, pulled off yet another one, making it a successful 10th annual WFA!


photo credit: Fernando Camacho  
]]><![CDATA["BLOOD/SWEAT/TEARS" reading both streaming and in-person!]]>Tue, 17 Aug 2021 18:01:40 GMThttps://www.michaeljosephmurray.com/latest/bloodsweattears-reading-both-streaming-and-in-person
Here's a smart, really neat, new work from my pal, Ali Keller (writer, lyricist), and Emily Rose Simons (composer, sound designer), under the direction of Rebecca Aparicio. 

In perhaps the simplest terms, the play follows Ginny, a bookwriter and lyricist, through her arduous endeavor of adjusting her script for approval ... a script that happens to be a musical ... about the making of a horror movie, in which yours truly plays the murderous, sadistic Santa Claus! 

It's a unique pleasure to be involved in this reading at The Tank, as it is my first time back onstage since the pandemic's onset. I am immensely grateful.

Wednesday, August 18 at 7pm
​streaming and in-person
​TICKET INFO
]]><![CDATA[Zero Issue Q&A at 2021 GeekFestToronto!]]>Sun, 14 Feb 2021 20:08:18 GMThttps://www.michaeljosephmurray.com/latest/zero-issue-qa-at-2021-geekfesttoronto

​​Had a great time in the GeekFestToronto Q&A talking about our superhero mockumentary,  Zero Issue, with my pals: Ali Keller (producer), Jim Fagan (director), and Adam Harum (VFX).
We streamed on Facebook Live HERE! 
We come in at 00:31:05.

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UPDATE: 
Congrats to the whole gang for being awarded Best Mockumentary! Special kudos to Adam for Best VFX!

]]><![CDATA[Secret Identity July 3 benefit reading!]]>Mon, 06 Jul 2020 16:01:20 GMThttps://www.michaeljosephmurray.com/latest/secret-identity-july-3-benefit-readingIt was a blast to play the superhuman Paladin again in Chris Wiekel's Secret Identity! Organized by TOSOS and A Star Is Bored podcast, and directed by Mark FInley, we did a Facebook Live reading to benefit The Okra Project and ended up raising over $300 to support Black Trans people in need!

Here's a nice little publicity piece from Broadway World!
Note on article: Antwayn Hooper's role of Guise was read by Keno Golaub.
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