Project incorporates Ashland landmarks; themes of kindness, empathy, with tones of adventure, mystery

By Holly Dillemuth, Ashland.news

When Southern Oregon University senior Tabitha Wheeler first began crafting a capstone project for her Digital Cinema degree, the 23-year-old didn’t know what the plot of her pilot episode of a short film would be about — but she knew it needed to have a sword fight and the storytelling would follow.

Wheeler unveiled the 15-minute film she wrote, produced, and directed as her capstone project, “The Lost Years of Shakespeare,” at a by-invitation-only red carpet screening of the film Thursday, March 23, at the Varsity Theatre. She hosted a showing with a question-and-answer session following the event. The evening culminated Wheeler’s last day at SOU, as she completed her graduation requirements for a Bachelor’s of Science Degree in Digital Cinema on Thursday as well.

The film follows a young woman who attends an elegant gala held to celebrate a special anniversary for a major theater festival many might easily recognize in Southern Oregon. At the gala event, the young woman finds a secret passageway within the hotel where the event is held, leading her to discover that the dagger that is to be presented at the gala is actually fake. The dagger is purported to belong to William Shakespeare and his descendents, but the young woman finds within the secret hotel passageway that all is not as it appears.

Wheeler said the actress is a heroine who displays empathy and kindness, attributes not generally represented in female starring roles.

“It is really about showing something that traditionally feminine characteristics can be heroic,” 

Wheeler said. “In the ‘Lost Years of Shakespeare,’ those become strengths.”

In her own life, especially back home in Alaska, Wheeler said there’s a lot of situations she found herself in where she had to put on an aggressive or defensive role to keep herself protected. 

“I think that now, coming into this role, that I’m now in kind of unlearning those aggressive behaviors, has been very challenging and kind of the holistic approach of ‘Love conquers all’ and being very gracious with other people and showing empathy and understanding not only helps your relationships with those people but also kind of helps you kind of learn to forgive yourself and let things go and find your own peace of mind,” Wheeler said.

Wheeler said that oftentimes major films, including Marvel movies, give female characters  more masculine attributes as the heroine.

“Those are all awesome and women do do that,” she said. “But I think also the kindness and the empathy for both men and women gets lost in translation and I feel like those characteristics aren’t usually brought to the table for those characters.”

The 23-year-old former SOU soccer standout has been working on her short film for about a year and has enlisted more than 200 people to help her, including about 20 crew members, 10 core cast members, 35 to 40 extras, and even her mom.

“It got really big, really fast,” Wheeler told Ashland.news in a recent interview. 

“It was a pretty easy sell with like the crew because everyone around me was … pretty much all in the program and were really excited to do something film-related — I think that’s why everyone’s here.”

Wheeler’s wide-ranging personal network helped her pull it off, too. She worked as a nanny while a student at SOU and many of the parents and some of the children she nannied for acted in the film.

“Even though I put a ton of work into this project, I could not have done it without each and every one of them and their passion and their talent that they brought,” Wheeler said.

For her capstone project, she set out to create a short film, roughly 10 to 15 minutes, where she was able to showcase her talent, creativity, and problem-solving savvy.

“I thought I was just wasting my time getting into super high-level math,” Wheeler said, noting she started with a math minor at SOU.

“Actually, it ended up playing a huge role in being able to execute all of these crazy, crazy problems, because it just felt like a bunch of little problems to be solved,” Wheeler added.

From casting to directing to writing to fundraising, Wheeler was all in on the details.

In March of 2022, Wheeler held a Shakespeare-themed scavenger hunt with the participation of local businesses. Through the event, she fundraised several thousand dollars to produce the film and pay for her and others to travel and film at locations throughout Southern Oregon, Portland and the Oregon Coast.  

Wheeler and her cast and crew filmed the short film over 13 days, with shoots at the ballroom at the Ashland Springs Hotel, Brookings, the Allen Elizabethan Theatre at Oregon Shakespeare Festival, backstage at SOU’s main stage, and downtown at the Black Sheep Restaurant & Pub.

“We traveled up to Portland and shot at Rocky Butte National Monument up there,” Wheeler said.

Wheeler also filmed the movie at SOU’s Digital Media Center, where the program offers classes.

 “We actually built a set to put in that studio, which was really cool,” Wheeler said. 

“I didn’t want just want to take everyone there, I wanted to make sure they have fun and have 

fun and were comfortable so I ended up budgeting about $6,000,” she said, “and to do all that, it was a mix of my personal network, a mix of hosting what became known as Shakespeare’s Treasure Hunt, and selling tickets to that and then the community could come and be apart of that.

“We got a few local businesses to donate gift cards that people could win,” she added. 

“Slowly but surely, just building and building this network of people and even to the point where I was going into different businesses or could just talk to whoever I could about the film.”

Classmates, friends and acquaintances joined Wheeler in her excitement surrounding the film, embodied in her comment that she and her team kind of just took the approach of jumping off a cliff and “growing-a-pair-of-wings-on-the-way-down” kind of mentality through it all. 

“It was just cool to see that people were just down,” Wheeler said. “Everyone just kind of went for it.”

Wheeler thanked her advisor, Christopher Lucas and film mentor, Courtney Williams, in addition to cast and crew members who helped.

“Even though I put a ton of work into this project, I could not have done it without each and every one of them,” she said, “and their passion and their talent that they brought.”

Not a ‘film buff’ but intrigued by storytelling

Wheeler started out at SOU not on a film stage but on a soccer field. 

After being recruited to play soccer competitively, she majored in communication. But during her sophomore year, the Digital Cinema Arts Program emerged at SOU, and she changed her major and eventually moved away from competitive athletics to work toward her degree.

“In the end, competitive sports essentially gave me more time, more than I would’ve had before, to do what I’m really passionate about in the end.

“I think it all happened for a reason,” she added.

She navigated COVID-19 with online classes and says that the time period, coupled with her interest in cinema, helped her finish out strong at SOU.

“I feel like I would’ve taken a break from school,” Wheeler said, noting she might not have returned to school.

Growing up in Anchorage, Alaska, Wheeler told Ashland.news that movies and shows and technology in general “weren’t really in the times” or on social media in comparison to living in “the lower 48.” 

“It wasn’t like we didn’t have a TV or anything like that,” Wheeler said. “But it was definitely very behind on the trends.”

Her interest in cinema actually started while using YouTube, and then during high school, she got interested in broadcast journalism and documentaries.

She also participated in community theater when she was very young as well, which she thinks helped her interest in film grow.

Wheeler wouldn’t call herself a “film buff” and says she often feels like, among her peers, she’s not watched shows or movies that others have growing up.

But she loved watching movies like “Pirates of the Caribbean” that were filled with intrigue and mystique and books like the Nancy Drew series.

Through her capstone project, she’s had the freedom to create a short film that draws on the inspiration she had growing up, as well as incorporating the talents of more than 100 people in the process.

Wheeler drew inspiration from looking at her surroundings around town, namely Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and Shakespeare plays in general. She also incorporated a ‘Who done it?’ style, as she enjoyed watching shows like “Murder She Wrote” and reading book series like Nancy Drew.

“That’s kind of where the story developed,” she said.

In between concept and the outcome, Wheeler said there were all sorts of variables and what-if’s.

“Every step of the way, I was completely unsure that any of it was going to work out,” Wheeler said.  “I said all of these things were going to happen and just by the skin of my teeth was hoping that they were going to happen. And just like waiting for everything to fall through at any moment.”

“That was a huge win, just like having the backing, all the 100 people who donated and then … putting legitimacy to the plan that I had made because it was these people showing I could 

do it because it was showing that there was these people who believed I could do it and then 

that helped bring more people on board, and it just kind of kept building from there. And we actually ended up raising $7,600. So we exceeded our goal.”

When asked for suggestions for SOU students currently in the Digital Cinema program or pursuing other areas, Wheeler offered this advice:

“Seriously, if you just believe that you can do it, and you do everything that you can to get there, you are going to find so much success,” Wheeler said.

“I think it comes down to, don’t be afraid to give it your all … it’s so hard to put that much energy into something that could at any moment slip out from underneath you. 

“That’s true with projects that you’re passionate about, but like also just about life and relationships and decisions,” she added. “So if you just have a passion for something, and you just really give it everything that you have, it will always be worth it because even if … it doesn’t turn out how you expect in the beginning, it will turn out to be something you never imagined you’d be capable of.”

KOBI-5 reported that about 200 guests were invited to the event. Formal attire for the event was encouraged.

Comments, questions, story tips? Reach Ashland.news Holly Dillemuth at hollyd@ashland.news.

April 24 update: “Mainland” changed to “the lower 48.”