Columbia College Chicago Theatre Department alumnus Michael Stahl-David ’05, a graduate of the Theatre Department’s BA Program in Acting, stars in two movies opening within a day of each other the first week of November 2017 — the independent feature The Light of the Moon, premiering November 1 in select theatres, and the major release LBJ, opening nationwide November 3.
Michael Stahl-David
In The Light of the Moon, Stahl-David plays the workaholic boyfriend of a young Brooklyn architect (played by Stephanie Beatriz) who is raped. “All too often in film and TV, rape is used as a plot device – a way for cable dramas to display their grittiness, a pretext for a campaign of vengeance, a hazily recollected backstory – but rarely is the actual trauma and its long, uneasy aftermath given the detailed and unflinching treatment it deserves,” says critic Andrew Barker in his review for Variety. “Writer-director Jessica M. Thompson’s The Light of the Moon aims to do just that, and her simply-structured film is harrowingly effective in its streamlined, low-frills way: sensitive without ever being sanctimonious, brutally frank without ever lapsing into exploitation.” The Light of the Moon opens Wednesday, November 1, at IFC Center, 323 6th Avenue, in New York City, and Thursday, November 16, at the Laemmle Theatre at 1332 2nd Street in Santa Monica, California. It’s also being screened at film festivals around the country and is available for private screenings by schools and organizations. For more information on screenings, click here.
Columbia College Chicago Theatre Department alumnus Michael Stahl-David ’05 (inset) costars as American political icon Robert F. Kennedy in Rob Reiner’s new film “LBJ,” starring Woody Harrelson as Kennedy’s political rival Lyndon B. Johnson.
In LBJ, directed by Rob Reiner, Stahl-David portrays American political icon Robert F. Kennedy, costarring opposite Woody Harrelson as President Lyndon B. Johnson. The movie will explore the animosity between Kennedy and Johnson, who served as Vice President under Kennedy’s brother, President John F. Kennedy, before becoming President following JFK’s assassination. John Kennedy is played by Jeffrey Donovan. Here’s a video trailer for the LBJ movie:
Stahl-David — who celebrated his 35th birthday on October 28 — has an extensive list of film and TV credits, including the cult classic horror film Cloverfield and the tongue-in-cheek autobiographical TV miniseries Michael Stahl-David: Behind the Star, which he co-wrote and co-directed with fellow Columbia College Chicago Theatre Department Acting Program alumnus Jeremy Beiler ’04. In addition, he has an impressive resume of stage work in Chicago at Goodman Theatre, Steppenwolf, and other theatres, as well as at New York’s Public Theatre.
