We're delighted to announce that The Hour of Living is to have its Australian premiere as part of the official selection of the ShOUT Gay Film Festival in Newcastle on 19th May 2013 at 7pm.

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Stefano Cavalli from Underground Art, Film and Music Blog Moveorama talks to Sebastian Michael about Optimist's philosophy, collaborations and the future for the arts... click here to read

Top Story, Sebastian Michael's 'apocalyptic comedy', which opens at The Old Vic Tunnels with Press Night on 7th January 2013, is now available in paperback and as eBook for all major platforms, including Kindle, iBook, Nook and Kobo. This is the combined programme & playtext, which will also be on sale at the venue during the run.

You can order/download it here.

Top Story, Sebastian Michael's 'apocalyptic comedy' opens with one preview at The Old Vic Tunnels on 5th January 2013. Press Night is on Monday 7th January 2013 and the play then runs until 2nd February 2013.

In Top Story, a meteor the size of LA is about to hit LA, ironically, while two young men in London spend the last seven days of the world on the sofa, watching the story to top all stories unfold on TV, reinventing the rules of chess, getting things into perspective and trying to handle 'the overallness of it all', before accidentally saving the world...

A Godot meets Rosencrantz & Guildenstern for the Facebook generation.

>topstoryplay.com

The casting call has gone out for our next theatre production: Sebastian Michael's 'apocalyptic comedy' Top Story is set to open at The Old Vic Tunnels in London in January 2013, directed by Adam Berzsenyi Bellaagh and produced by Caroline Couret-Delègue. Details will appear here and on the play's dedicated website soon. (If you are an actor and would like to be considered for any of the parts, please refer to the casting breakdown which will be available on Spotlight Link, Casting Call Pro and Castnet from Monday 29th October to Friday 2nd November and apply through any of these approved channels only, thanks!)

Following its Italian premiere in August, The Hour of Living will next be screening in New York City, at the NYC Independent Film Festival, on 20th October at 11:30 at the Producers' Club on West 44th Street, just off Times Square.

festival website

film website

Our first feature film, The Hour of Living has been selected for the XVIII Film Festival della Lessinia in Italy where it will be screened on Monday, 20th August at 9pm in the Teatro Vittoria.

festival website

film website

Angel, the debut novel by Sebastian Michael, which has been described by Stephen Fry as "a delight to read, so delicate, casually cruel, wickedly funny and wildly alluring" is now available on three major eBook outlets: the Amazon Kindle store, the iBookstore for Apple's iOS devices (iPhone, iPad and IPod Touch) and the Barnes & Noble Nook store.

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The brand new Optimist website is fully up to speed and live.

Apart from a much smoother and streamlined appearance, we've also upgraded much of the content with better slide shows of stills, more clips of shorts (including one full version), and easy, consistent navigation throughout the site.

Have a look around and if you find anything that's wrong, missing or not working, please do let us know!

All the best and we look forward to seeing you at an event soon.

Sebastian & The Team