Annie Nelson ’11
Features Editor

According to his mother Jan, Daryl Wein ’02 is like a pitbull.

Of course, by this she’s refering to his self–motivated determination: “When he puts his mind to something he just doesn’t let go,” Jan Wein said.

A member of Staples Players in high school in 2002, Daryl Wein has since graduated from The Tisch School of the Arts at New York Univ.

Although he studied acting throughout college, his true passion is directing and filmmaking—his latest movie, “Breaking Upwards,” played at the South by Southwest Film Festival in March and has since gotten wide recognition, earning Wein a full–page feature in the March 26 issue of The New York Times.

“Breaking Upwards” is a romantic comedy about a couple whose suffering relationship prompts them to begin taking “days off.”

The couple is played by Wein and his girlfriend, fellow Tisch graduate Zoe Lister–Jones. But the on–screen romance is perhaps more personal than it seems; the plot is actually a fictionalized depiction of their own story.

Wein, who says he thought of the idea to create a film almost immediately after the couple’s decision to be in an open relationship, admitted “it’s weird putting your relationship on screen.”

Wein and Lister–Jones appear alongside some well known actors: hailing from Broadway are Peter Friedman, Andrea Martin and Julie White, and playing one of Wein’s romantic interests is Olivia Thirlby (moviegoers will recognize her from “Juno”).

Also involved with the production is writer and producer Peter Duchan ’01, a longtime friend of Wein’s from their days in Players.

While at Staples, Wein appeared in all Players main stage productions and directed his own one act studio play.

“The teachers in the arts program were really supportive,” he said. “Staples Players made itreally liberating…to make art together.”

But Daryl got his start acting long before he came to Staples —he took his first acting classes at Westport’s Music Theatre of Connecticut, also known as MTC.

“When I went to sign up his sister [Erika Wein ’07] for MTC, Daryl said he wanted to go also,” Jan Wein said.

In fact, she never anticipated for her son to pursue either acting or filmmaking—rather, she says he seemed destined for a career in athletics.

“Daryl was always a big athlete; that was really what he did,” she said. “I thought he was going to be a professional tennis player.”

Instead, Wein focused on acting throughout his time at Staples.

His mother said he “went out for everything,” racing to New York City after school to audition for countless commercials and voiceover spots.

He also experimented with filmmaking while at Staples, enrolling in Jim Honeycutt’s TV production classes. Honeycutt, who has taught at Staples since 1984, recalls Wein as “a bit of an institution in and among Staples Players.”

But the teacher remembers Wein for his filmmaking and even continues to show Wein’s film “Rhea” to some students.

Honeycutt also worked with Wein on one of his first short films, “Life As A Train,” in which he depicted a terrorist train hijacking.

After hearing of a triage simulation at the Westport train station, Wein dressed as an adult—suit and all—and boarded the train to document the event.

“He got all this footage of these people being carried away on stretchers, and he had no idea what he was going to do with it,” Honeycutt said.

After returning to the train once more to shoot additional footage, Wein ended up with a movie that showed a terrorist fantasizing the bombing of a train—a movie that also awarded him much acclaim.

Wein won third prize at the International Young Filmmaker’s Festival in New York for the movie, as well as a “You Belong in Connecticut Young Media Maker Award” from the state.

“That was the beginning of his recognition and emergence as a filmmaker,” Honeycutt said.

Following “Life As A Train,” Wein’s 2006 film “Unlocked” went on to be accepted by over 20 film festivals, including the Tribeca Film Festival.

“The next exciting thing would be for someone to make one of his films or hire him to direct one of theirs,” said Jan Wein. “But that’s not so easy.”

For now, Wein says he has a few ideas in the works.

And as for his advice for aspiring actors and filmmakers at Staples: “If you believe in something, then go and make it—get out there and make the movie you want to make.”