''Rose By Any Other Name...'' is a 1997 American

satirical Satire is a genre of the visual arts, visual, literature, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently Nonfiction, non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ...

romantic comedy Romantic comedy (also known as romcom or rom-com) is a sub-genre of comedy and Romance novel, romance fiction, focusing on lighthearted, humorous plot lines centered on romantic ideas, such as how true love is able to surmount all obstacles. Ro ...

film written, produced, directed by and starring

Kyle Schickner Kyle Schickner is an American film producer, writer, director, actor and a bisexual civil rights activist. He is the founder of FenceSitter Films, a production company devoted to entertainment for women, and sexual and ethnic minorities. He c ...

. The plot and title are loosely based on

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

's ''

Romeo and Juliet ''The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet'', often shortened to ''Romeo and Juliet'', is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare about the romance between two young Italians from feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's ...

'', the film is set in the US around the turn of the 21st century, gently poking fun at life, manners, morals as well as the tensions within the modern

LGBT LGBTQ people are individuals who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or questioning. Many variants of the initialism are used; LGBTQIA+ people incorporates intersex, asexual, aromantic, agender, and other individuals. The gro ...

and

liberal Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * Generally, a supporter of the political philosophy liberalism. Liberals may be politically left or right but tend to be centrist. * An adherent of a Liberal Party (See also Liberal parties by country ...

communities.

Plot

The story follows the main characters Rose, a comfortably lesbian woman, and Anthony, a decent progressive heterosexual man who serendipitously meet and then unexpectedly find themselves falling for each other. Rose has to navigate the reaction of her friends (they aren't thrilled) and her family (they are) while Anthony too has to deal with his friends who are equally nonplussed.

Production

The story was written and produced by

, a bisexual

rights Rights are law, legal, social, or ethics, ethical principles of freedom or Entitlement (fair division), entitlement; that is, rights are the fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people according to some legal sy ...

activist as well as being a film producer, writer, director and actor. It began as a successful

Off-Off-Broadway Off-off-Broadway theaters are smaller New York City theaters than Broadway theatre, Broadway and off-Broadway theaters, and usually have fewer than 100 seats. The off-off-Broadway movement began in 1958 as part of a response to perceived commerc ...

Production in 1996 at New York City's Sanford Meisner Theater which was turned into a well received 1997

Indie film An independent film, independent movie, indie film, or indie movie is a feature film or short film that is produced outside the major film studio system in addition to being produced and distributed by independent entertainment companies (or, in ...

by Schickner's

FenceSitter Films FenceSitter Films is a film production and television production company founded by Kyle Schickner an American film producer, writer, director, actor and a bisexual civil rights activist. History It was originally formed in 1995 as FenceSitter ...

. In 2008/2009

began working with an American Cable TV Network to spin off ''Rose by Any Other Name ...'' into a weekly TV series.

Controversy

According to Schickner after production had gotten underway "at the 11th hour as they were setting up to shoot the pilot the network expressed concern over how the cutting-edge social theme might play with some of their core viewership and decided to look at more data to see what kind of response the show might get". So with the assistance of

American Institute of Bisexuality The American Institute of Bisexuality (AIB) is a charity founded on July 23, 1998, by sex researcher, psychiatrist and bisexual rights activist Fritz Klein to promote research and education about bisexuality. AIB produces the '' Journal of Bise ...

the project was turned into a

Web series A web series (also known as webseries, short-form series, and web show) is a series of short scripted or non-scripted online videos, generally in episodic form, released on the Internet (i.e. World Wide Web), which first emerged in the late 1 ...

with each

Webisode A webisode (portmanteau of "web" and "episode") is an episode of a series that is distributed as part of a web series or on streaming television. It is available either for download or in streaming, as opposed to first airing on broadcast or cab ...

being posted on the FenceSitter Films YouTube channel. Episodes 7–9 and 11 are no longer available on said channel due to a successful copyright claim.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rose By Any Other Name . . . 1997 romantic comedy films 1996 plays 1997 films American LGBTQ-related television films American sex comedy films Films about female bisexuality Bisexuality-related television series American comedy web series Films based on Romeo and Juliet Lesbian-related films Lesbian-related television shows LGBTQ-related plays LGBTQ-related controversies in film LGBTQ-related controversies in television LGBTQ-related controversies in plays American LGBTQ-related web series Modern adaptations of works by William Shakespeare Plays and musicals based on Romeo and Juliet Live action television shows based on films FenceSitter Films films LGBTQ-related adaptations of works by William Shakespeare 1990s sex comedy films LGBTQ-related romantic comedy films 1997 LGBTQ-related films 1990s English-language films 1990s American films English-language sex comedy films English-language romantic comedy films