![\"'The](\"https:\/\/static.lehigh-v.lehigh-valley.production.k1.m1.brightspot.cloud\/dims4\/default\/da92362\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/3021x1699+0+0\/resize\/880x495!\/quality\/90\/?url=http%3A%2F%2Flehigh-valley-brightspot.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com%2F56%2F99%2F3dac3c0643c7827b5c374b26d693%2Fimg-4361.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nBETHLEHEM, Pa. \u2014 Lights, camera, memories. <\/p>\n
As a film crew set up in Moravian University’s art studio, director Katina Sossiadis, who studied there as an undergrad, thought about her late film professor Rudy Ackerman. <\/p>\n
Ackerman, a professor, chairman of the Moravian College Art Department from 1963 to 2002 and executive director of the Baum School of Art, died in 2015. <\/p>\n
An arts icon, he was just one of the many local professors who inspired Katina Sossiadis and her sister, Koula Sossiadis Kazista, they said.<\/p>\n
“Moravian shaped me as an artist,” said Katina Sossiadis, who graduated from Moravian in 1993. <\/p>\n
“It was essential to us that we were going to feature Bethlehem, and it was even more surreal being back on campus because I lived in the art department as a student.” <\/p>\n
For several weeks in July, the siblings shot their second movie, “The Next Play,” on the fields and classrooms of the Bethlehem campus. <\/p>\n
The drama, set to be released next year, focuses on a high school field hockey team at a fictional all-girls boarding school, Boade Academy.<\/p>\n
The school is supposed to be rich in history, not unlike Sossiadis’ former stomping grounds, founded in 1742. <\/p>\n
Scenes also were filmed on the sports fields of Liberty High School and at KOA Campground in New Tripoli. <\/p>\n
A family affair<\/p>\n
The siblings’ first feature, 2019’s “Epiphany,” was set in Tarpon Springs, Florida \u2014 a love letter to their Greek-American upbringing. <\/p>\n
However, this new project brings them home, with a local film crew and movie extras \u2014 including student-athletes from local high schools and interns from Lehigh Carbon Community College, who served as production assistants. <\/p>\n
“They were essential in bringing all their students to us through their professor Wendy Barron,” Sossiadis Kazista said. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve lived in this community, coached here, raised our kids here. So it\u2019s more than just a location\u2014it\u2019s part of who we are.”<\/p>\n
Koula Sossiadis Kazista, co-director, writer, “The Next Play”<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve lived in this community, coached here, raised our kids here,” Sossiadis Kazista, who graduated from Lehigh University in 1995, said of their newest project. <\/p>\n
“So it\u2019s more than just a location \u2014 it\u2019s part of who we are.”<\/p>\n
The sisters’ children worked on the crew as production assistants, and Sossiadis Kazista’s husband’s company, Monster Remotes, supplied cranes for the feature. <\/p>\n
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Micaela Hood<\/p>\n
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LehighValleyNews.com<\/p>\n
Filming “The Next Play” on location at Moravian University in Bethlehem took place earlier this summer as sibling co-writers and directors Katina Soussiadis and Koula Soussiadis Kazista ready their second film for viewing.<\/p>\n
“We\u2019ve got our kids running camera, assisting with costumes\u2014it\u2019s a full family affair,” Sossiadis Kazista said. <\/p>\n
The sisters consulted their daughters, as advisers on everything from teen lingo to wardrobe.<\/p>\n
Sossiadis Kazista said they didn’t want to assume what teens experience today, so the script was constantly evolving, shaped by younger voices and real-life stories. <\/p>\n
Highlighting mental health<\/p>\n
![\"Boade](\"https:\/\/static.lehigh-v.lehigh-valley.production.k1.m1.brightspot.cloud\/dims4\/default\/0b2815d\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/3503x2627+0+0\/resize\/880x660!\/quality\/90\/?url=http%3A%2F%2Flehigh-valley-brightspot.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com%2Ff0%2Fa8%2Fdb2769414195956c69489a9809d3%2Fimg-3016.jpeg\")
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Micaela Hood <\/p>\n
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LehighValleyNews.com<\/p>\n
A look at the costumes from the set of “The Next Play” which filmed in July at Moravian University. <\/p>\n
“The Next Play” focuses on the growing awareness of the mental toll sports can take on teens \u2014 especially girls.<\/p>\n
It takes influence from 1989’s “Dead Poets Society” \u2014 and if the cast were all women. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe thought, ‘Let\u2019s do a sports movie.’ And field hockey \u2014 it\u2019s what we know,\u201d said Sossiadis Kazista, who coached her daughter on the Nazareth Clippers, a youth-based recreational league serving girls in the Northampton County area.<\/p>\n
While the movie follows the typical life of young teens, it diverges by addressing the pressures that youth athletes face. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe saw it all the time,\u201d Sossiadis Kazista said. \u201cThe pressure from parents, from coaches, from peers. The competitiveness is intense. It\u2019s not always about fun anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n
Honoring Morgan Rodgers<\/p>\n
While writing the script, the sisters found inspiration in the nonprofit Morgan’s Message, founded by the family of Morgan Rodgers, a Duke University lacrosse player who died by suicide in 2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe wanted to honor Morgan\u2019s legacy,\u201d Sossiadis Kazista said. \u201cThe butterfly motif you\u2019ll see throughout the film comes from her. It\u2019s about transformation. About hope.\u201d<\/p>\n
They also partnered with St. Luke\u2019s University Health Network, which supported the film\u2019s mental health messaging. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe dream that this film could save a life,\u201d Katina Sossiadis said. \u201cThat it could open up a conversation or make someone feel seen.\u201d<\/p>\n
The project\u2019s production team includes producers Chelsey Neders and Jane Kelly Kosek, who also backed “Epiphany.” <\/p>\n
![\"Moravian](\"https:\/\/static.lehigh-v.lehigh-valley.production.k1.m1.brightspot.cloud\/dims4\/default\/e05cc7e\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/7616x4284+0+0\/resize\/880x495!\/quality\/90\/?url=http%3A%2F%2Flehigh-valley-brightspot.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com%2F9b%2F84%2F141e0cd24db893c8e80881f2d978%2Fimg-1625-preview-16x9-1.png\")
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“The Next Play,” a movie about field hockey and the mental health aspect of college athletes’ lives, just wrapped up filming in Bethlehem.<\/p>\n
Community support<\/p>\n