Johnny Garcia’s “Welcome to Purgatory” is an ensemble romantic comedy about six theatre students struggling to become actors in New York City.
Thomas Mundis isn’t sure about all this acting stuff. Or graduate school. Or living in New York. In short, he’s confused, and this is made even more apparent when his acting coach Don severely criticizes his work in class.
Thomas is in his second year at The University of New York’s graduate acting program. While he wonders about his future, his friends are also at a crossroads. Rick, Andrea, and Paul are also experiencing problems that may lead them to give up their dreams.
As bad as it is for the four friends, at least they’ve made it to UNY. Their bartender friend Mitch can’t even get accepted, though he continues to try. And Thomas also meets Dolly, a UNY graduate, who was once the Next Big Thing. In fact, she was once cast in a starring role in a big budget movie, only to be mysteriously dropped from the project. Why this happened remains unclear, although one thing that is apparent is that Thomas is falling in love with her.
In the end of a story that is by turns hilarious, charming, and heartfelt, each of the characters in Welcome to Purgatory may not have the perfect answer, but at least they have one–and in the words of Don, their emotionally elusive acting teacher, “That’s a start”.
View the trailer at the Welcome to Purgatory website.
