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Oct 28, 2011 Web Exclusive By Selena Fragassi

There are those in life who have to grow up all too fast, but only a select few like Norman Long can appreciate the experiences in between. Directed by Jonathan Segal, the heart of Norman is the 18-year-old title character, played by the incredibly self-aware Dan Byrd (Easy A, Cougar Town). Norman struggles at school with peer acceptance and pressure point teachers (Adam Goldberg), and at home battles his father’s terminal cancer, while still raw from the recent death of his mother. Norman wears his own death watch, an alarm he sets for a time every afternoon when he considers killing himself, until the day he is coerced into auditioning for the drama team and meets the new girl Emily (Everwood and Brothers and Sisters’ Emily Van Camp). As Norman transforms from witty to wounded to then warrior (further embellished in the transitioning original score by Andrew Bird), he learns that it is the love he so longed for that ultimately sets him free. (www.camelotent.com)

Author rating: 7/10