What is the last act of the former Squires restaurant in Hanover? A movie set
HANOVER − The interior of the shuttered restaurant on Route 53 sits like a life-sized time capsule.
The red plaid carpet has seen better days. A distinct path connecting the main restaurant to behind the bar remains embedded with dirt and who knows what else. The wood paneling under the bar is worn at knee height, a sign of decades’ worth of happy customers. A tear-away calendar displaying August 2020, the final month that the Squires restaurant was open, still hangs on the wall.
These characteristics are exactly what writer and producer the Rev. Sarah Brockmann was looking for. Her indie film "St. Jones’ Ditch" takes place partially in a bar.
“It’s kind of dive-y, kind of tired,” she said of why she chose 1202 Washington St.
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The new owners of the 83-year-old building gave Brockmann and her two dozen strong, mostly volunteer cast and crew, including her brother Jeff Long in the director’s chair, permission to film there. They’ve been shooting scenes on Saturdays and Sundays over the past few weeks, and plan to wrap up by mid- to late October.
After that, Squires is likely to only live on through film.
Next: a new restaurant called Sage & Salt by chef/owner Andrea Schnell and co-owner Jon D’Allesandro. With proper town approvals, the new owners plan to tear down the structure and rebuild their vision within Squires' footprint.
Brockmann is rector at Trinity Episcopal Church in Rockland. Before going to Harvard Divinity School, she received a bachelor’s degree in film and television from Boston University. She has written nine screenplays, but this is the first to get off the pages and, potentially, onto the big screen.
More: New owners of former Squires restaurant in Hanover may demolish building
Filmmaking runs in the family. Along with her director brother, her son Robbie expressed interest in movies from an early age and has entered his work in competitions.
The plot of this redemptive dramedy follows Tim (played by Johnny Egan), a college professor who is caught having an affair with one of his students. After his wife kicks him out, his daughter disowns him and he loses his job, Tim goes on a drive and ends up in an East Texas town called St. Jones’ Ditch, which is actually the dried-up riverbed of the St. Jones River.
“We put the main character through all kinds of stuff,” Rockmann said. “We just beat the heck out of him.”
'Flotsam and jetsam of humanity'
There are elements of magical realism here. The town draws others who are also at a point in life when they’ve lost all hope. A big red and yellow sign with a classic diner font hangs over the motel. Central to the storyline is the bar, where the “flotsam and jetsam of humanity” come together, Brockmann said, and where leading lady Sonya Joyner plays a bartender named Teri.
Enter Squires.
Brockmann needed a bar that had three specifications: It had to be closed on weekends, the only time when the mostly volunteer cast and crew is able to work on the movie; it had to be somewhere that the owner allowed them to film; and it had to be a dive bar. When she received the keys, she and the crew had just a few days to clean and set up before they started to shoot.
"There's nothing like shooting in a real location, the feel that the actor gets from this sort of thing," said Egan, who plays the lead role.
Having worked as a crew member on the sets of films by Martin Scorsese and Wes Anderson, Egan said filming at a location instead of a sound stage provides an extra element that actors can feed off of. He felt that the first time he stepped into Squires, calling it "overwhelming."
"It's a dark cave. It's like this abyss you've fallen into," he said, drawing inspiration for his character. "It helped me find my bottom from which I can try to rise. It helped me find that bottom that I had to hit emotionally to prompt me to want to change."
How 'St. Jones' Ditch' came to be
The script of "St. Jones’ Ditch" is about a decade old, Brockmann said. The idea came to her when she was a fill-in pastor for a church in Delaware. Often she would drive on an overpass that crossed the St. Jones River. Curious about how the river got its name, she asked a local resident, who responded, “They might as well call it ‘St. Jones' Ditch.’”
“It just went ‘bing’ in my head,” Brockmann said. She started to imagine the place and story instantaneously.
Brockmann plans to enter the film into the festival circuit and wants to have local showings when it's finished next year. She hopes that former Squires patrons and South Shore residents will come out to enjoy it and see Squires live on in her movie.
Hannah Morse covers growth and development for The Patriot Ledger. Contact her at hmorse@patriotledger.com.
This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Squires in Hanover is a movie set before new restaurant opens
