For the Reporter

Auburn native Emilie Rommel Shimkus appears as Alice in a short film, “Breathing in Wartime”, by Curtis Taylor, one of four Seattle International Film Festival Fly Film Challenge films produced in 11 days, each in a different assigned Seattle neighborhood, in partnership with Artist Trust recipients.

“Breathing in Wartime” was shot in an abandoned brewery with a script influenced by poet Derek Sheffield. Another of the four SIFF Fly Film Challenge shorts was made from a script influenced by Sam Green, Washington State’s first poet laureate.

All four SIFF Fly Film Challenge productions will play 4 p.m. Monday at the Egyptian Theatre, and 4:30 p.m. June 5 at SIFF Cinema Uptown, both in Seattle,and on KCTS television Saturday, May 25, 11 p.m., and Tuesday, May 28, 4 a.m.

Tickets and more information is available here: www.siff.net/festival-2013/fly-filmmaking-challenge-2013

Emilie, a graduate of Auburn High School and Pacific Lutheran University, lives in Tacoma with her actor husband Matthew Shimkus and their 2-year-old daughter Robin.

Among her film credits are the role of Wren, a graduate student bard, in 11 episodes of the continuing comedy podcast series “JourneyQuest” (www.journeyquest.com),and Jane in “Fetch” (now in post-production).

She has appeared on several South Sound stages in recent years, playing Stella in “A Streetcar Named Desire”; Octavia in “Antony & Cleopatra”; The Usherette in “The Rocky Horror Show”; Martha Jefferson in “1776”.

Among her roles in other area stage productions, she played the title role in a twice-extended run of “Always”, Patsy Cline, singing two dozen of Patsy’sbest-known songs in every performance.

She is also lead vocalist for the popular Tacoma-based dance-cover band Igneous Rocks (www.igrocks.com), emcees the First Mondays at the Auburn Station Bistro poetry feature and open mic events presented by The Northwest Renaissance and Striped Water poets in downtown Auburn, and will perform 2 p.m. Saturday, June 1, in the grand assembly hall at Eby Lodge, Wesley Homes/Lea Hill.

For more information, contact her, emilie.rommel@hotmail.com, 253-720-5202 in Tacoma.