Home Kids Return...

As part of the production development for the 12 Mighty Orphans story, principals of 12 Productions invited Home Kids, including characters in the book, Twelve Mighty Orphans, back to the site of The Masonic Home in Fort Worth, Texas. Together they toured the property and remembered what had happened decades ago, from the 1920s through the 1940s. The Masonic Home had closed just as Jim Dent was researching and writing his book.

Using golf carts to tour the now-vacant buildings, 12 Production principals Matt Barr and Mike Barr and Ryan Ross were there with the Home Kids as they toured the buildings and the campus and, in the process, were emotionally overcome by the meaning and significance of the people and events that came together long ago in that one place. This has been just one part of the work the 12 Productions team has been doing since the book was published, adding almost 20 hours of audio and video interviews and months of development work on the story and characters.

In the photo above, taken by Photographer Michael Piccola, shows Home Kids ready to scoot around the campus in a golf cart. They are real life characters in the true story and, from left, in front: Doug Lord and Norman Strange. In the back seat, from left: C.D. Sealey and Miller Moseley.

"Miller Moseley shed tears as he looked at the hole in the ground where his dorm used to be," said Mike Barr, remembering the activities of that day. Mike, a former football coach at Southern Methodist University, has worked to develop the arc of the story in terms of the coach and character of physics and math teacher H.N. "Rusty" Russell, and the football players which included Moseley, Lord, Strange and Sealey.

Actor Matt Barr, Mike's son, has a life-long passionate love of film and acting and a slew of acting credits (he is currently has the lead role in the CBS mini-series Harper's Island that will air its third episode this week on Thursday, 10:00 PM Eastern Time). Matt was also a football player in high school. He was most interested in character development and was awed by the experience of watching these men, who were captured in the book, move through the Masonic Home which was foundational to their lives.

"It was just awesome to watch them move, hear them speak, see them relate to one another -- these are things that are very significant when you create a character on screen. It is not the same as creating characters in words on a printed page," Matt says. Matt's father agrees.

"To actually take these men in their elder years back to the actual football field where they practiced in the prime formative years of their youth and hear their stories and to be able, right there, to ask them specific questions was a once-in-a-lifetime experience," Mike said, adding that what might have motivated them as players then takes on much greater significance when they have a lifetime of non-football experiences that were formed then, on that very grass. They studied and noted the characters' thoughts on teammates, coaches, strategies and all of these things have been important in concepts of story themes, character and story arc, Mike said.

Especially, with his own son and their own father/son, coach/player experience in mind, to work with the players on turf they all could relate to was significant to the 12 Mighty Orphans story for Matt and Mike. Principal Ryan Ross, who brings his production experience to the 12 Productions team, knew what would be important for moving the story to film from a production standpoint and he captured the experience that day on film.

That day, walking the ground, watching the Home Kids remembering the past, talking about the story and the place, was one to never forget.