Staying true to who you are as you pursue your dreams on both a personal and professional level, no matter what obstacles stand in your way, is the inspiring theme in the new comedy, ‘After the Ball.’ Embracing who you truly are as you try to overcome those conflicts and maintain your unique personality is also the inspiring message in Shockya’s exclusive clip from the film, which features actress Portia Dobleday as her character Kate’s alter ego, Nate.
‘After the Ball’ follows Kate as she graduates with a degree from New York’s Fashion Institute. As she begins looking for a job in couture, no designer wants to hire her, as she’s the daughter of Lee Kassell (Chris Noth), a retail guru whose clothes are inspired by his competition. So she reluctantly returns to Montreal and stays with her godmother, Bella (Mimi Kuzyk), who owns the title vintage clothing store, and her friend Richard (Carlo Rota), an actor with many talents.
Supportive of her talent, Bella and Richard encourage Kate to work with Lee at his company, despite the fact that he has missed a great deal of her life since her mother’s death. While she’s reluctant to join Kassell Clothing, she takes the job, in an effort to reconnect with her estranged father and have the opportunity to begin working as a designer. However, her stepmother, Elise (Lauren Holly), who’s the vice-president of the company, and two stepsisters, Tannis (Natalie Krill) and Simone (Anna Hopkins), are determined to stop Kate from moving up in the company. In an effort to force her to quit, they make her assort the company’s accessory room. While working on that assignment, she meets the quiet and reserved Daniel (Marc-André Grondin), who works in the shoe department of the company, and is the only one at Kassaell Clothing who sees her full potential.
When Elise and her daughters’ plan doesn’t work, they plant evidence on Kate’s phone, showing that she she publicly leaked the latest designs Kassell Clothing was working on. Lee is then forced to fire his daughter, which prompts Bella and Richard to convince Kate to transform herself into a fictional up-and-coming designer, Nate, to infiltrate the company and prove Elise’s destruction. Combing Kate’s inspiring party dress line, Everyday Princess, with her alliance with Daniel and Maurice (David Michael), another company employee who doesn’t approve of Elise, Tannis and Simone, she ambitiously works to save her father’s company under the guise of Nate.
Shockya’s exclusive clip from ‘After the Ball,’ which is title ‘Great Idea,’ is set during a design meeting led by Lee at Kassell Clothing. While Tannis and Simone believe their new unoriginal women’s clothing line will surely be a hit, Lee is eager to hear the pitch from the promising Nate. The new designer tells the group that women can’t instantly transform their day wear into evening wear just by adding earrings and heels. So he presents his initial designs for Everyday Princess, a line whose dresses are meant to transform women into the “belle of the ball.” As Elise and her daughters are skeptical of the designs, Lee is intrigued by Nate’s transformative ideas, and agrees that the company needs to revitalize its designs.
‘After the Ball’ was directed by Sean Garrity and co-written by Kate Melville and Jason Sherman. The fashion-inspired modern take on the classic Cinderella story is set to be released in theaters and on VOD on Friday. Watch Shockya’s exclusive clip from the romantic comedy below.
Written by: Karen Benardello