GREAT MILLS — Missy Bell got her start as a director in a high school theater in St. Mary’s County. On Nov. 20, she is bringing her first feature film back to one.
Bell, a former English and theater teacher at Chopticon High School, will hold the Maryland premiere of her debut feature, “Erased,” at 7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 20, in the Great Mills High School auditorium, 21130 Great Mills Road. She and producer Michael Bell, also a former Chopticon teacher, will hold a talk-back and meet-and-greet after the screening.
Bell said she chose St. Mary’s County for the Maryland premiere “to honor the folks who helped me get my start as a director,” she wrote in an email to the Chronicle.
A Chopticon reunion on screen
The local ties run through the cast and soundtrack. Chopticon graduate Jamie Burroughs plays Adrienne in the film, and fellow Chopticon graduates Montario Hill and Jamie Cochran sing on the soundtrack, according to Bell and the event’s ticket page. Hill is a former music teacher at Great Mills High and still lives in the county.
The evening’s emcee, Southern Maryland actor and voice-over artist James LePore, is a former student of Bell’s. The two once taught acting classes together in Leonardtown, and LePore’s voice is heard on a phone call in the film’s opening credits and first scene.
Bell began teaching English at Chopticon in 2002, her first job after college, and later ran the school’s theater department, according to the ticket page. She taught there six years, she said, before leaving the classroom to homeschool her children. Michael Bell, the film’s producer and cinematographer, taught math and technical theater at Chopticon and designed lighting for the Newtowne Players during 11 years in the county.
The couple moved to Asheville, North Carolina, in 2014. There, Missy Bell turned to film, directing several shorts before writing and directing “Erased” with a mostly Asheville-based crew.
About the film
“Erased” is an 80-minute drama about a high-powered businessman confronted by the now-18-year-old son he walked away from before birth, who must choose between a relationship with him and a life-changing business deal. Thomas L. Townsend stars as Evan, with Elias Hamilton as Tristan and Lauren Davis as Stacie.
The project began in September 2023, was filmed in November and December 2024 and was completed in September 2025, according to the production’s website. It is on the festival circuit and seeking distribution.
The filmmakers recommend it for mature audiences because of language, brief sexuality without nudity and non-explicit descriptions of sexual assault.
The Great Mills screening is one stop on a short fall tour. The film also has filmmaker Q&A screenings scheduled in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Nov. 11 and Mars Hill, North Carolina, on Nov. 14, and a Nov. 27 showing at the Ashefemme festival in Asheville.
Tickets for the Nov. 20 premiere are sold online through TicketsCandy. The event runs from 7 to 9 p.m.
