Milwaukee Chamber Theatre's "Moonlight & Magnolias" opened this weekend to a full house at the Broadway Theatre Center's Cabot Theater. The play, written by Ron Hutchinson, is set in 1939 at a Hollywood studio in the office of David O. Selznick, of Selznick International Pictures.

Selznick had worked for two years to bring the novel "Gone With the Wind" to the screen, but after just two weeks of filming, he realized the movie was off to a bad start. He shut down the filming process and locked himself in his office with Ben Hecht, a brilliant screenwriter, and Victor Flemming, a top notch director, to rewrite the screenplay. The only food he allowed the group to eat was bananas and peanuts -- supposed "brain food." Hecht agreed to give Selznick five days, so five days of craziness ensues.

So what kind of plot can you have with three guys stuck in a room? The focus is on character development. We indeed got a good look inside each of these guys' heads as their egos clash, heads butt and banana peels fly. It was interesting to witness the creative process that inevitably, at some level, is behind every movie or TV show we watch.

And why do we get the films and shows we do? According to producer Selznick, "We give them what they want, not what they need." I would dare to say that although that is still the major drive in the movie business, that there are certainly a decent share of movies produced these days that attempt to teach and inform the public, as well as to influence social change.

Also interesting was Selznick's insistence to stick with the original storyline and dialogue as it was written in the book. He believes that the people who bought the book, (and hopefully go to see the movie) will want to see the story they read, and that it was his duty to be loyal to the author. Clearly these days, movie scripts take a great deal of liberty with how they portray the novels upon which they are based. It is all a part of creative process of filmmaking.

As exemplified in the play, there are many more people involved in that process than are generally recognized -- and they want to be there, even as frustrating as it may be at times, because they want to be a part of that magic. They desire to be part of something that is bigger than them selves, to be involved in creating humanity's time capsule. "It is only in movies that the dead can walk," says Selznick.