The Official Site of the Villisca Axe Murders

Writers and Producers of Haunting Villisca

AriesWorks Entertainment is a stage and screen production company, professional acting school and casting company owned by Kimberly Busbee. Originally started by Kimberly Busbee and James Serpento, AriesWorks has cast, produced or co-produced eleven plays and five films in Iowa and founded the international Wild Rose Independent Film Festival, now in its sixth year.

Iowa Stage: AriesWorks’ Iowa productions include; Speed-the Plow, I Ought To Be In Pictures, The Eight: Reindeer Monologues, Four Dogs and a Bone, A Lonely Impulse of Delight, Pounding Nails In the Floor With My Forehead, A Mid- Summer Night’s Dream, and Glengarry Glen Ross, all of which havemet with critical and financial success. Kimberly and James also are two of the Founders of the Vaudeville Mews theatre in Des Moines.

LA Stage credits:  In Los Angeles, The Two Gentlemen of Verona was James and Kimberly’s first collaborative project with the Eclectic Company Theatre. James directed and Kimberly was casting director. The NoHo News said, “bravo to the newness and uniqueness of this production,” adding that the performers were “brilliant. . .the language of Shakespeare is spoken with enormous clarity.” LA Times reviewer Robert Koehler called the production, “exceptionally intelligent [and] impassioned”, called it “full of terrific casting”and honored it as a “Critics’ Choice.”  Their second collaboration at the Eclectic was the stage production of Landscape of the Body, which Don Grigware of the NoHo News praised for its “visual wonders” and “economical and ingenious” staging, and of which Robert Koehler of the LA Times wrote:  “ends up moving you in ways you hardly expected. . . .resonant, like music itself, defying description.” Landscape also garnered a prestigious LA Ovation Award nomination for its star, Daphne Ashbrook (of Dr Who fame.)

 
Film and Video:. AriesWorks’ award-winning short motion pictures include Frieze, The Next Table (an official selection for the Cedar Rapids Independent Film Festival) and A Quiet Evening Home.  Quiet Evening was purchased by Iowa Public Television, streamed on New York’s CenterSeat website, and was an official selection for the CRIF Fest, Des Moines Art Center’s Iowa Film and Video Artist Retrospective, the Drake Neighborhood Film Series and the Octagon Center for the Arts Film Series. The Yoofo Club, their first multiple award-winning feature film, was an official selection for the AngelCiti Chicago Film Festival and screened in Chicago AriesWorks Entertainment recently completed their co-written feature, Haunting Villisca,  about the 1912 unsolved axe murders and current paranormal investigation in the J.B. Moore home where the crime occurred.

At different times, both Kimberly and James have served as Iowa Motion Picture Association (IMPA) Board members and have judged screenwriting and acting for Showcase Iowa. They also have been active in many Iowa Scriptwriters Alliance (ISA) projects.

Casting:  As a casting director, Kimberly hascast or consulted on numerous projects. Noir  and Cutter, the Charlie Matthes and Thom Harlow features, the indie feature, All the Days Undone, Wilderness (a Sundance Lab project), and a New York School of the Visual Arts short film, Fences, by Shawn Hicks, which won the Manhattan Film Festival’s “Best of 2000” Award. Many other award-winning films cast by Kimberly include Mas Gardner’s feature, Boone Style, La Sirena by the Rodriguez brothers, Joe Case’s A Trip to Grand Rapids, Patrick McConville’s  On Dasher, On Dancer  and Terry Daily’s Snipe Hunt..
Kimberly has coached actors for auditions and provided consultation to leading casting directors on such high-profile projects as Fox Searchlight’s White Boyz, Domestic Disturbance, Rain and Cora Unashamed.  

AriesWorks has also cast many industrials and commercials for Sega, Nestle, Qwest, Hy-Vee, the Iowa Lottery, Corporate Entertainment Services, EIC and the Des Moines Register, among many others. Kimberly  also served as casting consultant for the original stage production of Robert Ford’s, Caucus! The Musical

Education: With professional training for actors, writers and filmmakers in stage and screen, AriesWorks offers classes in acting, filmmaking, writing and the business of acting. Kimberly also teaches comedy improv and is director for the teen comedy improv troupe, Twisted Tragedy.