Peter Farrelly

Rosie Perez is out, but acclaimed screenwriter and director Peter Farrelly is in as co-host – along with Anne Meara – of the Latenight Storytelling Event at the Sconset Casino Saturday at 7 p.m.

Another exciting last-minute addition to the festival is the staged reading of Nantucket resident, actor and writer John Shea’s screenplay “Waverly Place” on Friday at 1:30 p.m. at Actors Theatre of Nantucket (downstairs at the Methodist Church).

Farrelly, who wrote and directed (with his brother, Bobby Farrelly) such famously bawdy comedies as “Dumb and Dumber” (1994), “There’s Something About Mary” (1998) and “Me, Myself and Irene” (2000), will step in to replace Perez, who is filming a documentary and can’t get to the island for the film festival.

Farrelly and Meara will host the event in which several guest storytellers and a handful of audience members will share their tales of woe and lessons learned the hard way, revolving around the question “If you could do it again . . . what would you do over?” Storytellers take the stage with no notes, no rehearsal and no script, and are given five minutes to capture the audience’s attention, sympathy and laughs.

“It happens every year,” said Nantucket Film Festival Artistic Director Mystelle Brabbee of the last-minute changes to schedule. “We were so disappointed that Rosie couldn’t make it because of a change in her filming schedule, then the next day we learned that Peter Farrelly could come and we were thrilled. It’s the nature of producing events and running film festivals.”

Brabbee shared the slate of scheduled storytellers, which will include Nantucket’s own Rev. Ted Anderson, director John Landis (“The Blues Brothers”), playwright Warren Leight (“Side Man”), actor and political prankster Andy Bichelbaum (“The Yes Men”), and big wave surfer Laird Hamilton (“Riding Giants”).

Brabbee was also excited to announce that Hamilton will appear at Cisco Beach Saturday at noon to sign movie posters for Riding Giants, pose for photos and meet with fans.

Shea, whose film “Southie” had its East Coast premiere at the 1999 Nantucket Film Festival, has been working on the screenplay for 14 years. The work is the true story of Dan Egan, a Franciscan friar who worked with female drug addicts, prostitutes and prisoners in New York’s Greenwich Village in the early 1960s.

“I met Dan Egan in 1990,” said Shea. “I interviewed him for two years, tape-recording our conversations. He told me all of the true stories of these women and the work he was doing. I gave him every draft (of the screenplay) over the years and he finally okayed it.”

Shea spent the winter in Venice Beach, Calif. polishing the screenplay and proposed a staged reading to Brabbee and executive director Jill Burkhart because he feels the work is ready to be read in public.

“This is very exciting,” said Shea, who is producing the event. “This is my back yard, so I know the people who are involved. It’s all fallen into place so easily. I wanted to do the reading on Nantucket because I feel like things will happen organically with the screenplay here.”

Shea will read the part of Dan Egan, who died in 2000 at 84. Former Nantucket resident Caitlin McDonough-Thayer, who is now an actor in New York City, will read the female lead opposite Shea. Joining Shea and McDonough-Thayer on stage will be Meara and Nantucketers Dwight Beman and Jeff Cook.

Other schedule changes include:

• The Special Tribute to Jenifer Estess and the screening of the film “Three Sisters” has been canceled.

• The screening of “Weapons of Mass Deception,” originally scheduled for Thursday at 9 p.m. at the American Legion Hall, has been rescheduled to Thursday at 4:30 p.m.

• The screening of “Twin Sisters” has been canceled. In its place, the Universal Pictures film “Two Brothers” will screen at the Dreamland Theater on Thursday afternoon at 1:30 and again on Saturday at 1 p.m.

• “I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead” is now scheduled to screen on Thursday at 9 p.m. at the Dreamland Theater and on Sunday at 10:30 a.m. at the Gaslight.

• The Surf Clinic will be held at noon on Sunday at Cisco Beach. This event is in addition to Laird Hamilton’s Saturday appearance at Cisco.

“The main thing people should know is that there may be more changes,” said Brabbee. “The website www.nantucketfilmfestival.org is right and the schedules at each venue are updated so that they’re right. Always check your catalog against the venues and the site.” The festival schedule on pages 6-7C in this week’s Inquirer and Mirror is also up to date.