INDIE SOAP BEAT: August 25, 2009

In this week's "Indie Soap Beat" feature, we take a look at the latest happenings from around the world of independent soap opera production.

VENICE - THE SERIES
Mimi Torchin announed in Monday's "Soapgeist" column that Crystal Chappell would indeed, as many suspected, be playing the lead role of Gina on the series. Monday also saw the release of a fabulous New York Times article on Chappell/Otalia and VENICE which has since been republished and repackaged on a variety of websites including Gawker, Huffinton Post and Eclipse Magazine.

Producing VENICE is a labor of love as everyone is working without pay for now. Ms. Chappell recruited as cast mates the actors Hillary B. Smith (ONE LIFE TO LIVE), Jordan Clarke and Daniel Cosgrove (both from GUIDING LIGHT), and Elizabeth Keener (THE L WORD). 'I can’t pay you anything,' she said she told them. 'How’s that for an opening line?' (She’ll cover food and transportation, she said.)

Camera equipment was donated by friends. And her partners in the newly formed Open Book Productions — Kim Turrisi, the writer for VENICE, and Hope Royaltey, the series’s director — are also donating their services.

It’s a business model that costs next to nothing — only one Web designer is paid. And now Ms. Chappell has taken the next step: calling on fans to design the logo and music for VENICE through contests. Ms. Chappell’s fan club president, Cathie Wagner, a 54-year-old married kindergarten teacher from Ohio, oversees 15 volunteers for Ms. Chappell’s Facebook page and Web site.

EMPIRE
The seventh episode of Greg Turner and Brian Hewson's new indie web soap, EMPIRE, is now online. This one includes some nudity so be warned.



FRIENDSHIP UNION COMMUNITY THEATER
Producers Hilarie Burton (formerly of ONE TREE HILL), Nick Gray and Kelly Tenney have launched the six episode FRIENDSHIP UNION COMMUNITY THEATER (FUCT) web series at SoGoPro.com. Watch the first episode here.

Nick Gray: "In our research of existing and successful Web series, the one great connector was a relatively simplistic concept, and we wanted to adhere to that. And so, FRIENDSHIP UNION is definitely a slice-of-life comedy piece, picking at brief and strange moments of these characters for whom theater is life. Our protagonist is Clarisse Birdsong (played by Rachael Sutton), the new artistic director of this theater company, and a woman who has enjoyed moderate success on the stages of New York. Her uncle Mel, the former head of the theater, has died and his dying wish was that she take over the theater. (Because) one of her shows in NYC was ravaged by a soulless reviewer, she agreed. Clarisse is definitely the straight man amidst all the zany characters that lack a sense of perspective about their relative level of talent, and that is what propels the show."

EYE OF THE STORM
Catch up on J.R. Benight's radio soap, EYE OF THE STORM, on the show's archive page.

WORKSHOP
The third episode of WORKSHOP, a new comedic web series that was created by Nate Golon and Kimberly Legg which stars former PASSIONS actor Phillip Jeanmarie, is now online. Watch it below.



TABLE OF CHOICES
You can watch Episode #24 of Presage Entertainment's TABLE OF CHOICES below. The first season is expected to have around one hundred episodes. TOC is a gay-themed soap that mostly revolves around two main characters, Starvros and Devante.



WEHO
Between BEVERLY HILLS 90210 and MELROSE PLACE is a city too hot for prime time - until now. More exciting, more glamorous and more dangerous. Some call it West Hollywood, the producers of this new soap coming in the fall call it WEHO!