Check Out SMALL STAGE, A Web Series About Theatre, Friendship And Bendy Reality

Disclaimer: I am obviously all sorts of biased about this project, as it's the brainchild of one of my very best friends, Mandy Jeronimus, and I'm a producer for the show. But I believe in it, and I wouldn't write about it (or produce it, for that matter), if I didn't. 

Small Stage is an original web series written and conceived by Mandy Jeronimus, and you can find the Kickstarter campaign for the show here. Mandy graduated from UT Austin with a film degree and worked for many years for a very competitive post-production company. She beat out 1200 people for a directing fellowship through the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, and she worked on the directing staff of a soap opera that won the Emmy for best direction that year. She's worked as a writer, director and/or editor on tons of web shorts, commercials, documentary projects and short films, and all of this is just to say that Mandy is legit. She knows how to make a project happen. 

Toward that end, she's already written the first two seasons of Small Stage (and the Kickstarter is to fund these first two seasons), and I have read the scripts. They are, in a word, brilliant. This show is so funny that I'd constantly laugh out loud reading it on the page, and it's also twisty and weird and profound and utterly, utterly original. This is a show that needs to happen. Mandy's already created the shooting schedule for Small Stage, scouted all of the locations and begun working on the animation and effects, which will all be done creatively and very affordably. Because she's German and therefore super efficient and thrifty, she only needs to raise $6000 to make this series happen. That is a CRAZY low number for a two-season fantasy series. 

Here's a little bit about Small Stage: 

“Small Stage” is a web series about a small Midwestern town. Just over seven years ago, this was your typical, unassuming hamlet. Now, a town expatriate returns to run their small theater, and along with the eccentric characters that make up the population of this quirky little burg, she finds that the town has become ANYTHING but ordinary.

Mandy (a frequent BAD commenter - she's burningberry in the comments) gave me a quote about Small Stage exclusively for BAD: 

As a longtime BAD reader, I’m excited to share my project with the Badass community.  I really feel like SMALL STAGE has a Badass Digest mentality and sensibility in that it is not like anything you can see elsewhere. The series offers a combination of comedy and fantasy, with a conscious effort to delve into some strange, reality-bending mystery, as well.  I really tried to balance a Bryan Fuller/PUSHING DAISIES fantasy sensibility with a little Jane Espenson/Amy Sherman-Palladino style comedic banter - all with something entirely new. 

So check out the Kickstarter! If this sounds like something that's up your alley, consider contributing! Mandy's created some really fun and unusual perks for the campaign, a slew of ways for you to get involved and feel like you're truly participating in the making of Small Stage, beyond your financial contribution. 

This is Mandy's passion project, something for which she's devoted untold hours and an endless amount of heart, and I have no hesitation in saying that I know it will be great. But we need your help!