Understudies Premieres & Announces Series Launch
(released
4/28/2015)
By Kimberly Burke
The Understudies is an original web series crafted by Elisabeth Gray and Daniel Zimbler.
The Understudies launches May 2, 2015 exclusively on www.broadwayworld.com for 72 hours. On May 5, the series will launch on the Understudies Channel on YouTube. Co-founders Gray and Zimbler cooperatively wrote the series, while individually, Elizabeth is the star and Daniel is the director.
Gray was an understudy on Broadway for Breakfast at Tiffany's which led to many hours of sitting around watching others act or as the comedy ensued, act out. From that theatre experience, she formed the idea for the series.
A new kind of office environment, the rehearsal space, sets work in the theatre and the characters who come to be the makers of the art form bend life to their liking.
Astoria Bagg is the lead that Elizabeth Gray portrays and we become surrounded with her circles of family, friends, and co-workers in the theatre. Astoria's mother, played by Alison Fraser, is an established member of the Broadway circuit. Her star power is what gives Astoria her break as the understudy, although Astoria believes she has earned her moment of accomplishment through her own passions.
Astoria's grandmother is played by the legendary Liz Ashley, known for her film, television, and Broadway experience. Ashley finds the new frontier of web serials to be exciting, although she claims her tech knowledge is not as vast.
Below is a photo gallery of the series premiere on Friday, April 24, 2015 at the IFP, Made in NY Media Center located on Jay Street in DUMBO, Brooklyn. The premiere was part of Screen Forward, a new IFP program focused on self-distributed and micro-distributed projects.
Print this article
|