"It’s pure Christie in it’s devilishness but also in it’s satire as well!" – Jonathan Evans, Creator of Gather the Suspects regarding Mansfield Mysteries

Mansfield Mysteries a full-cast, cozy mystery podcast created in 2021 by friends Amy Hanson (co-writer and actor), Nicholas Hoyt (director and actor), Michael Johnson (co-writer and actor), and Paul Reese (sound designer and actor). It’s produced by Nicholas Hoyt and Paul Reese independently through the Racine, Wisconsin-based QuaranTeam Productions, with its first season premiering in mid-September of 2022.

We’d had an amazing time working with our wonderful and talented theater actor friends (who, so graciously, acted for free 1st season) so, when Mansfield Mysteries began to find an audience and people were enjoying the characters, we jumped at the chance to produce a second season. Even as co-creators, we truly loved Dorinda and Stacey Mansfield, and wanted more of these amateur detectives in our lives. When asked, all of the original actors immediately jumped onboard, and so it began. Receiving positive reviews during the first run and in the months following gave us the will-power to work harder than ever to deliver what our listeners wanted. More Dorinda! More martinis! More mysteries!

In early 2023, Amy and Michael began working on scripts for season 2. We believed, as producers, that during this second go-round, everyone involved deserved compensation for the amount of time and energy they’d previously devoted to rehearsals and recording days. Besides including our own funds to the project, we set up a crowdfunding campaign with the promise that, if we met their threshold to keep the money, everyone involved in the show would be paid. And after a successful run, everyone in the 2nd season DID receive payment. Yay!

But now for season 3… The writers are cleaning their glasses, the actors are warming up in the queue, the director is buzzing on caffeine, and the sound designer “can’t hear you” because his headphones are on. We are ready to go.

Now, all we need is YOU!

Mansfield Mysteries has been our life for the last few years and we’re so excited that our satirical, cozy mystery has continued to find an audience and chart around the world. We’ve been delightfully surprised that so many listeners enjoyed and related to these unrelatable, catty, and eccentric characters in the quaint, affluent town of Berkshire Bay.  

And just know; we’re all committed to bringing you another season full of martinis, motives, and murder, and we hope that you’re looking forward to season 3 with as much giddiness as we are!

Unfortunately, we don't have the deep pockets of a typical Berkshire Bay resident, so with this campaign we’re reaching out to our fans, family, friends, and philanthropists to help fund season 3 of Mansfield Mysteries.

The first season was a passion project with no budget, and everyone involved volunteered their time and talents. For season 2 we ran a crowdfunding campaign that was essential in financing all the production costs and hard work needed to bring Mansfield Mysteries to life again.

In contributing to our season 3 campaign today, you’re not only imparted with the knowledge that YOU helped continue the legacy of this podcast - YOUR podcast - but you’ll also receive some amazing swag offered at our different tier levels. Seriously; check them out! It wouldn’t feel right to not give you something in return, so we’re offering digital and physical Mansfield Mysteries and Berkshire Bay Brand rewards - so you can show off your impeccable taste in fiction podcasting, of course.

One good deed deserves another, am I right? If you contribute to our Mansfield Mysteries campaign you can get ALL the goods, darling. You want stickers? We’ve got plenty. But who cares? No big deal, you say? You want more? 

Wanna go on vacation and make your friends extra jealous? Send them an authentic Mansfield Mysteries postcard! Ever wanted to feel like you worked for 3B? Drink from your very own Berkshire Bay Brand coffee mug! Have deeper pockets than Rosemary but the kindness and generosity of Stacey? You’ll receive your very own Mansfield Mysteries martini and wine glasses, along with a beautiful, customized wine decanter, and a Mansfield Mysteries canvas print signed by the cast and crew! Oh, did we mention you could also be an Associate Producer for the entire season (getting named not only in all of our descriptions and verbally at the end of each episode, but also in the Mansfield Mysteries IMdB credits)?

We plan on bringing Dorinda and her gang of snooping socialites back again whether we make our financial goal or not. Maybe we’ll just have to do without a few martinis during recording days if we don’t reach it. We, the sound designer (Paul) and director (Nicholas), play double-duty as producers and know that, if needed, can adjust our pay (or pass on payment). If we raise money but miss our goal, all funds will first and foremost go to pay the talented actors and writers of our series.

This year, Mansfield Mysteries was honored with funding from the ArtSEED grant in our hometown of Racine, Wisconsin. The grant program is funded by Racine Arts Council and the Wisconsin Arts Board with funds from the State of Wisconsin. This grant will help us to cover the basic production costs. We’re so excited to see that podcast has the world-wide reach that it does, and are very proud to show people everywhere the kind of talent that can come from our thriving local arts community. 

With your contributions to this campaign, we can continue to plan, repair, and elevate Mansfield Mysteries as an immersive fiction serial podcast, grow our audience reach (we’ve surpassed 155k downloads in the first 2 seasons), but to also show that Racine, WI has a lot of creative talent to offer. And finally, the funds will allow the world to hear Dorinda crack a few more jokes along with an entire season of cases!

Last year, we used another crowdfunding site that showed us risks and challenges we couldn’t have planned for.  

Once the Mansfield Mysteries campaign launched, multiple would-be contributors complained to us that they’d had numerous issues with entering payment information and eventually gave up, costing us funding. We were even shocked when we found we had a few big-dollar fraudulent contributions who would then ask if we would pay THEM to promote our campaign. When we obviously declined, they immediately canceled their pledges. It was quite a psychological knock to see your rising contributions plummet in a single day. While we know that not everything can be controlled, we’re hoping that by using Indiegogo this year we’ll eliminate some of these issues. We've heard great things, so our fingers are crossed!

Like we mentioned before, no matter what happens financially, we’re 100% committed to producing and releasing season 3 of Mansfield Mysteries, no matter the budget.

We know that not everyone who enjoys Mansfield Mysteries is in a position to contribute monetarily, but that doesn't mean you can’t help out in other ways.

• Please share the link to this campaign (text, email, or social media). You can copy it here, or use Indiegogo Share Tools. The more often people see our campaign being supported or shared, the more confidence they have in the project. Help us make sure as many people know about our Mansfield Mysteries crowdfunding campaign as possible.

• Please, please, please Subscribe, rate, and review us on your favorite podcatcher (i.e. Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, Audible, Pocket Cast, etc.). It really does help us appear in ‘You Might Also Like’ lists (algorithm stuff!) and can introduce Mansfield Mysteries to new listeners searching for a recommended podcast with similar vibes. (Scan the [massive] QR code below to find us on different platforms as well as for links to our social media.)

• Please pass on the campaign information about our podcast to all of your friends, co-workers, and amateur detective sidekicks (a glowing review would be nice too, but we’re not going to be picky). Grassroots, word-of-mouth publicity is probably the best kind you can give.

• And lastly, just enjoy Mansfield Mysteries. The greatest gift we can possibly get is knowing that something we love and created is released and enjoyed by so many others. Though distance may keep us physically apart, art - and more specifically, podcasting - is a wonderfully personal way to feel surprising empathy and connection to people we might never otherwise encounter. They’re also great for a laugh.

Toodle-loo!

To the depths!  XoXo