We’re a husband and wife team grateful for the opportunity to work with an extremely talented and devoted cast and crew drawn exclusively from the DC/MD/VA market.    With two episodes already "in the can" as they say, we plan to begin shooting the rest of the season by late August or early September.   Each episode will explore Adam’s hilarious struggles as he returns to the Baltimore acting scene after twenty-five years away.   But it's not just his story.  As the season progresses you'll meet other characters whose complex, damaged and, in some cases, desperate lives intertwine  with Adam's in a fully realized story arc that, hopefully, will have you anxiously anticipating the release of season two.  In the nearly three decades since Adam left for New York, Baltimore theater has evolved from a handful of small theaters producing revivals of popular works to a vibrant, eclectic community filled with acting companies producing original work written and performed by extremely gifted artists.  One of our goals is to showcase our much- maligned city as a place where dynamic theater thrives.

Marc's been a comedian, actor, writer and filmmaker for over 25 years.  His credits include several appearances on Comedy Central, guest starring roles on the HBO hit comedy "Veep", NBC "Friends" and tons of stage and short film work.  Over his long tenure he's been blessed to work with many notable actors including Emmy winner Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Academy Award nominee John Hawkes, Emmy nominee Paul Dooley and Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Stephen Adly Guirgis.

A former star athlete at the University of Tennessee, Nikki has quickly moved up the ranks to become a much sought after actor in the DMV region as well as nationally. Her credits include NBC's  "Law and Order- Special Unit" and the hit Netflix series "House of Cards".

Matthew was a cast member of the Off Broadway hit "Awesome 80s Prom" and an original member of the Md. company.  His many film and television credits include "Veep", "House of Cards", "The Night Watchmen" and "One Penny." As a writer, he received an Emmy for Best Educational Short. 

Sasha's a seasoned stage actress and has appeared in several films including "Worth", "Forfeit of Grace", "Mr. Hopewell's Remedy" and the soon to be released "Prodigal". 

Bart's work includes several Shakespeare productions as well as the National Geographic Channel's "Killing Kennedy" and "The World Wars" on the History Channel.

We hope that after you watch the trailer you'll see that the work we've done so far- even given the limitations of low budget, guerilla filmmaking- is of high quality.  We're operating under a SAG new media agreement so we have access to some really talented actors and the crew is made up of incredibly passionate and hard working people who have been working mostly for pizza.  We'd like to do a full 8 to 10 episode season and could really use your help to get there.  Our hope is to sell the series to an online platform like Netflix or Amazon Prime but if what we end up with is a really cool series that people like you enjoy, share and get excited for the next episode then we know we've done our job. 

WHERE WILL  YOUR MONEY GO?

The $16,000 figure we've come up with is based on what we've learned from the first two episodes as well as other projects we've worked on over the years.  Yes, filmmaking (or technically, digital filmmaking) has gotten much less expensive in the last few years but still there are costs that can't be avoided and each episode costs a minimum of $2000 to make but the more we can raise, the better!   As creators, we'll take ZERO money and every penny we raise will go directly into making THESPIAN season one the best it can possibly be.   We didn't want to bore you with some arbitrary pie chart thing but here's EXACTLY where your contribution will go:

EQUIPMENT RENTAL.... Luckily, we have great friends who have contributed not only their time but the really expensive equipment they own. However, sometimes we need to rent things like a shot gun mic, or the right camera for night shoots or an extra lavalier.  The more we raise, the better quality gear we can use to make the series really look and sound great!

LOCATIONS... Again, we've been fortunate to have the support of friends and family who own a bar or the bookstore we used to shoot the acting class scene in the second episode (thanks Normals Bookstore!) but as we move through the season we're sure someone's gonna want a few bucks to let us use their space.

FOOD... Probably should've put this one first as it's SO FREAKIN' IMPORTANT!  Our amazing cast and crew work for little or no money but they definitely don't want to starve on set. We've been eating mostly pizzas thus far and that's okay but it would be nice to be able to reward everyone after a tough day of shooting with something besides Dominos or Papa Johns. We don't need lobsters but we just want to make sure everyone has enough snacks and at least one meal for every shoot day.  A happy crew is a productive crew!

POST PRODUCTION SOUND WORK... While Maria and I do all the editing, titles and color grading, neither one of us can do post sound mix work.  That requires someone who really has the expertise and the ear to make everything sound great.   We know some incredible sound people but it takes many hours to get it right and we want to be able to throw a few bucks their way for the effort.

CREW and CAST PAYROLL... All the actors have agreed to work for deferred pay, meaning they make money if the project does.  And they're cool with that because as actors we really just want to work and if we believe in the project and the potential rewards, we're happy to climb aboard.  Still, some of the actors come from pretty far away and we'd like to be able to offer some travel money under certain situations.  As for crew, they do the HARD WORK. Actors wait, then someone calls "action" and they talk (okay, it's tougher than that but you get the point) while the crew arrives on set way before the actors, work non stop and then break down and load out afterwards.  It's grueling.  They do it because they love it but they definitely deserve something for the back breaking hours they put in.  Your contribution will help us attract the best camera operators, sound recordists, makeup artists, gaffers, etc that Baltimore and the surrounding areas have to offer.

MARKETING- Hey, if we sell it to Netflix or Amazon Prime or Hulu or even Bob's COOL NEW STREAMING SITE, we may not need to worry about this but odds are, we're going to have spend money getting the word out that we exist.  The cost of a website, marketing materials, festival submission fees, traveling to meetings all fall under this category and we're gonna need it.

Even if you're not able to make a financial contribution there are still many ways you can help!  Let your family and friends know about the project and send them this campaign using the Indiegogo share option.  Post it on Facebook, Twitter and anywhere else you can think of.  Or if you have access to an interesting, unique location maybe it's a place we can shoot.  Or maybe you just want to work as a production assistant on the project.  Whatever help you can offer would be immensely appreciated. 

You worked your way through a lot to get here and we just want to say thanks so much for taking the time to look over our project.  We can't tell you that Thespian is going to be bought by Netflix and we're gonna become huge players in the industry with offers flying in from everywhere and you get to say "hey, I helped launch their careers!" Wish we could but can't.   We can tell you this though-  Thespian is being developed and shot by a group of passionate, experienced, extremely talented and driven artists and when we release the episodes we KNOW you'll be entertained and looking forward to season two...