Submissions Only
Submissions Only is a comedy web series about the casting and audition process for Broadway theater. It centers around aspiring actress Penny Reilly and her friend, casting agency director Tim Trull, and their circle of friends, colleagues, relationships and family. The series was created in August 2010 by Broadway performers Wetherhead and Andrew Keenan-Bolger. Wetherhead is the series' writer, while Keenan-Bolger is the main director and editor.
The series has had three seasons. The first season started airing in October 2010 and had six episodes, the second season started airing in September 2011 and had eight episodes, and the third season started airing in March 2014 and had eight episodes. Most episodes run between 15 and 20 minutes long. The first season was produced on a minuscule budget, and was shown on YouTube. The second and third seasons had significantly larger budget, and higher production quality. Episodes from the second and third seasons were originally shown exclusively on the website BroadwayWorld.com, which also partially funded the project, but were both eventually released on YouTube. Most of the funding for the second and third seasons was solicited through the website Kickstarter. Broadway producer Kevin McCollum was a producing partner for the third season.
Characters
Main
- Penny Reilly – an aspiring Broadway actress who remains optimistic despite a variety of setbacks
- Tim Trull – the head of a casting agency, and Penny's best friend
- Steven Ferrell – Penny's agent and Tim's ex-boyfriend
- Aaron Miller – a talented but blasé actor, and Penny's occasional love interest
- Gail Liner – Tim's secretary, who is disdainful of nearly everyone, including Tim
- Cameron Dante – a former actor and Steven's boyfriend
- Linda Avery – a lascivious director who doesn't realize that most of the men she flirts with are gay
- Serena Maxwell – a Broadway star, and Aaron's girlfriend
- Raina Pearl – Penny's roommate, also a Broadway actress
- Randall Moody – Tim's former reader, and an annoyingly enthusiastic Broadway-lover
- Nolan Grigsby – an eccentric, independently wealthy director who has developed a compass-based theory of acting
- Agnes Vetrulli – a friendly but batty actress who replaces Randall as Tim's reader
Recurring
- Eric Hennigan – a strait-laced actor on whom Penny harbors a crush
- Val Reilly – Penny's mother, who is always saving magazine articles for Penny to read
- Don Martin – Penny's stepfather, who is always trying to hit on girls and get into the acting game
- Donny Rich – a snobby casting assistant
- "Adorable Girl" – a bubbly actress who seems to know everyone and compliments people on how thin they look
- Andy Edmond – a catty music director
- Rick Valencia – a middle-aged actor who is very verbose about the audition process
Episodes
Season 1 (2010–2011)
Season 2 (2011–2012)
Season 3 (2014)
Production
The impetus for the series was a series of backstage videos that Keenan-Bolger recorded for Music Theatre International, titled Keenan Blogger. Several of the videos were recorded while Keenan-Bolger was in the cast of a production of It's a Bird...It's a Plane...It's Superman in Dallas in 2010, and Wetherhead, who was also a cast member, assisted in their production. Wetherhead's husband, who was the show's lighting designer, suggested they create a web series together.All of the audition material shown is from fake plays and musicals, with dialogue and lyrics written by Wetherhead. For musical numbers, the music was written by Adam Gwon, Adam Wachter, Keith Varney and others.
Most of the actors who have appeared on the series are Broadway performers who are friends and acquaintances of the creators.