Throughout the year, holidays are a major part of the annual calendar, with each different occasion possessing its own special charms, traditions, and atmosphere. Around Christmas, one would be hard pressed to not be greeted at the doorstep by door-to-door carolers. Yet, what if that traveling choir showed up on every holiday, all year long? The new musical comedy web series THE TROUBADOORS explores that scenario through a unique blend of music and humor.
Co-created by Haley Esposito and series co-star Brina Palencia, THE TROUBADOORS follows a group of college students who travel door-to-door, singing their hearts out on every holiday under the sun (Labor Day, Comic Book Day, Hobbit Day, Halloween, National Bosses’ Day, etc.). At the same time, they struggle to find a place to be heard as their in-school arch rivals, The Harmonics, dominate the concert circuit. The show debuted, interestingly enough, on Labor Day of 2012, with its nine episode first season streaming on Youtube. It’s a series that Esposito proudly calls “the anti-GLEE”.
The show stars Ricco Fajardo as the group’s fearless leader, Alem Zimmerman, Brina Palencia as Kayla Bates, the group’s resident geek/outcast, Sean O’Conner as Alem’s childhood friend, inventor/”experimental cook” Spencer Caper, Jonathan Brooks as Felix Brown, a once promising musician whose music career is permanently sidetracked by blindness, Tiffany Hobbs as Camille Prescott, the group’s over-anxious perfectionist, and Andrew Milbourn as Paul Tebo, a young gay man whose “frat boy” persona masks a more sensitive side. The cast also includes Martha Harms as Jane Adams, an outspoken activist/slam poet who maintains a bitter rivalry with her roommate, Claire (the co-captain of the Harmonics). Each episode contains original songs, most of which were written by Palencia (who also co-wrote, with Fajardo, the song “Hobbit Day”). In addition, series co-associate producer Chris Sabat also wrote music and lyrics for some of the songs. Also, almost all of the series’ cast play their own instruments.
Finding actors who also possessed musical talents was easier than expected, according to Esposito. “Brina Palencia had already established the character of Kayla Bates for a roast for Chris Sabat about a year prior to the show, and we decided to use that character as part of the ensemble because she was super funny. We are both lucky to have some incredibly talented friends who were already precast and didn’t have to audition. Jonathan Brooks and Martha Harms were already cast for the roles of Felix Brown and Jane Adams. Brina approached me with three hilariously talented friends that she worked with on a summer shoot earlier that year and they sent me their audition tapes. I thought all three of them were perfect for the roles – Ricco Fajardo for the role of Alem Zimmerman, Sean O’Conner for the role of Spencer Caper, and Andrew Milbourn for the role of Paul Tebo. Ricco was currently getting his MFA from SMU Meadows School of the Arts and suggested that his classmate, Tiffany Hobbs, should audition for the role of Camille Prescott. She didn’t fit the spec were had originally wrote for the role of Camille, but Tiffany blew our socks off. Before we knew it, we had a magical ensemble cast!”
Casting aside, the production process presented its own set of challenges, from filming each scene, to recording the songs heard in each episode (each of which are available to purchase on ITunes). “We did everything ourselves with a very minimal crew. Scheduling was by far the hardest part for us because of the number of cast members we had, plus getting them in the music studio on days they weren’t shooting or working on other projects. Making shows or movies isn’t as easy, breezy as it may seem. A LOT of pre-production work went into our show, and we still had hiccups. It happens but you problem solve and keep on moving. However, among all the hard work, our production process was magical. We became a family and really allowed room for playing. As a director I think it is important to really utilize your actors talents and let them discover new things while the camera is rolling. It was a production of discovery for everyone involved in my opinion,” Esposito says.
While she hopes not only to gain more viewers, and to achieve bigger distribution for her show, Esposito sums up THE TROUBADOORS as a web series unlike any other, one that, like GLEE, combines music and comedy to tell a story of overcoming the odds, and triumphing against adversity. “The overall message we would like to send about our show is that it is funny, entertaining, clever, and something worth watching. It’s a show about heart!”
ON THE WEB: www.thetroubadoors.com
YOUTUBE: http://www.youtube.com/user/TheTroubadoors
FACEBOOK: www.facebook.com/TheTroubadoors
TWITTER: @Troubadoors
TUMBLR: http://thetroubadoors.tumblr.com
