Interview: Emma Benson of Popular Web Series: THE DREAM TEAM

Shenandoah Conservatory students have been creating a lot of their own art and content, one of the most successful projects is a web series called The Dream Team. Created by two theatre students, the original series tells the story of a class of theatre majors, living out their first year of college at the fictional Betsey Bell Conservatory. Founded in October of 2015, the show has garnered more than 8,000 views on YouTube, over 150 subscribers, and upwards of 300 FaceBook likes.

I was lucky enough to connect with the show's co-creator and star Emma Benson, a third year Musical Theatre student at Shenandoah and hear about what's in store for Season 2.

Christopher Castanho: So why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself...

Emma Benson: I'm Emma Benson. I am a junior at Shenandoah Conservatory: Musical Theatre major and I'm from New Hampshire, which I love and miss a lot. I love Shenandoah, I've never had a second where I've thought about not wanting to be here. I'm so grateful for all of the opportunities and experiences I've been given. Also, I am a tour guide at Shenandoah and one of the talking points I always bring up is that it's a small enough school where you can make a bigger splash than you would at a larger University and it doesn't feel like "big fish small pond". When we made The Dream Team that kind of thing wouldn't have caught on in a huge school, because they're already would've been a web series, and several other things like it. So you get to be more original, which is one of my favorite Shenandoah things...I love my dogs and I have great friends and I love my house, and I eat a lot of chocolate. [Laughs] Those are some little fun facts about me.

CC: So when did you decide to create a web series, and why?

EE: I love telling this story because it wasn't my idea. I was approached by Morgan McDowell, who graduated last year. At the time we were both in [Shenandoah's production of] She Loves Me, I was the swing and he was the lead. It was an unlikely collaboration. We both appreciated the same comedy, and we really loved John Mulaney stand-up specials, we'd quote them all the time. He and I comedically meshed really well and he wanted to create something that was his personal love letter to The Office, but something we could relate to. So he approached me and asked me if I could write it. I had never written anything before and didn't consider myself a writer and thought it was weird that this upperclassman was asking me to write this series with him. But he was like "I trust your comedic voice, and you also are a go-getter and get things done. I can't spearhead this project because I know it will get away from me, and you won't." Which turned out to be the truest statement, because our collaboration is like him doing the brainstorming and I would step in and take those ideas and schedule them and map them out. We started working on that exactly a year ago, the day after She Loves Me closed we sat in a practice room and brainstormed for like three hours. We wrote down all of our characters, all of the essential plots for those people, named them, casting ideas, and created this map for how we wanted this thing to go. I wrote the first episode during Fall Break, came back, we filmed it, and it was out by the end of October. It was a very quick process to start because everyone was so 'gung-ho' about it, especially since we had never done anything like it before here.

CC: The series is branded as 'mockumentary' style, so is The Office your main inspiration?

EB: Yeah, I have never actually watched the full office, which I know if Morgan reads this he will kill me for having not watched it by now. I love the camera style because it's so easy to film, you're aware that there's a camera man, which takes so much pressure off for consistency purposes. Although, we do care about consistency: I'll notate that 'pages 4-7 all happen the same day' so anything we shoot in that time period requires everyone to wear the same clothes. The actors will ask me 'What am I wearing?' I'll respond with 'Your day 2 outfit because it's that chunk of pages' and then we don't have to worry about people looking at the camera or the camera shaking because it's supposed to look like it's being filmed by somebody, which is such a great way to work because it's just quick and fast takes.

CC: You play Sierra Farris--

EB: [Laughs] I do.

CC: Who is a very intensely passionate Musical Theatre major at the Betsey Bell Conservatory, what do you have in common and what are the differences between you and Sierra?

EB: We share a similar drive, what we don't share is the application of said drive. She's one of those people whose ambition is very self-driven. At first, I had to create a differentiation for myself because Sierra Farris seemed very similar to Rachel Berry from GLEE, and I knew they couldn't be the same. I think the difference is that Sierra Farris is just actively crazy, ninety percent of the time her opinions are just wrong. There's a line in the first episode of Season 2 where Sierra is like "I can't do repetition tonight, I have to go prepare for my audition for the all white female cast of Hamilton." Her reality is skewed and bizarre, but she does have a good heart. We definitely learned in Season 1 that as much as she's very intense and self-indulgent, she cares about other people. There's a point where she's dating Garrett, which is an unlikely thing that you love to hate. But at the same time, she really does care about him, showing that she can care about someone other than herself. Which that was a big learning curve because originally she was just this self-centered character and then we discovered we needed to add more layers to this person. Overall, the outer shell of Sierra, what she always gives first is: "I'm a future star, I know what it means to be on Broadway. I am ready for this: hear me roar" When we film for Sierra, as soon as we're done everyone in the room just goes "Oh god." It's gag-worthy. She's so fun to play.

CC: It must be so entertaining to play someone so comedically crazy, and then get to step out of that.

EB: Yes, for me Sierra is very much a parody. It's not aimed at any specific person, but we've all met someone like her at auditions. So when we finish filming and they say "CUT" I'm like "GAH let me out of this body!" [Laughs] It's fun though.

CC: What's it like to star, direct, write, produce your own web series: your own creation?

EB: I don't think about it like that, often people mention that to me and I'm like "No I don't, we're all a team." I definitely spearhead the organization of it though. I take a lot inspiration from women in comedy who have done similar things, like Tina Fey for 30 Rock, Amy Poehler for Parks and Rec. A little less known but Mindy Kaling, she writes The Mindy Project, and that's such a good show. When you hear people talk about her, they say 'This woman wants people to succeed and wants to give people these opportunities.' That's how I'd like to be. So it's really fun to take on the challenge, a lot of positive leadership. I do a lot of reminding everyone that it's so fun, because we are all so busy and it's hard to schedule things. I love writing it, that's one of my favorite parts, it's my baby. I get to speak the voices of these characters. And I'm so proud of my cast because when I give them these lines my motto is 'Don't say what's on the paper, take this as a skeleton, put it in your own words.' I give them the plot and direction but then I want them to say it how their character would say it, because at this point the characters have taken on more of a life that I could've ever given them myself. It's fun to write those outlines for people and then see how they fill it in. I love sitting back and watching to see what my cast does, because it's always funnier than the stuff I come up with.

CC: Having been at some of the times when you guys are filming, it's interesting observing you negotiate and manage everything that's going on. From what I've noticed, you seem to have a very clear vision of what you want, but then allow things to organically happen.

EB: Yeah, cause you can't take that away from people. You can't have your cast resent you, and sometimes an improv will go a little off kilter, but you just have to let your cast take off.

CC: Speaking of taking off- do you have any long-term goals for The Dream Team?

EB: The hard thing is that our two principals Freya Falkenstein (Nora) and Taylor Bloom (Garrett) are graduating this year, so this will probably be the second-to-last season of The Dream Team. Which is crazy to think about because it feels like we just started, but my goal was to do a Season this fall and a Season in the spring- have the whole series wrap up with the end of these characters' freshman year. We left off Season 1 early to mid-October, Season 2 picks up after their Fall Break and will probably go until Christmas, or a little past Christmas. Season 3 will be those spring months, and the series will end at the end of the academic year. I think that's a good way to wrap it up, as freshman year is a very transformative year, and to say that all of this happened in one year is not unheard of. It makes me sad to think about, but for me, my principal as a creator and writer, my work should not inspire other people to take on the same work that I'm doing but to 'light the torch' in a different direction. Maybe inspire a different film project, a comedy initiative, something that is different, and I would rather that this be finished with our current cast.

CC: I can imagine that the transfer of this project would be a lot to live up to.

EB: It was definitely difficult when Morgan [McDowell] graduated, but by the time he left we had an understanding, that he and I share much of our brain in regardss to this show, and he was happy with that. He felt no bit of nervousness passing it on to me, it was more just like giving me his half of the project which I now share with Stephen [Dransfield].

CC: Right, Sophomore Musical Theatre major Stephen Dransfield is now helping you shoot the show.

EB: He is so smart, so comically intelligent. Stephen has such a great eye for location and moments. So many of our takes from this [Season 2] premiere episode especially, he catches little glances that tell a completely different story than I would have expected. It gives me more writing to do, I love a cinematographer who is willing to catch the moments and tell his own story. We have one scene that is in a library, and he had the idea of filming in between these books on a shelf, it made it seem like the camera guy was intruding on a private conversation. Great stuff like that.

CC: Season 2 is coming out soon, what do we have to look forward to?

EB: We have three new characters, they are all so wonderful. We actually auditioned this round, we must have seen twenty-five girls for one of the parts, which was such an honor. We are very, very proud of Shaila Murdock, who was cast as Lana. She just had it, everyone else was wonderful, but she was perfect for it. Kyle Mangold plays CJ, who's our adorable, sweet, quiet character. And then Will Westray plays Chad, who actually doesn't appear until episode 2, but serves a really interesting function this season, and I'm excited to see what Will does with it. Will and Kyle were actually extras in the party episode we did in Season 1 and they both get zoomed in on at one point. I remember thinking "Is that going to be a problem?" and then with the roles they were cast in the moment actually works perfectly in line with the characters they will portray this Season.

CC: So what can we expect from the characters we already know?

EB: Definitely more Sam and Sierra craziness. Sam (Zachary Bigelow), Sierra, and Helen (Emma Norville) have a crazy Season opener, it's probably my favorite episode opener ever. Garrett and Nora, it's going to be interesting, there will definitely be some twists and turns. We last saw Nora telling Garrett how she feels and him having to deal with that information. There will still be challenges they face together because I think that's more human and is also an incentive for people to continue watching. Their chemistry is so great together, I love filming them. Taylor (Garrett) has such a weird mind and it will go off in such abstract directions, but Freya (Nora) can catch up. He'll say something and I'll just be like 'What do you mean?' but she [Freya] knows and she picks it up, such a similar sense of humor. More funny moments with everyone and some serious ones as well. Exciting things happening with Luke (Drew Becker) because he was kind of outcast in Season 1, he has a pretty central plot going around him this Season. A lot of new locations, new people, new ideas to look forward to.

CC: To wrap it up, what's the specific reasoning to why it's called "The Dream Team"?

EB: Actually it was an Emma and Morgan thing. We were so comedically in tune at the beginning of the process. There was in instance where he said 'Hey I totally forgot, we're going to need red solo cups for this take' and I sent him a picture of the red solo cups I had already bought, he just responded 'oh we're the dream team.' I was like 'Morgan! That's catchy!' It just feels like the cast we've assembled, the people that we work with, the crew we have is just a dream. We wouldn't change anything about it, and it continues to be that. It's a very sacred process for us when picking who we wanted involved because it had to be someone we love. It derived from the fact of 'I can't believe we get to do this and with this group of people.'

CC: Awesome, well I'm so excited to see the first episode.

EB: I'm so excited to premiere it. It's so funny, there are so many moments that are cringe-worthy funny. So excited. Thank you so much for having me.

The Dream Team premieres Season 2 on October 7th, 2016. Starring Drew Becker (Luke Taylor), Emma Benson (Sierra Farris), Zachary Bigelow (Sam Stein), Taylor Bloom (Garrett Johnson), Freya Falkenstein (Nora Michaels), Kyle Mangold (CJ Luck), Shaila Murdock (Lana Vancamp), Emma Norville (Helen MacBozman), and Will Westray (Chad Baker) Written and Directed by Emma Benson. Direction and Cinematography by Stephen Dransfield. Co-created by Emma Benson and Morgan McDowell.

Watch Season 2, Episode 1:

Be sure to Like The Dream Team on FaceBook and Subscribe to their YouTube channel.

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