PushPush Produces Original Stage-to-Screen Comedy Series, 'Slow Down Atlanta'

This fall, PushPush Theater will begin a new and unique project, "Slow Down Atlanta," an original episodic series about a group of out-of-work stooges who've started their own paranormal services company. PushPush will stage the first episodes of the series live before beginning to film the episodes for digital broadcasting and distribution. Utilizing some of Atlanta's top talent in film, theater and improv, the first episodes will be presented to live audiences in August, with the first online broadcast set for the end of 2010. This series will pave the way for a new international project aimed at filming in Berlin and Atlanta.

According to PushPush founding member and Managing Artistic Director, Shelby Hofer, staging the work before filming introduces a new process for long-term craft and content development, which reduces film production time. She explains, "The serial aspect itself, along with the live staging, allows the characters and story line to develop into a richer experience over time." Hofer continues, "The added element of a live audience can improve the content before the cameras ever start rolling. It also provides the creative team with an outlet for the gritty groundwork that will develop over a longer period of time."

The title "Slow Down Atlanta" originates from the notion that dealing with our personal ghosts, both literal and figurative, sometimes slows forward progress. The Slow Down series has a unique blend of modern office comedy and creepy, genre-based mystery show. The themes range from internet gaming and marriage to immigrant culture, the new racism, strippers, and good-old-fashioned homophobia. The plot begins as two 30-year-old friends rent an old office, hire a secretary and start a paranormal services business for beer money.

The launch of "Slow Down Atlanta" marks the start of PushPush's new entrepreneurial phase, where the company will implement new methods, including transmedial marketing, to monetize results of their new development projects. PushPush, in its role as a hub for artistic development, works to create projects that enable Atlanta theater and film artists to connect, explore and refine their craft, create original works, and provide equal effort toward improving revenue while doing it.

PushPush achieved success with its film and theater hybrids, such as The Robbers, Cats Have Nine Lives, The Seagull, and Intersection of Dreams. The launch of Slow Down is part of a 5-year-plan to present two types of serials, including a multi-cultural project entitled GRFX.

PushPush will hold open workshops on Monday evenings in July for actors, directors and other film or theater artists interested in getting involved.

For more details on Slow Down Atlanta, PushPush, or their new phase of development, visit http://www.pushpushtheater.com/.

 

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