John Coons & Alex Berry Need Your Help To Make A Gay Web Series

May 16, 2013• bySeattle Gay Scene

Singer/songwriter John Coons and filmmaker Alex Berry team up for a web series, “Six Months for Six Weeks”.

There are a lot of idiots out there asking you for money. Annoying and rich actor Zach Braff just got a lot of heat for raising money for a sequel to his indie film “Garden State” via Kickstarter…critics charge that Mr. Braff is a successful Hollywood name with assets and Kickstarter was created to help POOR artists/entrepreneurs fund their projects. And, every day you hear about or see on Facebook, some yutz trying to raise money for inane things like a honeymoon or a nose job. Stupid, self-centered, annoying, self-entitled people make us very cross.

But, artist/musician John Coons is NOT one of these people; he’s raising money, via Kickstarter, for a terrific and worthy project. The singer/songwriter wants to turn his one man stage musical, “Six Months for Six Weeks” into a gay web series with the help of Seattle filmmaker Alex Berry, best known as the camera behind the popular Jinkx Monsoon documentaries, “Drag Becomes Him”. John and Alex are teaming up to create a 5 or 6 episode mini-series that focuses on the relationship between two 20something gay men in a world that’s furiously debating the issue of same-sex marriage. They’re also promising that “Six Months for Six Weeks” will include: “Love, relationships, gay marriage, satire, and robot dads…?”

They hooked us in, with “robot dads”….

Mr. Coons and Mr. Berry aren’t looking for a lot of money; the Kickstarter campaign has a goal of only $3500 and currently they have $2810 with 8 days left to go on the drive. In case you’re not aware how Kickstarter works, you have to raise ALL of your goal or you get NONE of the money pledged. We think it’s a terrific project and urge you to throw a few bucks their way to help make it happen. If you need more encouragement, check out this informational interview from their project page, and a cute video they made that explains it all.

“Six Months for Six Weeks” is the brainchild of singer-songwriter John Coons. A semi-autobiographical one-man show built around original songs, it is an honest, funny, and heart-breaking new piece of queer theater. “Six Months” tells the story of two twenty-something men in Portland, Maine, their six-week “relationship with an expiration date” and its aftermath, set against 2009’s “Question 1” same-sex marriage debate. Alternatively tender and satirical, it looks at the definitions and value we place on relationships in our changing world.

Who are you?

I’m a 27 year old gay singer-songwriter/actor/playwright living in Seattle. I moved here a year and a half ago from Boston (but I’m a Maine boy at heart). I’ve sung as a soloist with the Boston Symphony POPS, Pittsburgh Symphony, Portland Symphony POPS, Rhode Island Philharmonic and performed the national anthem for the Red Sox at Fenway. I was an Emerging Artist with PORTopera for three seasons and I’ve shared the stage with Ben Folds, Foreigner, Amanda Palmer, and the Jane Austen Argument.

How did you get here?

I premiered “Six Months” as a live one-man show in Seattle in June 2012, and I’ve since performed it twice in Boston (once at the Cloud Club), in the PortFringe 2012 festival in Portland, Maine, as a fundraiser for Washington United for Marriage, and at “Don’t Tell Mama” in NYC’s theater district. I was looking for a way to bring it to a larger audience and also to collaborate with other artists I like…. so I came up with the idea to turn it into a web-based miniseries. I pitched it to filmmaker extraordinaire Alex Berry (you may know him as the man behind the series of Jinkx Monsoon documentaries, “Drag Becomes Him”), and he and I immediately began brainstorming ways to adapt it for the small screen.

So, what’s your plan from here?

The script and musical numbers are being broken down and rewritten to better fit an episodic film format. The goal is to raise funds to create a 5 or 6 episode miniseries filmed in a variety of locales with sparkling production values and great sound editing. Bottom line, the more money we raise, the better the equipment to which we’ll have access, the better the shooting locations that we can rent, the more professional the sound editing, etc. Should we go crazy viral, a live tour of “Six Months” would be in the works.

Why should we donate?

Supporting “Six Months” is directly supporting independent musicians and filmmakers, and enabling them to tell the story of one corner of the modern gay experience. The 2009 “Question 1” gay marriage debate in Maine (the first state to pass gay marriage and have it signed into law by the Governor, only to have it overturned by a people’s veto) is a very personal story to me, and I believe it deserves to be told. Donating to this project allows our story to reach a wider audience, and makes you part owner of that story as well.

I’m broke.

Every little bit helps! Donations as little as $2 gets you access to episodes before the general public, as well as exclusive updates from the set. Also, just getting the word out about this project is a huge help to us (especially in the early stages of this kickstarter!). Please share this project with your friends, family, and blogs you read via facebook, twitter, tumblr, and every other social network under the sun.

Ok, shoot me your final pitch.

“Six Months for Six Weeks” packs a punch with its unique blend of honest romance, blistering satire, and tender empathy. What other musical do you know that deals with an intense gay relationship, robot dads, the inner monologue of an anti-same sex marriage voter, and a scathing Cabaret summation of a list of ex-boyfriends?