INTERVIEW: Indie series ‘Indoor Boys’ returns with theater luminaries
Above photo: Wesley Taylor stars in Indoor Boys, a web series he created with Alex Wyse. Photo courtesy of Indoor Boys / Provided by Richard Hillman PR with permission.
Indoor Boys, the indie web series starring Wesley Taylor and Alex Wyse, has returned for a new round of episodes. The show, which is available for free through Vimeo, follows the adventures and relationships of Nate (Wyse) and Luke (Taylor), two gay best friends who are described as “homebody Millennials.” The eight new episodes find the characters navigating the difficulties of a family reunion, and they have several surprise visits from friends and family members.
The origin of Indoor Boys dates back to a short, 10-minute play written by Taylor, an actor best known for his Broadway roles in SpongeBob SquarePants, Rock of Ages and The Addams Family.
“I wrote these two short plays, these 10-minute plays called Little Monsters and Little Monsters 2, and Little Monsters was two gay Millennial homebodies trapped in their devices trying to connect,” Taylor said in a recent phone interview.
From that idea came a sketch that Wyse and Taylor worked on. They didn’t know whether the sketch would lead to anything besides a scene or two of dialogue, but, lo and behold, that original inspiration has led to a full-on web series with a dedicated fan base. They can even boast of four Indie Award nominations.
“When we shot it and edited it and watched it back, we realized it was the beginning of a narrative that we wanted to keep writing,” Taylor said. “People responded to it, and so when I got SpongeBob and had to move to New York, we decided we wanted to continue the story. And so Alex moved to New York, and we continued with the second season.”
Wyse, who has appeared on Broadway in Deaf West’s Spring Awakening and Lysistrata Jones, said the homebody aspect of the two central characters is key. It offers a commentary on the Millennial generation being tied to the comforts of their home and phone, but it also was practical for a series that has a quick filming schedule.
“We had the sketch we had rewritten for the two of us, and I think there was one version where we were like, OK, what if one part of this happened at the gym,” Wyse said. “And then a quick cut, and then we’re at the coffee shop. So we thought what if it’s the same inane conversation happening all over town, but then we had access to this great apartment. And we thought, you know what, this is going to be too hard. Let’s just shoot the whole thing here and see what that means, and I think then the whole themes of these two guys never leaving, that kind of came into focus once we figured out what the show was.”
Indoor Boys is original and creative, and Wyse is happy that the series portrays gay friends in a realistic light. He does not see much programming out there that honestly depicts gay friendships.
“I don’t see a lot of stories about gay friends, like a gay Broad City,” Wyse said. “Sometimes there is a sexual tension that exists. They’re simultaneously these best friends, but there’s also something casual going on and something deeper going on. There are all of these layers happening at once, and that felt something that was really specific to gay friends. So that was a theme that really excited us and felt like something very specific to Nate and Luke. I felt that people watching can see parts of themselves.”
Taylor described Nate and Luke’s friendship as having no boundaries, which drives much of the narrative in the series, but there is also the commentary on two characters living in the all-consuming Information Age.
“These are two people in the Information Age who are closer to Digital Natives than they’d like to be,” Taylor said. “So when you put that all together, it makes for a pretty fun set of problems.”
On season two, which features two new episodes every Monday, there are some impressive Broadway stars who have joined the cast. Carolee Carmello, a three-time Tony Award nominee, is on board, plus Veanne Cox, Krysta Rodriguez, Kyle Harris, Lilli Cooper, Isaac Powell, Rana Roy and Michael Kostroff.
“One of the most glorious things about being an actor when you’re creating this stuff is you can call on this wide casting pool that’s in your phone directory,” Taylor said. “So when we’re casting, we can just go through our contacts and sort of weigh the pros and cons of all of our friends. I came up with the idea for Carolee being Alex’s mom, and Alex came up with the idea of Veanne Cox being my mom. It sort of worked out perfectly, and both of us had worked with those two women in our careers. So we just made some calls, and they had already been watching the web series and were fans of the content. So they jumped on board, which was lucky for us. … We just call upon our friends, our talented friends.”
Wyse added: “We’re really excited about this season, too. We did this a little in the first season, bringing our friends, but in New York, where we know even more people, [we] just called on people who inspire us to make this thing better — not only our friends, but our friends who we think are going to be able to elevate this season and take it to a whole new place. And so I think it’s a pretty exciting season full of twists and turns and some explosive acting from our peers.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Indoor Boys, created by and starring Wesley Taylor and Alex Wyse, releases new episodes from season two on Mondays. Season one is also available. Click here for more information.
