Monkeyman Productions is in the process of coming back, with what we hope will be a big ongoing project – a fiction podcast series that’s got weird paranormal stuff, fun queer relationship stuff, plans to integrate marginalized voices, includes in the main cast a pot-bellied pig … it’s all sorts of cool and positive and wondrous and we’d really like the chance to share it with the world.
Primary importance is casting the two leads at the moment – see the character descriptions below, it’s two women, mid-30s to mid-50s (the stories range over their 20 years together, so they could fit anywhere in that range), we’d really like at least one of them to be a person of colour. We’re also going to be looking for people for one-off roles episode to episode, but we can’t get started without our leads!
So take a look, and if you’re interested, drop us a line at headchimp@monkeymanproductions.com – we’d really like to talk to you. Give us a little idea of who you are, where we might know you from, why the idea clicks with you, and we’ll go from there.
What if Ripley’s Believe It or Not were about two middle-aged lesbians and a pot-bellied pig?
Welcome to the life of Matilde Whimsey and Wilhelmina Whiffle. Twenty years ago, they met and fell in love while tracking a lake monster in the wilds of Southern Quebec. Their every day since has been filled with mystery and adventure, portable recorders in hand, accompanied by LeRoy, their loyal porcine companion. Whether it’s Bigfoot, the Bermuda Triangle, or their own backyard, one thing is always certain – their world will be filled with wonders.
TILDE – Ranges between 30s and 50s depending on the episode, POC, adventurer and world traveller from a very young age. Limps on one leg, uses a cane. Pop culture obsessed, vegan but doesn’t exercise, techie, prone to rambling and wry humour.
WIL – Ranges between 30s and 50s, Quebecois born and bred, teacher for 11 years before meeting Tilde. Taciturn unless speaking on scientific topics, fat and very physically active, more outdoorsy, knits furiously and dotes over LeRoy.
LEROY – Pot-bellied Sus domesticus, devoted to Wil and Tilde, inquisitive, insistent. Some pig! (An actor is cast at this time)
NARRATOR – Fairly anonymous company member providing introductions and interviews as needed. (An actor is cast at this time.)
Various Guest Voices (To be cast episode by episode, currently including a Bigfoot specialist, a park ranger, a ghost, several beavers, and many more to come)
All casting will be open, working to bolster representation for IBPOC, queer persons, neurodivergent persons, and persons with disabilities.
The project is set to be a serial fiction podcast, structured in ‘seasons’ of nine or ten episodes, then a few months off. Releases during a season will be every two or three weeks. This is a new concept for most of the people involved, so our first goal will be to prep and record a shorter promo episode. When we’ve seen what there is to learn from that process, we’d plan to try to structure longer blocks of time – maybe a weekend depending on schedules – and hopefully record half a season at a go, then focus after that on production for a while to catch up.
Our plan is to find interested voice actors by the end of June, schedule recording time for the promo at some point in July, and then if all goes well, record the first half of Season 1 in the fall (depending on scheduling of all involved). Hopefully, we could go live with Season 1 by mid to late December.
