Moonbase Theta, Out - Season 3
Toronto, Canada | Radio & Podcasts
Sci-Fi, LGBTQ
In seasons 1 and 2, we joined the crew of Moonbase Theta as they reached out to share the beauty, the isolation and frustration, the humour, and the tragedy, as they all counted down to the operation’s end. Now we need YOUR help to find out what happens next. The fate of the moon is in your hands!
Moonbase Theta, Out - Season 3
Toronto, Canada | Radio & Podcasts
Sci-Fi, LGBTQ
2 Campaigns | Ontario, Canada
Green Light
This campaign raised C$3,720 for production. Follow the filmmaker to receive future updates on this project.
73 supporters | followers
Enter the amount you would like to pledge
In seasons 1 and 2, we joined the crew of Moonbase Theta as they reached out to share the beauty, the isolation and frustration, the humour, and the tragedy, as they all counted down to the operation’s end. Now we need YOUR help to find out what happens next. The fate of the moon is in your hands!
About The Project
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
"Broadcasting, this is Roger Bragado-Fischer, Moonbase Theta."
It is 2098. The Moonbase program, owned and operated by corporate enclaves back on Earth, has been determined unprofitable. The last base, Theta, is twenty weeks from being decommissioned. Most of the crew is in stasis awaiting retrieval.
Join the crew of Moonbase Theta, as well as Roger’s husband Alex back on Earth, as they reach out to share the beauty, the isolation and frustration, the love and enmity, the humour, and the tragedy, as they all count down to the operation’s end.
Moonbase Theta, Out is an emotionally-loaded Sci-Fi story about the last moonbase shutting down. The first two seasons each showed a different side of the same twenty week countdown - Roger's official broadcasts in Season 1, and personal logs and messages home from all of the active crew in Season 2. Now it's finally time to find out what happens next - and we need your help to make it happen.
But why is telling this story about Feelings in Space so important?
The world of our show is not always a pleasant one - much like the real world. But within this imagined future of ours, we are committed to telling stories featuring queer characters, ethnically diverse characters, disabled and neurodivergent characters, and those from other marginalized groups in strong, positive, enduring roles.
As we dive into production on Season 3, we are using all of our available resources to amplify marginalized voices. Of course, as an independent production, our resources are limited. That's where you come in.
Our total expenses for Season 3 are budgeted at $5,000. Our goal through this campaign is to pay our actors (see the big green section of the chart below). We have grown from one (sometimes two) actors in Season 1 to twenty eight actors in Season 3, for roles ranging from minor appearances in a few episodes to major roles througout the season. We are paying at minimum a small honorarium for every actor, based on the number of lines expected across the entire season.
Pay to the production and audio editing team will be funded through continuing support by our amazing Patrons, and thorugh ad revenue from the Fable and Folly Network.
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Funds raised above our goal will allow us to continue to grow and better support our actors, our sound editors, and our writer/producers. They will also help us commission some incredible artwork - which we'll be sharing with you!
** WE'VE HIT OUR FIRST STRETCH GOAL! Thank you all so much! Now let's shoot for $3,500! **
- ** FUNDED!! ** $3,000 - Cas and Pol artwork (see above for sketch)! To be commissioned from the amazing Cora, who designed our SPACE IS QUEER shirt! Our favourite doggos will be available for high-quality download to all of our supporters with incentives $15 and up!
- ** FUNDED!! ** $3,500 - En-SOY-Ment themed artwork! To be commissioned from the talented Peter Chiyakowski, who designed our podcast artwork! Everyone's favourite mysterious meal-replacement! This will be available for high-quality download to all of our supporters with incentives $15 and up!
- $5,000 - Official Character Portraits for the original five crew (and Alex!) will be available for high-quality download to all of our supporters with incentives $15 and up!
If we raise funds over $5,000 we will increase the honorariums that are paid out to our actors, starting with minor roles first.
Raising funds is never easy - particularly now, when so many vital causes need your action and your support. This includes crises that are both recent (COVID-19) and ancient (violence against Black and Indigenous people in North America which has been ongoing for centuries). We are making personal contributions to groups such as The Okra Project and the International Rescue Committee, and we strongly encourage you to support and uplift people in need in any way you can.
But we also know that, now more than ever, stories are important. They allow us to imagine hardships that are new and alien, problems that are familiar and unthinkable; worlds that are utterly beyond hope and yet whose characters never stop fighting for freedom, justice, and love.
Thanks to you, our actors for Season 3 have been funded! But we have more talented people to pay: editors, sensitivity readers, maybe even a little more compensation for our creator/writer/one-person-magic-maker, D.J. Sylvis? But rest assured: every cent will go to the people who bring this story to life.
“Going into Monkeyman Productions’ inaugural fiction podcast, knowing that it concerns a decommissioned corporate Moon base counting down its final weeks of operation, one would expect a bleak science fiction story about loneliness and the evils of capitalism. Instead, it’s hopeful. This is a credit to creator D.J. Sylvis’ scripts and lead Leeman Kessler’s performance as Roger Bragado-Fischer.”
Tor.com – 8 Sweet, Funny, Thrilling Queer Fiction Podcasts, June 2019
“Moonbase Theta, Out is a masterclass in invention, writing and acting.”
“Leeman is utterly convincing here as a decent, put upon man in an impossible situation. it’s one of the best podcast performances I’ve ever heard.”
“Moonbase Theta, Out is everything science fiction likes to say it is. Character driven, action defined, intellectual and concerned with the human condition as well as the unfolding plot.”
Alasdair Stuart – The Full Lid, May 28, 2019
FROM PODCHASER.COM
FROM STITCHER.COM
FROM ITUNES/APPLE PODCASTS
The short episodes are a great format and each one manages to pack in a surprising amount of emotional nuance and story. Highly recommend!
After listening to the first three episodes, I'm so torn about waiting to binge them all at once or listen each release... Leeman's performance really enhances the writing!
10/10 would recommend to anyone!
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
Expanding Legacy
Costs C$650
Our favourite supporting cast will return - such as Dr. Just, Dr. Ringing, and DOCTOR RAPTOR!
New Friends
Costs C$850
New voices we can't wait for you to meet! Dr. Pacey, Jaxon, Addie... 11 new actors for our roster!
Old Friends
Costs C$1,300
Our returning crew! Roger, Ashwini... the gang's (almost) all here! Holiday art by Marina Vermillion
Share this update!
About This Team
D.J. has been involved in theatre for over 25 years, and for the last ten years has been Monkeyman Productions’ Playwright-in-Residence and Business Manager – but this is his first foray into podcasting! Where do D.J.’s ideas come from? D.J. is inspired by monkeys, robots, cats, the Creature from the Black Lagoon, Bigfoot, that theme song from The Greatest American Hero, Arthur Kopit, 80s-era Justice League comics, various dystopias from his childhood (including Bible School), Lego spacemen, Alfred Hitchcock Presents (mostly the host segments), potato chips, Young’s Double Chocolate Stout, yellowed sci-fi paperbacks, friends, enemies, strangers in the night … and all things strange and wonderful in this world.
Cass McPhee is a trans voice actor / writer, with a pinch of dungeon master thrown in for good measure. A graduate of UNB for English / Communications, Cass cut his theatrical teeth with the Saint John Theatre Company before moving to Toronto. After swindling a President’s Medal out of Humber College by way of their Comedy Writing and Performance program, Cass studied voice acting under the inimitable Tracey Hoyt, and improv with the Bad Dog Theatre Company. His voice is heard in podcasts such as Sidequesting and Sticks Shift Incorporated, and in ESL learning materials and instruction videos across the globe. Cass still lives in Toronto with Joey, his sourdough starter.
Current Team
Incentives
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
"Broadcasting, this is Roger Bragado-Fischer, Moonbase Theta."
It is 2098. The Moonbase program, owned and operated by corporate enclaves back on Earth, has been determined unprofitable. The last base, Theta, is twenty weeks from being decommissioned. Most of the crew is in stasis awaiting retrieval.
Join the crew of Moonbase Theta, as well as Roger’s husband Alex back on Earth, as they reach out to share the beauty, the isolation and frustration, the love and enmity, the humour, and the tragedy, as they all count down to the operation’s end.
Moonbase Theta, Out is an emotionally-loaded Sci-Fi story about the last moonbase shutting down. The first two seasons each showed a different side of the same twenty week countdown - Roger's official broadcasts in Season 1, and personal logs and messages home from all of the active crew in Season 2. Now it's finally time to find out what happens next - and we need your help to make it happen.
But why is telling this story about Feelings in Space so important?
The world of our show is not always a pleasant one - much like the real world. But within this imagined future of ours, we are committed to telling stories featuring queer characters, ethnically diverse characters, disabled and neurodivergent characters, and those from other marginalized groups in strong, positive, enduring roles.
As we dive into production on Season 3, we are using all of our available resources to amplify marginalized voices. Of course, as an independent production, our resources are limited. That's where you come in.
Our total expenses for Season 3 are budgeted at $5,000. Our goal through this campaign is to pay our actors (see the big green section of the chart below). We have grown from one (sometimes two) actors in Season 1 to twenty eight actors in Season 3, for roles ranging from minor appearances in a few episodes to major roles througout the season. We are paying at minimum a small honorarium for every actor, based on the number of lines expected across the entire season.
Pay to the production and audio editing team will be funded through continuing support by our amazing Patrons, and thorugh ad revenue from the Fable and Folly Network.
Funds raised above our goal will allow us to continue to grow and better support our actors, our sound editors, and our writer/producers. They will also help us commission some incredible artwork - which we'll be sharing with you!
** WE'VE HIT OUR FIRST STRETCH GOAL! Thank you all so much! Now let's shoot for $3,500! **
- ** FUNDED!! ** $3,000 - Cas and Pol artwork (see above for sketch)! To be commissioned from the amazing Cora, who designed our SPACE IS QUEER shirt! Our favourite doggos will be available for high-quality download to all of our supporters with incentives $15 and up!
- ** FUNDED!! ** $3,500 - En-SOY-Ment themed artwork! To be commissioned from the talented Peter Chiyakowski, who designed our podcast artwork! Everyone's favourite mysterious meal-replacement! This will be available for high-quality download to all of our supporters with incentives $15 and up!
- $5,000 - Official Character Portraits for the original five crew (and Alex!) will be available for high-quality download to all of our supporters with incentives $15 and up!
If we raise funds over $5,000 we will increase the honorariums that are paid out to our actors, starting with minor roles first.
Raising funds is never easy - particularly now, when so many vital causes need your action and your support. This includes crises that are both recent (COVID-19) and ancient (violence against Black and Indigenous people in North America which has been ongoing for centuries). We are making personal contributions to groups such as The Okra Project and the International Rescue Committee, and we strongly encourage you to support and uplift people in need in any way you can.
But we also know that, now more than ever, stories are important. They allow us to imagine hardships that are new and alien, problems that are familiar and unthinkable; worlds that are utterly beyond hope and yet whose characters never stop fighting for freedom, justice, and love.
Thanks to you, our actors for Season 3 have been funded! But we have more talented people to pay: editors, sensitivity readers, maybe even a little more compensation for our creator/writer/one-person-magic-maker, D.J. Sylvis? But rest assured: every cent will go to the people who bring this story to life.
“Going into Monkeyman Productions’ inaugural fiction podcast, knowing that it concerns a decommissioned corporate Moon base counting down its final weeks of operation, one would expect a bleak science fiction story about loneliness and the evils of capitalism. Instead, it’s hopeful. This is a credit to creator D.J. Sylvis’ scripts and lead Leeman Kessler’s performance as Roger Bragado-Fischer.”
Tor.com – 8 Sweet, Funny, Thrilling Queer Fiction Podcasts, June 2019
“Moonbase Theta, Out is a masterclass in invention, writing and acting.”
“Leeman is utterly convincing here as a decent, put upon man in an impossible situation. it’s one of the best podcast performances I’ve ever heard.”
“Moonbase Theta, Out is everything science fiction likes to say it is. Character driven, action defined, intellectual and concerned with the human condition as well as the unfolding plot.”
Alasdair Stuart – The Full Lid, May 28, 2019
FROM PODCHASER.COM
FROM STITCHER.COM
FROM ITUNES/APPLE PODCASTS
The short episodes are a great format and each one manages to pack in a surprising amount of emotional nuance and story. Highly recommend!
After listening to the first three episodes, I'm so torn about waiting to binge them all at once or listen each release... Leeman's performance really enhances the writing!
10/10 would recommend to anyone!
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
Expanding Legacy
Costs C$650
Our favourite supporting cast will return - such as Dr. Just, Dr. Ringing, and DOCTOR RAPTOR!
New Friends
Costs C$850
New voices we can't wait for you to meet! Dr. Pacey, Jaxon, Addie... 11 new actors for our roster!
Old Friends
Costs C$1,300
Our returning crew! Roger, Ashwini... the gang's (almost) all here! Holiday art by Marina Vermillion
Share this update!
About This Team
D.J. has been involved in theatre for over 25 years, and for the last ten years has been Monkeyman Productions’ Playwright-in-Residence and Business Manager – but this is his first foray into podcasting! Where do D.J.’s ideas come from? D.J. is inspired by monkeys, robots, cats, the Creature from the Black Lagoon, Bigfoot, that theme song from The Greatest American Hero, Arthur Kopit, 80s-era Justice League comics, various dystopias from his childhood (including Bible School), Lego spacemen, Alfred Hitchcock Presents (mostly the host segments), potato chips, Young’s Double Chocolate Stout, yellowed sci-fi paperbacks, friends, enemies, strangers in the night … and all things strange and wonderful in this world.
Cass McPhee is a trans voice actor / writer, with a pinch of dungeon master thrown in for good measure. A graduate of UNB for English / Communications, Cass cut his theatrical teeth with the Saint John Theatre Company before moving to Toronto. After swindling a President’s Medal out of Humber College by way of their Comedy Writing and Performance program, Cass studied voice acting under the inimitable Tracey Hoyt, and improv with the Bad Dog Theatre Company. His voice is heard in podcasts such as Sidequesting and Sticks Shift Incorporated, and in ESL learning materials and instruction videos across the globe. Cass still lives in Toronto with Joey, his sourdough starter.