A scene from “Here We Wait,” a web series produced in South River that hits the net in early August. The series is filmed at the Ria-Mar restaurant on Whitehead Avenue and has a cast of local and national actors. COURTESY OF OLIVIA BAPTISTA SOUTH RIVER — Who would have known that purgatory is a Portuguese bar and restaurant in South River?
“Here We Wait,” a new web series, is being produced and filmed in South River at the Ria-Mar restaurant on Whitehead Avenue.
South River native and Dartmouth College graduate Olivia Baptista is the writer/director/producer of the dark comedy that brings together actors from all over the country as well as Canada.
“After I graduated [in 2012], I felt like acting and producing was something that I was very interested in,” said Baptista, who studied theater and film.
She not only writes the scripts, but also directs and acts in “Here We Wait.”
The series, which will debut in August, is set in a restaurant full of souls stuck in purgatory, called “Here” in the series.
The wait staff at the restaurant are souls that are “glitches in the system,” meaning they have died before their time and the “system of life” doesn’t know what to do with them. They are also the only souls that have memories of their past lives.
Throughout the series the wait staff, which could be from any time in history, serve the newly deceased. The new arrivals are referred to in the series as patrons, and the goal of the staff is to bring up positive memories from their lives in order to move them to heaven — called ‘There.’
Bringing up negative memories will instead send the newly arrived souls to an unknown void called “Somewhere.”
The first season of the series will revolve around trying to find out who is purposely sending the patrons to “Somewhere.”
While the wait staff sends subliminal messages to patrons, the writers of the series try to send subliminal messages to viewers.
“Part of the allure is that we want people to keep coming back. Web content is meant to be watched over and over, and that’s how we are trying to present it,” said Baptista, who said viewers have the ability to learn something new about the characters as they re-watch episodes.
Currently, there is a teaser to the first episode posted online titled “Episode: Eternity.”
South River residents shouldn’t be surprised to see people they recognize in the series.
The “patrons” in the series oftentimes are real-life patrons of the Ria-Mar restaurant owned by Baptista’s family members.
The series, which has its own account on kickstarter.com, has already netted over $11,000 and has up to 63 backers.
“She’s making something that not a lot of people can do around here,” said Charlie Robinson, an artistic director on the series, about Baptista and her creation.
People who donate to the series also get special rewards based on how much they donate. The bigger the donation, the more impressive the reward: For example, a $5,000 donation gives one the opportunity to be an executive producer on the series.
For Baptista, it is hard to imagine that something she has worked so hard on is ready to be seen by a mass audience.
“It still hasn’t hit me yet that something I wrote is being made.”
The first season of the web series is slated to be 20 episodes long, with each episode running six to eight minutes.
Currently the crew is working on the first 10 episodes of the series, which is expected to be released on YouTube and kickstarter.com in August.