TurtleDove Films and #ATown are all about jumping off the deep end without floaties. We wanted to make a series about a city we love: Austin; and the imperfect people who live here. Because let’s face it, nobody is squeaky clean.
Layla and Melanie are no exception. They f*** up and they have fun doing it. They also have aspirations and ambitions that are within their grasp, and yet so far away. We enjoy watching these two entitled twenty-somethings face reality head-on in a forgiving city that never forgets.
#ATown was created by Elena Weinberg and Mallory Casey — a pair of best friends that met while doing a play together in 2012. Right after that show, with the help of Cambiare Productions, they commissioned Mariah McCarthy (CapsLock Theatre, nyctheatre.com’s “Person of the Year” in 2012) to write them a two woman show. The two realized their chemistry on stage early on and realized they needed to do more with this story. Two years later, after Elena founded TurtleDove Films, Mallory approached Elena with the idea of making “All About a Boy” into a short film. After lots of discussion, they realized this was a much bigger story than one short film, decided to turn it into a webseries, and #ATown was born. Although the idea came from “All About a Boy,” #ATown does not follow the same storyline or format that “All About a Boy” did. Mallory and Elena used the stage play as a jumping off point and built the series around characters that became heightened versions of themselves.
After a successful first season, the two decided to expand their writers room; they added Ivy Meehan, who plays Whitney in the series and Ash Nunley, who plays Avery in the series. The #ATown team feels that the female voice is very important and vastly unrecognized in the film industry. Adding more females to the round table only made sense and strengthened the process for the second season. Season 2 was released in October of 2015 and the series won "Best Webseries" in the Austin Chronicle in 2015.
Layla and Melanie are no exception. They f*** up and they have fun doing it. They also have aspirations and ambitions that are within their grasp, and yet so far away. We enjoy watching these two entitled twenty-somethings face reality head-on in a forgiving city that never forgets.
#ATown was created by Elena Weinberg and Mallory Casey — a pair of best friends that met while doing a play together in 2012. Right after that show, with the help of Cambiare Productions, they commissioned Mariah McCarthy (CapsLock Theatre, nyctheatre.com’s “Person of the Year” in 2012) to write them a two woman show. The two realized their chemistry on stage early on and realized they needed to do more with this story. Two years later, after Elena founded TurtleDove Films, Mallory approached Elena with the idea of making “All About a Boy” into a short film. After lots of discussion, they realized this was a much bigger story than one short film, decided to turn it into a webseries, and #ATown was born. Although the idea came from “All About a Boy,” #ATown does not follow the same storyline or format that “All About a Boy” did. Mallory and Elena used the stage play as a jumping off point and built the series around characters that became heightened versions of themselves.
After a successful first season, the two decided to expand their writers room; they added Ivy Meehan, who plays Whitney in the series and Ash Nunley, who plays Avery in the series. The #ATown team feels that the female voice is very important and vastly unrecognized in the film industry. Adding more females to the round table only made sense and strengthened the process for the second season. Season 2 was released in October of 2015 and the series won "Best Webseries" in the Austin Chronicle in 2015.
All the budget for #ATown comes from donations. While we do not actively seek donations, we’re always happy to take them. If you feel so inclined to contribute to this raucous affair, feel free to drop us some coin on PayPal using the link above.