First Round of Presenters for the 5th Annual Indie Series Awards Revealed

We Love Soaps and the Indie Series Network are excited to reveal the first round of presenters for the 5th Annual Indie Series Awards, which celebrate the best in independently produced, scripted entertainment created for the Web. Stars from Television, Film, Broadway and the Internet are coming together to celebrate the very best of the World Wide Web.

The Indie Series Awards, hosted by Carolyn Hennesy, will take place on April 2, 2014 at the historic El Portal Theatre in North Hollywood.

The first 10 presenters are listed below:

Charlene Tilton

Tilton is nominated for her work in DeVanity. She is best known for playing the role of "Lucy Ewing" on the smash primetime hit Dallas. Her many television appearances include The Love Boat, Eight is Enough, Fantasy Island and Murder, She Wrote. Film credits include Edge of Salvation, Hemingway and Diary of a Teenage Hitchhiker. In 2012, she appeared as a contestant on the British ice-skating show, Dancing on Ice.

Christine Lakin

Lakin made her film debut at age 11 in TNT’s The Rose and The Jackal. She is still remembered fondly for her work as “Al” in the sitcom Step By Step, which ran for a successful 7 seasons. Lakin voices multiple roles on FOX’s Family Guy, most notably as news anchor “Joyce Kinney”. She also stars in a recurring role on ABC Family’s Melissa & Joey. Other TV credits include True Blood, Breaking In, The Hard Times of RJ Berger. Her film credits include New Year’s Eve, Valentine’s Day, Reefer Madness, You Again and the feature adaption of Veronica Mars. She will be appearing in the upcoming zombie comedy web series Acting Dead.

Watch the Latest Episode of Tina Cesa Ward's PRODUCING JULIET

Indie Series Award-winning Tina Cesa Ward is back with a fascinating new web series, PRODUCING JULIET, that is winning rave reviews and leaving us wondering what will happen next.

When Rebecca meets kindred spirit Juliet, a playwright struggling to get her sophomore effort produced, Rebecca’s tenuous and open relationship with her alluring yet distant actress girlfriend becomes clear. Rebecca finds a new focus and decides to leave her corporate life behind to produce Juliet’s new play. And although Juliet is looking to create some distance of her own from an openly gay actor who can’t walk away from her, Juliet’s new partnership with Rebecca is about to put everyone’s drama center stage.

The cast of PRODUCING JULIET includes Alisha Spielmann (pictured above), ISA winner Rachael Hip-Flores, Jenny Grace, Betty Kaplan, Andy Phelan, Stacey Raymond, Kevin Sebastian, Chinaza Uche and David Drake.

Check out the latest episode ("The Play's the Thing" Part 1) below and let us know what you think.

WE LOVE SOAPS TV 3.50 Indie Soap Award Winner Rachael Hip-Flores On The End Of ANYONE BUT ME & New Series GUARDS OF DAGMAR

Love Out Loud VII, an annual event sponsored by We Love Soaps and Poz magazine, was held earlier this month at Prohibition in New York City. It's an AIDS Walk NY fundraiser: the hosts, the sponsors, and (this is truly wonderful) the celebrities are all donated their time to the cause!

In the latest episode of our web series, WE LOVE SOAPS TV, we catch up with Indie Soap Award Rachael Hip-Flores who discusses the series finale of ANYONE BUT ME, and previews new series GUARDS OF DAGMAR which is currently raising money via Kickstarter.

Watch our latest episode below.

UPDATE: Even More Stars Are Coming to Our Love Out Loud Event! Won't You Please Join Us?

Colleen Zenk and Trent Dawson will be together again soon.

We Love Soaps is proud to announce that Trent Dawson (AS THE WORLD TURNS & more), Andrew Trischitta (ONE LIFE TO LIVE) and Tom Degnan (ONE LIFE TO LIVE, AS THE WORLD TURNS & more) are now also officially scheduled to appear at our Love Out Loud VII fan apprecition and fundraising event on Wednesday, May 16, 2012. Love Out Loud is an annual event sponsored by We Love Soaps and Poz magazine. It's an AIDS Walk NY fundraiser: the hosts, the sponsors, and (this is truly wonderful) the celebrities are all donating their time to the cause!  All of the money raised goes directly to the AIDS Walk.

So far, we have confirmed the following stars (with more to come!):

ILENE KRISTEN		COLLEEN ZENK
BETHANN BONNER		DAVID A. GREGORY
THOM CHRISTOPHER		NICK CHOKSI
CHASE COLEMAN		RACHAEL HIP-FLORES
TRENT DAWSON		BEN JORGENSEN
TOM DEGNAN		ELLEN DOLAN
MARK DOBIES		TINA SLOAN
SHENELL EDMONDS		ANDREW TRISCHITTA
MATT WALTON		TONJA WALKER
KELLEY MISSAL

INDIE SOAP BEAT: Julie Ann Emery Talks 'Drifter' Dream Team; Sci-Fi With A Love Story!

On the latest episode of INDIE SOAP BEAT, actress/writer/producer Julie Ann Emery (THEN WE GOT HELP!, Hitch, LINE OF FIRE, SUITS) fills us in on all the details of her latest project, DRIFTER, a 30-minute TV pilot.

"There's an apathetic slacker guy who is on a space ship by himself on a supply mission to Mars," Emery explains. "To alleviate boredom and to give himself something to do, he teaches the computer to let him virtually enter the world of his favorite TV show. Where I really got hooked is the TV show is like a half-hour romantic comedy. He falls in love with the leading lady (played by Emery)."

WLS Interview Archive: Rachael Hip-Flores (August 2010)

Rachael Hip-Flores has broken new ground in the world of Indie Soaps by winning Best Actress in We Love Soaps First Annual Indie Soap Awards as well as a slew of nominations and awards for her work as Vivian in ANYONE BUT ME.  Now she is shattering new barriers in on New York's theater stages.  Find out in this new and revealing two-part interview. (Press here to watch the video of this interview).

Part 1 - Hip-Flores discusses ANYONE BUT ME, guest star Liza Weil, and the show's unique fundraising efforts.

Part 2 - Hip-Flores discusses her role in Shakepeare's "Two Gentlemen of Verona" in New York City, and shares her future hopes and plans.

Catching Up With Rachael Hip-Flores, Part Two

In Part One of our new interview with the Indie Soap winning Rachael Hip-Flores, we discussed  season two of ANYONE BUT ME and how viewers can make season three a reality (HINT: donate!).  In Part Two we discuss her current role in Shakepeare's Two Gentlemen of Verona in New York City, as well as future hopes and plans.  Is television ready for the Next Big Thing? Find out below: 

We Love Soaps: Talking about this past year, you have also been nurturing your craft is a lot of New York theater.  And you have something coming up right now.  Let’s talk Shakespeare. 
Rachael Hip-Flores: That is where memorization really comes in.  It starts August 4th and runs through August 22nd.  I’m doing Two Gentlemen Of Verona, seven shows a week. 

We Love Soaps: Tell us about the show.
Rachael Hip-Flores: I’m am doing the show with the award winning Judith Shakespeare company.  They have been around for 15 years which is amazing for Off-Off Broadway.  Part of their mission statement is to expand the presence of women in classical theater.  So it is gender reversed.  I am playing a dude, Valentine, one of the two gentlemen of verona.  It’s a love story, it’s a romantic comedy, so there’s new territory there.  It’s about how crazy love makes us, and all these weird things that we do when we are in love that we would never do under ordinary circumstances.  There’s a live dog, it is very well behaved.  There is lots of clowning and funny slapstick stuff. 

WE LOVE SOAPS TV 1.61 Rachael Hip-Flores

On Episode 1.61 of WE LOVE SOAPS TV, Damon L. Jacobs welcomes actress Rachael Hip-Flores who stars in the hit web series ANYONE BUT ME. The Indie Soap Award winning talent discusses recent season of ABM, the show's telethon, her recent trip to ITVFest, her current play, and much more!



If you are in the New York City area and would like to be in the audience during a taping of a future episode of WE LOVE SOAPS TV, email us at audience@welovesoaps.net and we will keep you posted on our upcoming schedule.

Check out these links related to this episode:
- ANYONE BUT ME
- "Two Gentlemen of Verona" Tickets
- Judith Shakespeare Company

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WLS Interview Archive: ANYONE BUT ME's Rachael Hip-Flores & Nicole Pacent (January 2010)

I had the recent honor to interview two of the brightest and most talented up-and-coming performers on soaps today, the Indie Soap Award nominated Rachael Hip-Flores (Vivian) and Nicole Pacent (Aster).  If you haven't had a chance to read our talks, please check out the interviews below to learn about the success of ANYONE BUT ME and the significance of continuing stories on the web. 

Rachael Hip-Flores:
Part One - Rachael discusses how ANYONE BUT ME came into her life, and the responsibility of portraying a lesbian teenager. 
Part Two - She shares more about the importance of diversity, her own interests, as well as reactions to the show.

Nicole Pacent  -   
Part One - The Indie Soap Award nominated actress talks about her character’s struggles, as well as the benefits of acting on a web series.   
Part Two - The focus shifts to Pacent's own life, and her feelings about labeling sexual identity.

You can watch both of these interviews in their entirety at  WLS TV #11.

For ongoing news items and features covering ANYONE BUT ME, press here.