July 13--Madness comes on the graveyard shift. As portrayed in Chicago-produced web series "Graveyard," overnight work in an empty office building is little more than a limbo-land of absurdist, time-killing conversation.
With two seasons under their belts, co-creators Christian Stolte ("Chicago Fire"), David Pasquesi ("Veep") and director Ron Lazzeretti ("Something Better Somewhere Else") were back at work on a new season of their mini-sitcom this past weekend. (Seasons 1 and 2 can be watched for free at thegraveyardshow.com.)
"Graveyard," its episodes ranging in length from two to five minutes, plays like a quick-hit version of "Waiting for Godot," if it were set in an office tower lobby and featured as its main characters a front desk security guard (Pasquesi) and the custodian on duty (Stolte), shooting the breeze during the overnight hours.
As in years past, all the episodes were filmed in just one day. "We shot in the same building we've always used," said Lazzeretti. "It's in Downers Grove. It's one of those suburban office buildings, although they kind of spruced it up a little bit since we were last there (in 2012), much to our consternation. We kind of liked it when it was blander; now there's a little bit more in the way of rich dark wood."
The contrasting energies of each performer are what make their exchanges sing: Pasquesi's angular, intellectual, barely suppressed hostility butting up against Stolte's mellow, unflappable, regular-Joe persona. "There's a weird compatibility to them," Lazzeretti said. "Basically these are two characters (Pasquesi's Damon and Stolte's Pete) who probably, under any other circumstances, wouldn't pay any attention to each other. But they're each other's redemption throughout the night."
Consider this back-and-forth from "Stubble," the first episode of Season 2:
Damon: "You growing a beard?"
Pete: "No."
Damon: "Yeah. You're growing a beard."
Pete: "No, I'm just not shaving."
Damon: "As a policy? Because that's what growing a beard is."
Pete: "No, it's not something I'm doing. It's something I'm not doing."
Damon: "You're not shaving."
Pete: "Right."
Damon: "OK. What do you suppose will be the result of this not-shaving?"
Pete (shrugging): "Who knows?"
Those familiar with Pasquesi's extensive work as an improviser might assume "Graveyard" is improvised as well. It's not: All the episodes are scripted by Lazzeretti, Pasquesi and Stolte.
I asked Pasquesi, who also runs the Mission Theater, what keeps drawing him back to the project. "We really just like to work with one another. It was Lazzeretti who came up with the idea in the first place, and (on Sunday) when we was talking to the DP, he was saying it's like a comic strip, and that really appeals to me."
They shot 12 new episodes Sunday that are expected to be posted online by late September or October. "Our public of about 130 people demanded a new season," Lazzeretti joked, but I wouldn't be surprised if Stolte's higher profile (as Mouch on NBC's "Chicago Fire") helped drive new viewers to the site.
After we got off the phone Lazzeretti emailed a follow-up. "The nice, funny text that I got from Stolte late last night after our shoot: 'There's something very appealing about the idea of continuing to shoot these when we're in our seventies.'
"So, apparently," Lazzeretti said, "we're going to keep making them whether people give a (expletive) or not."
nmetz@tribpub.com
