Kyle Morrison and Max Kessler met their freshman year at Emerson College in Boston where they shared a dorm room bathroom. As a result, they not only lived together for the next decade, but also, they became longtime creative collaborators, shooting their first sitcom pilot THE MARLBOROUGH WAY for Emerson’s TV station in 2006.<br>
They have collaborated on countless projects since, including their WWI short, MERCY which won “Best Drama” at the National Broadcasting Society national championship, a comedic viral music video “Remarkable Vagina” for musician Taryn Southern, and a twenty-five episode webseries called WINGMAN PURGATORY starring internet sensation King Bach.<br>
THE PLAZA is a half-hour sitcom that follows a diverse group of friends and families that work at a small shopping plaza in a working-class Boston suburb. It explores the nuances of the intergenerational, east-coast family that Kyle knew growing up, as well as, the challenges of owning a small business that Max’s family faced for most of his youth.<br>
Setting the show in an economically depressed Massachusetts suburb provides a special glimpse into how several generations of a city’s residents cope with the difficulties of running a business, raising a family, and maintaining their community in a changing world. It is relevant to our current time, featuring characters and settings based on real people and places.
THE PLAZA takes place in the fictional city of New Swindon, Massachusetts—a former factory town suffering from decades of economic decline. It centers on a four-store shopping plaza with the heart the series taking place at “Cobelli’s Pizza.” Much like the bar in CHEERS or the coffee shop in FRIENDS, the citizens of New Swindon know that they can always find a friendly face at “Cobelli’s,” and the regulars know that they can call the place home.
THE PLAZA Max Kessler was aided and abetted in the production of THE PLAZA with two other Wood River High School grads and longtime friends director of Photography Ben Molyneux and production assistant Tyler Martin.