By Jillian Risberg

With too much time on her hands, actor and storyteller Noelle Gizzi wrote a 10-episode web series and gathered a talented team to pull off the ‘fish out of water meets a liar reveal comedy.’

“‘Irreverend’ was a pandemic project, through and through,” Gizzi says. “The idea was conceived during Covid-19 boredom, scripts were written over lock down, and we began the filming process in April 2021.”

With projects canceled, the aspiring creative says it was disheartening to get a degree, only to have absolutely nowhere to apply it. Gizzi graduated college (Class of 2020) during the pandemic, as did other crew members and actors in the production. 

“There was no work, so we made our own,” says the actor. “No one paid us, but at least we got to do what we loved for the first time after (a months-long) dry spell, and now we have something exciting to show for what could have been a lost year.”

The series is about Sam Miller, pretending to be a pastor for the tax break: free housing, bread and wine, Sunday coffee hour (basically free brunch) — somehow weaseling his way into an unsuspecting and underfunded little church.

“’Pastor Sam’ gets put in charge of quirky church people and weirdo teens, and along the way starts to have a

personal crisis when he realizes he’s duping people, and these people actually believe in him,” Gizzi says. 

The whole idea was conceived during long lockdown stretches, when she decided to scroll through ‘free stuff’ on Craigslist, intrigued by what people will give away.

“I saw a listing of youth choir robes,” says the actor. “I instantly wanted them and told my boyfriend as much. He, like any sane human being asked, ‘what on Earth are you going to do with those?’”

Gizzi said she would write a show.

While the premise for the series came to her then and there based on the choir robes… she never actually got the robes. 

She turned to Joshua Switala to make things super funny and bring the characters to life.

“I have him credited as assistant writer,” the actor says. “I did the majority of the writing,  moment-to-moment dialogue, but he created interesting plots and character arcs. There’s a little nepotism going on because he is also my boyfriend — our ‘plot guy,’ one of the actors, a Gopher and my personal secretary. Without him, this series would not be what it is.”

She says the project took a village. There’s cinematographer Benjamin Parilis, directors Nick D’Ambrosia, Daniel Lee and Ryan Policastro. Ryan was also audio engineer, and Dan served as script supervisor. 

“Many other people helped us out, including Brandon Ali, Tommy Barbara, Rob DeLillo, Alex Lee, Jack McCaffrey, Patrick Morgan, Mike Perez, Ellie Schuckman, Jennifer Seitis, Tyler Stampone and Tyler Switala,” says Gizzi. “Our lead actor, Jim Staudt is an absolute gem. I’m grateful to get to know him and work with him — he came out to Caldwell from Manhattan to shoot this.”

When it came to securing a location, the Caldwell United Methodist Church (of her youth) where her grandmother taught Sunday school came to mind. 

“My Aunt Mary has been pretty involved, so I asked her if they would be willing to let me film there,” the actor says. “Pastor Vivian Roddeffer has been a huge supporter, and I can’t thank her enough for letting us into the church and for her excitement about the project.”

And she cast some actors (coincidentally people she had worked with before) from Backstage.

“Several people who appear in the series are from Caldwell,” says Gizzi. “We’ve got a few Caldwell High School grads who make appearances: Class of 2016, 2018, 1985, a few current students. You’ll have to watch to find out who they are.” 

She’s been a performer and creative for a long time, penning her first “book” in the third grade. But film was a style of writing she had yet to explore. D’Ambrosia showed her how to properly format a film script.

Gizzi has also written several plays — including a short play produced at The Theater Project, a regional theatre in

New Jersey, and has done staged readings of some of her full length plays on her own — but says this experience was different.  

“I was also filling the role of executive producer,” she says. “It was a whole new world for me, as I had only been on the acting side of filmmaking. It will be exciting to see my words brought to life on camera.”

The actor ‘kind of loves’ actress, comedian, writer, producer, playwright Tina Fey. 

“I think she has created a great body of work, and it’s totally my style,” says Gizzi. “I like to create things that are funny, but also speak to people. And personally, my mother inspires me; she’s my fearless supporter.”

She hopes people walk away from ‘Irreverend’ with a laugh. 

“There isn’t enough comedy in our world. I also want people to look at Christianity and church in a fun light,” she reflects on her own experience at church camp and various churches. “I feel like Christianity has become something it’s not meant to be in our depictions and understanding, so I want to bring back the joy of it.”

According to the actor, they are not going to release ‘Irreverend’ to the public the moment it’s complete because she wants to submit it to film festivals and many have rules about previously released material. After that, it will be available on YouTube.

“I already have ideas for a season two of ‘Irreverend.’ Hopefully season one is a hit and people want more from us,” says Gizzi. “‘Irreverend’ was crazy big, I don’t know what I was thinking — I guess you could say I’m ambitious.”

For behind the scenes content and “congregation” spotlights, follow @irreverendseries on Facebook and Instagram