Venice: The Series is a web series co-produced by and starring American actress Crystal Chappell, and is inspired in part by the Otalia storyline on the daytime drama Guiding Light.
Venice is described by Chappell as "a show about families, and life, and all the simplicity of it, and the turmoil of it. We're going to be following a character named Gina who is a designer, and she is a gay woman.
Crystal Chappell is known for playing Olivia Spencer on the long-running CBS daytime drama, Guiding Light from 1999–2009, and for her role as Dr. Carly Manning on Days of our Lives from 1990–1993, a role she reprised in October 2009. She won a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Daytime Drama for her work as Olivia in 2002 and was nominated again in the same category in 2005 and 2006. In 2007, she earned her first nomination in the Outstanding Lead Actress category and her second in 2010.
Chappell, along with help from her writing partner and co-producer Kim Turrisi, decided to create Venice: The Series when, in 2009, it was announced that Guiding Light would finish after more than seven decades and, thus, the romance between Chappell's character, Olivia Spencer, and co-star Jessica Leccia's character, Natalia Rivera Aitoro, would end. The popularity of the couple, also known by the portmanteau Otalia prompted Chappell to create a web series so that fans could continue to watch the romance between the two play out, albeit with different character names and storylines. Although Chappell's character in the show is an openly gay woman, the show is not a "gay web series" but rather a show that "embodies all kinds of people, with all kinds of issues".
In August 2009, The New York Times published an article about the Otalia storyline and fans' reaction to it, as well as information about Venice: The Series.
Ms. Chappell’s ability to mobilize her online fans will help the promotion of “Venice.” Since setting up a Twitter account in May 2009, she has amassed more than 30,000 followers, robust compared to her soap peers. Ms. Chappell’s online territory has no fewer than nine Web destinations, including the Twitter accounts of her former producing partners, Ms. Turrisi and Ms. Royaltey (both who left the show to pursue other creative endeavours); “Venice” Facebook and Twitter pages; Ms. Chappell’s Web site, crystal-chappell.com and Facebook pages; and her series site, venicetheseries.com.
Venice: The Series stars Crystal Chappell as Gina, a designer and a gay woman, and Chappell's love interest from Guiding Light, Jessica Leccia, this time as Ani, Gina's love interest. Some of Chappell's and Leccia's former Guiding Light co-stars also appear in the series (now in its third season), including Tina Sloan, Gina Tognoni as Sami and Jordan Clarke as The Colonel. Other Venice cast members include daytime actress Hillary B. Smith of One Life to Live as Guya, Nadia Bjorlin as Lara, Galen Gering as Owen - Gina's brother, Michelle Carter as Michele, Lesli Kay as Tracy, Michael Sabatino, Chappell's husband, as Alan, and an old boyfriend of Gina Peter Reckell as an old boyfriend Gina. Other cast members include Shawn Christian, Eric Martsolf, Molly Burnett from Days of Our Lives.
Cast and characters: http://www.venicetheseries.com/season-three-cast/
Official web: www.venicetheseries.com
Sources: wikipedia.org and venicetheseries.com
Ani (Jessica Leccia) and Lara (Nada Bjorlin):
