Author: Jack (Page 118 of 175)

Born to Teachers and Amateur Audio Enthusiasts in the small rural community of Belwood, Jack's first love was stories- writing, reading, telling, and singing. He developed his acting skills through High School, University, and through film and community theatre.
Jack writes the lion's share of Sonic Cinema Production's (previously Electric Vicuna) Audio Drama scripts and has his own writing site at www.jackjward.com. Jack also is the middle of book writing, screenplay production, and is the CEO of the Mutual Audio Network- where he and the best people in the world Listen & Imagine, Together!.
He's thrilled to co-host the Sonic Society with his wonderful, talented, friend David Ault as they enter their second decade in the medium!

Talking Heads?

July 6, 2015 / Jack / 0 Comments

There’s always been a concern that you shouldn’t write your audio drama with just “talking heads”. The concept suggesting that characters need to be active to be effective in an audio story.

I’m not sure that’s entirely true. While we love action, we can think of some really effective stories that don’t need a lot of change of settings or violence or even massive change ups of characters.

My Dinner with Andre is a good example as is Jerome Bixby’s The Man from Earth. or the classic 12 Angry Men by television pioneer and dramatist Reginald Rose which has been recently re-enacted by Narada Radio Theatre and Society member in good standing Pete Lutz.

As a writer make a good story. Whether its Sherlock Holmes in the study explaining the crime to Watson or Percy Atherton and the Maudelayne team breaking up ancient deities’ poke matches, the beginning and ending point is always good story and great characters.

Reparations

July 5, 2015 / Jack / 0 Comments

An astounding twenty-three year project of research and production with over fifty actors in this full-cast audio drama called Reparations I: The Attorneys, provides a powerful tale of two African-American best friends and attorney’s seeking restitution and reparations for over 400 years of: Slavery, apartheid and vast forms of discrimination and genocide at the hands of the United States, all dealing with the fall out in their personal lives from such an action. At fifteen and a half hours, this colossal series would make an excellent summer listen! More on the details from the Birmingham Times.

Extinction Event

July 4, 2015 / Jack / 0 Comments

Den of Geek brings us a Blogtor Who story of Ingrid Oliver joining the ranks with Jemma Redgrave to reprise her role and continue UNIT: Extinction, a Big Finish audio series focused on the Unified Intelligence Taskforce. The Unit was developed during the Moffat years of Doctor Who and we’re all excited to hear what this story will entail!

Ear Canals

July 3, 2015 / Jack / 0 Comments

Matt Oliver in the Oxford Mail points out a new trend in audio drama goodness- walking tours of historic sites. Or in this case, paddling tours of the Oxford Canals. Tom Dick and Debbie Studio, local based producers, have taken the winners of some historical plays about the Oxford Canal, developed, edited, and uploaded the four, 10-minute pieces to the Oxford Canal Heritage Project’s website. All were performed in the St. Barnabus Church, Canal Street structure and do an excellent job chronicling the history of the historic waterways.

In our interactive society, how many more great audio are we going to find out about?

Shred-AD Plans

July 2, 2015 / Jack / 0 Comments

What do you do when your plans to perform Shrek the Musical fall apart?

Why you go back to the drawing board- or the listening board as is the case of Redwood Area Theatre.

In this article from Redwood Falls Gazette by Joshua Dixon we discover:

Lorna Lueck-Plaetz, current RAT president, said, “We all figured, ‘Well, we won’t be doing a show this summer.’ Then board member Kurtis Parlin pointed out the Marshall theatre group has done some radio shows during the winter months.”

Two out of the three shows were taken from Old Time Radio:

• The Man Who Thought of Everything, about a couple planning to elope, with every possible contingency taken into account.

• The Wills, which originally starred Lucille Ball, is the story of a woman whose husband urges her to go to a lawyer to get a will, then goes to the store to buy rope, poison, etc. etc.

• A Retrieval Reformation, based on a short story by O. Henry, tells the story of a safe-cracker who’s wanted by the law — and the surprising way he is exposed.

Auditions were held June 11th, and now its all about getting the actors in costume and bringing he forties back to live on stage and in imagination. Go Redwood!

Episode 435- Voices in the Wind

June 30, 2015 / Jack / 0 Comments

David Farquhar brings us our season ten finale episode with Voices in the Wind’s “Good Things Come” with Jordan Harbour from the Twilight Histories Podcastguest introducing the epic conclusion to the Videk with Jack Ward, David Ault and special guest John Bell fromBell`’s in the Batfry.

Don’t Close Your Eyes All Summer

June 29, 2015 / Jack / 0 Comments

Don’t Close Your Eyes has begun its fifth summer of live radio plays at Bozeman’s Verge Theater. Their incredible two month session started in June and ends on the last week of July with every single week a new hour long live audio drama performance. So if you’re in Bozeman, Montana some time check them out!

Audio Issues

June 28, 2015 / Jack / 0 Comments

A group of Norwich folk who call themselves the Ashby Court Entertainers amateur dramatics group, have worked to raise awareness about domestic violence by producing a new radio drama entitled “Ruby Wedding”. One of the great values of the intimacy of audio is that it can really connect with listeners on a whole range of issues and concerns.

One of the great benefits of audio is how little it takes (comparatively) to get a project off the ground and into the hands of your audience. Well done, Norwich!

Outsourcing Your Audio Drama

June 27, 2015 / Jack / 0 Comments

We’re in a very flexible time for audio drama, maybe the best time to be making it since its creation.

Case in point, New Hampshire Public Radio had the idea to Outsource A Radio Drama. After selecting Sean Hurley from NPR to manage the project, he went to Fiverr, the microjob website and selected everything from a psychic to pick the show title, to writers, actors and the like to produce.

The result was an interesting piece. Have a listen for yourself!

Learning How to Eat Your (Radio) Vegetables

June 26, 2015 / Jack / 0 Comments

Aden Rolfe, whose series A Thoroughly Wet Mess is getting a kind of kickstart of its own through the powerhouse Serial, thinks its about time for people to get back to some audio creativity. According to the article from The Sydney Morning Herald, The digital age has taken radio to both the cutting edge of modern broadcasting and back in time – delivering the freedom of independently produced, listen-when-you-like podcasting that at the same time is a throwback to the medium’s golden age – pre-television, when radio serials were the dominant form of household entertainment.

“I think the main thing that comes off the back of things like Serial and some of the other podcasts … is that it creates a real audio literacy,” Rolfe says.

Rolfe says that about ten years ago audiences were a little scared listening to creative radio, but thanks to Serial it’s opened the field wide open.

Feeling a little smug are you? Just because Audio Drama listeners aren’t above the trend, doesn’t mean we’re not above a little backslapping each other for either. Congratulations!