Jack sits down with host and co-creator of the Sonic Society, audio producer, actor, and creator of The Geeks and Nerds comedy group, Andrew Dorfman.
Author: Jack (Page 86 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!
Welcome to episode 500 BONUS! in which David Ault and Jack Ward continue their retrospective on the last 12 1/2 years of the Sonic Society. Tonight it’s Season 6 and up! Thanks again to all who called or wrote in to share in this milestone!
Welcome to episode 500 in which David Ault and Jack Ward have a retrospective on the last 12 1/2 years of the Sonic Society. Stay tuned for the second part as a bonus episode tomorrow! (We just hate to take away from new audio drama on Tuesday nights!) Thanks to everyone who called in!
Gregg Taylor sits down with Jack to talk over the changes at Decoder Ring Theatre including the future of radio drama.
Jack and David complete the special promotional episode of “SURVIVORS!” from Big Finish and finish with episode #2 of Paul Sating and Fatecrafters “Subject: Found!” podfict! It’s Audio Drama Time!
Someone said to me recently that they felt that audio drama folks weren’t as snobby as podnovel folks.
That was a strange comment to make. Looking back, I do notice that Audio Drama has been seen as the ugly step-child of the podcast community somewhat. Through the years there’s even been some suggestions that audio dramatists could “graduate” to audio novelists if they were good writers. It made me wonder if there were similar ideas between stage playwrights and novelists. Or television writers and movie scriptwriter writers.
Is there a kind of hierarchy of writing and production?
When I think of it I have witnessed some strange behavior through the years. Now, I’m the first one to admit I’m a literary snob of some sort. I enjoy story beyond and above everything else. Good story, for me, is key to any writing in any genre.
I have heard some various forms of audio snobbery though from various quarters:
- American audio drama is more valued than Canadian
- British audio drama is more respected than American
- New audio drama is accepted as better than Old Time Radio
- Podficts is more edgy than audio drama
- Heavy narration is worse than no narration
- Lots of special effects (the “Every Blade of Grass” folks) is seen as modern compared to a limited soundscape
- Horror and Comedy is more popular than drama
- Podcast is better than radio, and streaming is better than podcasts
- Social awareness trumps social commentary
These are the forms that come to mind for me. What snobbery do you see in the art form? Is it justified?
I’ve been a listener of CBC Radio all my life. I miss the heady days of Peter Gzowski, Vicki Gabereau, Michael Enright and Alan Maitland duo and Lister Sinclair‘s dulcet voice and gentle hand on the wheel.
CBC has gone through a lot of changes, some of them great, some not so. The not so great has been the loss of radio drama which has been stellar through out the years. But maybe some forms of podficts are coming back. Thanks to NPR’s famous Serial, CBC has started a couple more innovative story telling shows. The latest is Someone Knows Something. This documentary first person style series- like Serial- follows a tale all season about a missing person- unsolved cases. The first season it was Adrien McNaughton. Season two it’s the story of the disappearance Sheryl Sheppard.
The episodes are compelling like only crime mysteries can be. That they are true, brings out the very iciness in the veins. Let’s hope that someone does know something and these mysteries can be solved.
One of the benefits of being a teacher and introducing audio drama to my students, is to see how it engages them in ways that no other media does. Students in the 21st century are programmed to respond visually, but that often means not responding as critically or creatively.
Will Anderson from Central Michigan University uses his knowledge of creating radio drama to help audio drama kids with Autism. He’s not the only one. Craig Robotham from Weird World Studios has a long history of helping teachers with autistic students discover the world of radio drama.
Check out this CMU Public Radio News Article on the great things Professor Anderson is doing!
Starting of this New Year of 2017 we’re proud to present another promotional release from Big Finish with SURVIVORS! (Special thanks again to Michael Hudson!)
Run, don’t walk to Big Finish and reserve your own copy of the series today! Tell them The Sonic Society sent you ?
It’s Audio Drama Time!
Origin Stori blog provided an excellent interview with Steven Jay Cohen– audiobook narrator, educator, actor, professional creator, software innovator and master refiner of sounds.
Catch the interview in its hour-long-goodness today!