Category: Media (Page 21 of 45)

Many a True Word Hath Been Spoken in Radio

March 19, 2016 / Jack / 0 Comments

Ian McDiarmid

A star-studded cast will be performing in BBC‘s latest release of Shakespeare‘s classic tragedy King Lear.

The play about the elderly King and his three daughters, Goneril, Regan and Cordelia, is to be broadcast on Radio 3, May 8th and stars Ian McDiarmid famous for his role as Palpatine in Star Wars in the lead role.

No stranger to Lear, McDiarmid has played the King in 2005 from the Edward Bond’s 1971 rewrite of the original work.

An all Scottish casting will include Bill Paterson will play Gloucester and Paul Higgins the role of Edmund, while Brian Vernel will play The Fool and Michael Nardone the role of Kent. The daughters will include Frances Grey, from Edinburgh, as Regan, Joanna Vanderham, from Scone, Cordelia and Madeleine Worrall, from Edinburgh, will play Goneril.

Details of the upcoming performance can be found in this article of Herald Scotland.

Best Foote Forward

March 18, 2016 / Jack / 0 Comments

ken-foote (1) Ken Foote muses over at CBS Local about the sunny days of radio drama after seeing an episode of The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson and the titanic voice actor Orson Welles. While talking about the difficulties of working as an actor and as part of the crew during live radio drama, Foote considers the powerful gateway show CBS Radio Mystery Theater starring the unforgettable E.G. Marshall as your host and narrator.

Go check out the article, but then consider mentioning to Mr. Foote how audio drama has come back in the modern age!

The Pictures are Better

March 17, 2016 / Jack / 0 Comments

The Kiggins Theatre has become a regular destination for Willamette Radio Workshop.

“Radio is better because the pictures are better,” says Sam Mowry, Willamette Radio Workshop director and one of our all time favourite actors (catch his performance in EVP‘s Muse of Madness)

From the article: The Magic of Old Time Radio Rings Through Kiggins:

The Willamette Radio Workshop has carved itself a successful niche performing holiday and other themed shows — like “The War of the Worlds” at Halloween, “A Radio Christmas Carol” in December and “The Hobbit” for author J.R.R. Tolkien’s birthday every January — but director Mowry said he loves branching out farther. Last Halloween, instead of “The War of the Words,” Willamette Radio tried two early science fiction classics, “R.U.R.” and “The Fall of the City”; and earlier in the year it was an original Superman script, locally relevant and blatantly political, about oil trains and environmental danger.

“We’re always looking for new and different things and John Barber has helped us push that boundary,” Mowry said. “This year for Women’s History Month, isn’t it great that we can do two of the greatest shows ever written for radio — and they were written by a woman?”

You can believe in the magic of radio drama as well. Willamette Radio Workshop is a little bit of fairy-dust in Portland and beyond!

Solid as a Rock

March 15, 2016 / Jack / 0 Comments

635932368595261959-Pamela-McNeill-Black-and-Silver-3 Singer Pamela McNeill will be featured tomorrow night at Granite City Radio Theatre. The program is put together by the Minnesota’s Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and includes comedy, trivia, music and Shade’s Brigade, a crime noir radio drama.

What: Granite City Radio Theatre.
When: 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 16.
Where: Pioneer Place on Fifth, 22 Fifth Ave. S.
Tickets: $12. Buy by visiting www.ppfive.com or calling the box office at 203-0331.

Additional details on the show can be found in this SCTimes article.

Churchill’s Audio Adversary

March 12, 2016 / Jack / 0 Comments

churchill Winston may be a volleyball to some, a Ghostbuster to others, but to a nation at war he was also the man speaking about the finest hour. I don’t believe he meant the hour of contention. Television is achieving a kind of new Golden Age, and unfortunately that puts us straight in conflict with BBC’s finest radio. “The Father“, a wonderfully popular play by the French dramatist Florian Zeller. According to the article from the Telegraph Did Churchill Steal the Audience from this Brilliant Audio Drama, an embarrassment of riches coincides with a nine o’clock showing of “The Father” from BBC3, The Night Manager from BBC1 and Churchill’s Secret on ITV.

All the more reason to get them all on a subscription podcast!

The Black Knight Rides!

March 11, 2016 / Jack / 0 Comments

blacknight Medieval radio is a rare and precious gift in the modern audio drama world. There’s Morgan Sorwell’s incredible Table Round series, and now there’s “The Black Knight”. KVMR Community Radio and the historic Nevada Theatre created this original radio drama. The Black Knight will be presented live on-stage in the theater, broadcast over KVMR 89.5 FM and streamed over KVMR.org. Yubanet.com has all the main details about the event on March 16th at 7 PM. Tune in or show up or both!

The Who’s of Ten(Eleven)

March 10, 2016 / Jack / 0 Comments

tenwho Nostalgia is a strange sensation. It can take form through the decades or just in a few years. As we’re enjoying the new adventures of Doctor Who, Big Finish has a grand announcement sure to add cheer to those who miss David Tennant in the role of the Time Lord. Both Tennant and Catherine Tate are set to reprise their roles of the Doctor and Donna Noble in an upcoming audio series as this Sydney article details. Expect the three stories: “Technophobia”, “Time Reaver” and “Death and the Queen” to be released as The Tenth Doctor Adventures in May!

Tiger Bones

March 9, 2016 / Jack / 0 Comments

tigersbones Often we see plays transformed into radio drama, but it’s rare to see original radio drama turned into stage plays. But that’s the case with Ted Hughes‘ work “Tiger Bones and Other Stores”. The Guardian has an article that explains how Hughes original morality tales were broadcast live into schools in the sixties, and have now been given new life thanks to the staging of Jack McNamara and a cast of four. Read the original article and marvel as to the many ways audio plays keep coming back to us, generation after generation!

Alice May Be Unwell

March 7, 2016 / Jack / 2 Comments

aliceisntdead The folks who brought you Welcome to Nightvale are at it again with Alice Isn’t Dead, available for downloads tomorrow. Podficts or “podcast fiction” seems to be the latest rage with so many previous shows becoming wildly popular. Similar to mockumentaries, these serialized stories are meant to appear to be factual events but are told in a fictionalized scripted form. I’ve seen many audio dramaphiles frustrated with this latest turn of the podcast screw, but we at the Sonic Society think it can only bode well for audio drama’s rise.

The more people listen to audio fiction, it’s only a matter of time before their ears turn towards audio dramatic entertainment.

In the meantime, enjoy the ride and tune in! After all, ink in the New York Times isn’t going to hurt their exposure.

Sound Preservations

March 3, 2016 / Jack / 0 Comments

preserve There have always been warning cries of the loss of old footage from the days of early film. Here is one of the first comprehensive “calls to action” to protect old time radio. Interviews, news, music and of course radio drama!

This Task Force includes librarians, academics, and radio enthusiasts and they are calling for people who have recorded tapes of these time periods. Read more of Amy Scott’s article in Marketplace.

If you have anything in your basement, join in the fight to save the past for the future!