Dr. Mark Dreisonstok is back reviewing Sonic Society’s Christmas submissions with Sonic Cinema’s adaptation of “Gift of the Magi” and Markiewitz Audioworks production of “Three Christmas Trees”!
“Post Christmas” is how the Mutual Audio Network describes its January offering of a dramatized version of O. Henry’s classic Christmas tale, “The Gift of the Magi.” This story is a very familiar staple of American literature. A young couple of very modest means in circa 1905 New York City, Della and James Dillingham Young, aspire to give significant Christmas presents to each other. What sacrifices are they willing to make to accomplish this?
…the warmth of Christmas festivities and traditions which the two productions evoke lovingly and convincingly.
This familiar tale is dramatized for audio with aplomb, with Jeffrey Billard and Tanja Milojevic who are very good in their roles as the financially-strapped but loving couple. Producer Jack Ward, founder of the Mutual Audio Network and of a series of Christmas tales called “Christmas Wreath Anthology,” desired to adapt this O. Henry story—filled with description in its original literary form—to work well as an audio drama. To do so, Mr. Ward has expanded the role of one character in the story, Madam Lucyna Sofronie, now owner of a wig shop, and added one character, Mr. Kent Wilkins, who repairs clocks. These two interesting individuals, presumably in middle age, are performed adroitly by David Ault and Erika Sanderson as they help us reflect on the nature of young love, family relationships, and, of course, how the young couple’s gift exchange might play out at Christmastime. O. Henry was a master of the surprise ending, and this version has the famous short story author’s dénouement. While this portion of the ending is retained from O. Henry, the audio drama concludes not with the master storyteller’s ruminations about the meaning of gifts and the original Magi from the nativity narrative in Scripture, but rather on the budding romance between Madam Safronie and Mr. Wilkens, a bold but interesting change of focus.
O. Henry’s “The Gift of the Magi” is an extremely well-known Christmas tale—there is even a Disney cartoon adaptation, with Mickey and Minnie Mouse standing in as the young couple. The same level of fame cannot be claimed for “Three Christmas Trees“ by Juliana Horatia Ewing, another tale newly premiering on the Mutual Audio Network. This one is produced and directed by Jason Markiewitz who decided on a very different approach than the Jack Ward “Magi.” Instead of adding scenes and characters to make this a radio-style audio drama, he embraces the narrative of the original 1800s English short story, using voice actors mainly to highlight key portions of the story. The performance combines elements of both audio book and audio drama, perhaps slightly favoring the former.
The story follows the perspective of a person reaching the end of his earthly life, reflecting on how three Christmas trees have shaped his experience of Christmas, both as a child and as an adult. This is an interesting and unusual production of a Christmas-tide story which, in the opinion of this reviewer, should be better known. Mr. Markiewitz, who also serves as the congenial narrator, uses sound choices—especially some magnificent Christmas carolers (Sharon Grunwald, Lessa Nosko, and Kyle Wright) to help render this story from the past more accessible to audiences of today. Such is the case with his choice of a Christmas carol which is sung in two of the three vignettes, “While Shepherds Watch Their Flocks By Night”—a hymn which is used in the production movingly to bind the Christmas of the protagonist’s youth to the Christmas of his old age.
Both “The Gift of the Magi” and “Three Christmas Trees” are well worth a listen, even in this “post-Christmas” season. They are reminders that we might return to the holiday spirit and once again bask in the warmth of Christmas festivities and traditions which the two productions evoke lovingly and convincingly.
Running time: Each production runs 30 minutes.
The Jack Ward “Christmas Wreath Anthology” series installment “The Gift of the Magi” can be found here. The Markiewitz Audioworks production of “Three Christmas Trees” may be heard here.
A Sound Effect Blog has a very interesting post on how to create horror sound effects.
It’s a detailed discussion from sound designer/re-recording mixer Joe Dzuban who has worked with some great horror masters of film today like James Wan and Guillermo del Toro.
While I bristle at the word “foley”- a term that’s used for movies and not really applicable for the sound effects we develop in audio drama, its great to have access to it. After all, foley is created to provide sound to coincide with footage shot with film. Audio Drama SFX are used live, as well as in post-production but created not to represent the sounds in visuals but rather to build story from the acting and the script. I’m known for not “crossing the streams” of my artistic endeavors even though I appreciate each and every form. But, if our medium matters, it’s important to give Audio Drama it’s due. You wouldn’t call the pages of your best-selling novel, “slides”, so why “foley” instead of “SFX”?
It is true that many people come to Audio Drama being visual consumers of story first, and that explains why so many think of foley as being the first term that comes to mind, but what’s more important is that we can find some crossover with the mediums, just like we do with live stage plays, comics, or audiobooks. Audio Drama is the most flexible of artistic mediums as it can wander across all others (except perhaps Miming!).
The key element is that generated sound in audio drama requires the listener to understand what the producers and writers are marking as important. While film can contrast foley against images to provide discordant tones and even moods, Audio Drama requires accuracy so that a fluency of sound creates a congruent understanding of the full setting and meaning of the story.
So, check out what tricks and tips in the above article might work well in an audio drama sound effect library, and bring your thoughts into the comments.
We already identified The Three Ages of Modern Audio Drama and now it would be best to identify a fourth. The third age roughly started in 2012 and can be definitively seen as ending in 2019. In 2020, as COVID-19 reintroduced the world to the term- pandemic, a number of professional actors, writers, and producers found themselves with a lot of time on their hands and a lot of creative thoughts bulging in their brains.
The Faustian Nonsense Network soon found creative outlets in A Midsummer’s Quarantine and producer, writer, and actor extraordinaire, Tom Konkle from Mindstream Players found new life in reworking Old Time Radio scripts and new originals on YouTube. And they are not alone, many groups around the world unable to launch stage productions have worked together to create online audio drama shows. Quarantine Radio Theater out of St. Louis even considered that a part of their name. Here in Halifax, Keith Morrison from Lion’s Den Theatre has also reworked popular theatre productions into online audio theatre equivalents.
With an influx of so many professionals from both Little Theatre and Hollywood engaging in the world of audio drama. How will this change the landscape of stories that are produced? Will we see more classics launched? Or will there be a number of new original plays taking flight on RSS feeds and video channels near you?
Dr. Mark Dreisonstok posted another stunning review in MD Theatre Guide focusing again on Rachel Pulliam’s significant works in this year’s Sonic Summerstock Playhouse!
Many of us travel to vacation destinations during the summer months. Audio plays are a wonderful way to pass the time, and two excellent, full-cast audio dramas from Sole Twin Audios fit the bill. “Short Order” is an exciting drama, somewhat in the style of film noir, and “2462” is a dystopian view of the world’s future. Both are recreations of classic radio plays from the long-running classic series, “Suspense.”
”Short Order” includes brilliant re-creations of the sounds of a fast food, casual restaurant in the 1940s, complete with bells which ring when customers enter, small paper ketchup containers on the tables, and a talkative short order cook. A customer with a severely disfigured face (expertly portrayed by Robin Robbins, who even imbues lines like “lots of ketchup” with menace) suddenly becomes a regular. The man exudes such a malevolent presence that business at the restaurant drops off considerably. Meanwhile, bad luck intrudes more and more in the home life of the restaurant’s owner, Mr. Bailey (convincingly acted by Joe Stofko). Is the worrisome customer somehow connected with Mr. Bailey’s troubles at home? If so, how?
Mark Bruzee left us May 20, 2022 with his husband by his side. I can barely comprehend the loss to the Audio Drama Community. Mark was a stalwart, tireless, creative dynamo. He would have laughed if I called him spritely, but looking back that’s the energy he had. We would text back and forth through social media sharing ideas, conspiring for new projects, and delving into each other’s shows as often as we could.
Among the many shows, he did for me included his voice as the narrator for “The Spaceways Starring Biff Straker”. and my adaptation of my first one-man stage play “Breathing Space”. I returned the favour by acting as his narrator “Rupert” for his anthology series for Mark’s passion project- L.E.A.P. Audio. I still remember when Mark asked me my feelings about starting a pro-LGBTQ+ audio drama group. It was still early days in the modern audio drama movement and the thought of being something groundbreaking for that community was compelling to both of us. I think my enthusiasm for the idea was nearly as large as Mark’s. He did that. He cranked up everyone’s enthusiasm for whatever new creative project he was involved in and this extended beyond Audio Drama as Mark was a member of Auburn Players and Harlequin Productions. He was tirelessly supportive, even when he had health issues, Mark would make time to talk to anyone who needed an ear.
As I enter the age of “leavings” I am still unable to listen to audio drama without hearing his velvet voice in The Byron’s Chronicles or on any Darker Projects episodes. You can still hear his voice as one of the promos for our Mutual Audio Network, “This is the Mutual Audio Network. Welcome home…” Mark improved. He made it so. It may be the time of life when we leave friends for a time. I look forward to seeing Mark again beyond the veil… where we can get more excited about more new art we can create together. Rest in peace, my brother. You leave behind a greater legacy than you could know in the people who you touched.
Mark is survived by his husband David Roche. Mark and David shared a life together for 42 years. Their best moment was being married at the New York State Fair. Mark is also survived by his brothers Timothy (Teri) and Neil Bruzee of Seneca Falls, NY; and a large extended family.
Re-imagined Radio proudly presents an incredible new release of Archibald MacLeish’s “The Fall of the City” originally released from The Columbia Workshop, one of radio’s most inventive series during its Golden Age! This modern retake melds the classic tale with the original script from Jack J. Ward, “Great Day for a War”. Listen now on the website, or join us on the Sonic Society’s release of the show on May 22nd!
CAST
The Fall of the City featured members of The Willamette Radio Workshop Sam A. Mowry Chris Porter Linda Goertz Holly Spencer Tim McKinney Ricardo Delgado Mark Homayoun Adam S. Moore Alticus Mowry
Sound Design and engineering by Marc Rose Recording by Robert Kowal and Michael Gandsey Foley conductor Martin Gallagher Produced by Sam A. Mowry, Robert Kowal, and Marc Rose Co-Producer Cynthia McGean Directed by Sam A. Mowry Recorded at PCC Sylvania in Portland, OR Produced by special arrangement with Mr. Richard B. McAdoo
Great Day for a War featured The Voices Sam A. Mowry as Daniel Stone Mago Weston as Anna-Marie Hammond Sam Gregory as GlobalWeb Announcer Eric Newsome as GlobalWeb News Service Announcer Eric Newsome as President Stephanie Crowley as Sheila MacDonald Produced by special arrangement with Jack J. Ward
CREDITS
The Fall of the City written by Archibald MacLeish Great Day for a War written by Jack J. Ward Sound Design, Music, and Engineering by Marc Rose of Fuse Social Media by Regina Carol Social Media Management Promotional Graphics by Holly Slocum Design Curated and Hosted by John Barber
RESPONSES
Just so tickled pink to hitch my star with “The Fall of the City” in this amalgam. Thanks so much for giving me the opportunity! — Jack J. Ward, author of “Great Day for a War”
We’re thrilled and excited to hear this amazing fusion of the classic, “The Fall of the City” with an unproduced Jack J. Ward script “Great Day for a War”! — Sonic Society
From the Half Moon Bay Review: As a writing professor at Stanford University in 1995, Richard Holeton wrote a 500-word short story about Theodore Streleski, the Stanford graduate student who bludgeoned his faculty advisor to death with a hammer in the 1970s. He developed the story into a hypertext novel, “Figurski at Findhorn on Acid,” which for the last 12 years has been unavailable to the public due to outdated software — until now.…
Holeton also embarked on the unprecedented project of adapting the hypertext novel into a radio play. In collaboration with Emmy award-winning sound artist Marc Rose and John Barber, who wrote the screenplay adaptation, the play will debut on Re-Imagined Radio. For more information about listening, visit the main webpage for the Re-Imagined Radio website, and check the How To Listen section.
Read the full article for more and congratulations to the amazing Marc Rose and John Barber, from Re-Imagined Radio. The radio play is in good hands!
On January 1, 2022, copyrighted works from 1926 will enter the US public domain, 1 where they will be free for all to copy, share, and build upon. The line-up this year is stunning. It includes books such as A. A. Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh, Felix Salten’s Bambi, Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises, Langston Hughes’ The Weary Blues, and Dorothy Parker’s Enough Rope. There are scores of silent films—including titles featuring Harold Lloyd, Buster Keaton, and Greta Garbo, famous Broadway songs, and well-known jazz standards. But that’s not all. In 2022 we get a bonus: an estimated 400,000 sound recordings from before 1923 2 will be entering the public domain too!
In 2022, the public domain will welcome a lot of “firsts”: the first Winnie-the-Pooh book from A. A. Milne, the first published novels from Ernest Hemingway and William Faulkner, the first books of poems from Langston Hughes and Dorothy Parker. What’s more, for the first time ever, thanks to a 2018 law called the Music Modernization Act, a special category of works—sound recordings—will finally begin to join other works in the public domain. On January 1 2022, the gates will open for all of the recordings that have been waiting in the wings. Decades of recordings made from the advent of sound recording technology through the end of 1922—estimated at some 400,000 works—will be open for legal reuse.
Why celebrate the public domain? When works go into the public domain, they can legally be shared, without permission or fee. That is something Winnie-the-Pooh would appreciate. Community theaters can screen the films. Youth orchestras can perform the music publicly, without paying licensing fees. Online repositories such as the Internet Archive, HathiTrust, and Google Books can make works fully available online. This helps enable access to cultural materials that might otherwise be lost to history. 1926 was a long time ago. The vast majority of works from 1926 are out of circulation. When they enter the public domain in 2022, anyone can rescue them from obscurity and make them available, where we can all discover, enjoy, and breathe new life into them.
The public domain is also a wellspring for creativity. The whole point of copyright is to promote creativity, and the public domain plays a central role in doing so. Copyright law gives authors important rights that encourage creativity and distribution—this is a very good thing. But it also ensures that those rights last for a “limited time,” so that when they expire, works go into the public domain, where future authors can legally build on the past—reimagining the books, making them into films, adapting the songs and movies. That’s a good thing too! As explained in a New York Times editorial:
When a work enters the public domain it means the public can afford to use it freely, to give it new currency . . . [public domain works] are an essential part of every artist’s sustenance, of every person’s sustenance. 3
Just as Shakespeare’s works have given us everything from 10 Things I Hate About You and Kiss Me Kate (from The Taming of the Shrew) to West Side Story (from Romeo and Juliet), who knows what the works entering the public domain in 2022 might inspire? As with Shakespeare, the ability to freely reimagine these works may spur a range of creativity, from the serious to the whimsical, and in doing so allow the original artists’ legacies to endure.
Here is a more detailed snapshot of just a few of the books, sound recordings, movies, and musical compositions that will be in the public domain in 2022. 4 They were supposed to go into the public domain in 2002, after being copyrighted for 75 years. But before this could happen, Congress hit a 20-year pause button and extended their copyright term to 95 years. Now the wait is over. (To find more material from 1926, you can visit the Catalogue of Copyright Entries.) 5 You can click on some of the titles below to get the newly public domain works.
What a list! There is a lot to be excited about—beloved children’s characters, an iconic story of the “lost generation” after World War I, poetry from a central figure in the Harlem Renaissance and pioneer of the blues and jazz aesthetic, and clever verse from the “wittiest woman in America.” Note that in all of these cases, what is going into the public domain are the specific works from 1926, not the later books, movies, or translations based on the original books, or all of the other work by that author. Thus, while you will be free to use the material from the original Winnie-the-Pooh book, not every Pooh story or movie or Hemingway novel or Langston Hughes poem is entering the public domain.
Sound Recordings
In 2022, experts estimate that some 400,000 sound recordings published before 1923 will enter the public domain! They will become free for all to download, remix, or use in a soundtrack.
US copyright law treats musical compositions and sound recordings differently. A composition consists of the lyrics and music that you might see on a piece of sheet music. A sound recording is the embodiment of a particular performance of that composition, fixed on media such as vinyl records or on digital audio files. If I write a song called “Public Domain Day!” and you record it, I get the copyright over the composition and you get a separate copyright over your recording of my song. 7
While US copyright law has covered compositions since 1831, it did not add the sound recording right until Feburary 15, 1972. The new right only covered recordings made from that date onward, leaving recordings made before 1972 subject to a confusing patchwork of state laws, with nothing becoming public domain until 2067. 8 The 2018 “Music Modernization Act” brought all of those pre-1972 recordings under federal law and set a timeline for older recordings to gradually enter the public domain. 9
The first big date was January 1, 2022, when a trove of recordings finally goes into the public domain. (The underlying compositions are already in the public domain because their copyright terms expired earlier—all songs published in 1926 and earlier are public domain.) Yes, these recordings are a century or more old, but better late than never!
What will we celebrate in 2022? Everything from experiments with nascent sound recording technology in the late 1800s to opera, classical music, early blues and jazz, vaudeville, ragtime, popular songs, and comedy sketches. With so many recordings to choose from, we can only feature a few of them here. To listen to more recordings, check out the selections from the Association for Recorded Sound Collections and go to the Library of Congress National Jukebox—in 2022 the Library of Congress will make all of the pre-1923 recordings in its collection available for download from this site, while recordings from 1923 forward will be streaming-only until they are in the public domain. As you look through the following list, note that only the pre-1923 recordings made by these artists are entering the public domain, not their later recordings.
Enrico Caruso performances from operas such as Rigoletto and La Traviata (Giuseppe Verdi), La Bohème (Giacomo Puccini), and Pagliacci (Ruggero Leoncavallo); songs such as Over There (George M. Cohan, French lyrics Louis Delamarre) and O Sole Mio (Neapolitan folk song)
The Sousa Band, The Star-Spangled Banner (John Stafford Smith, Francis Scott Key, arr. John Philip Sousa), Semper Fidelis and multiple other marches by John Philip Sousa
Fanny Brice, My Man (Maurice Yvain, Jacques-Charles, Albert Willemetz, English lyrics Channing Pollock) and Second Hand Rose (Grant Clarke, James F. Hanley)
These recordings reintroduce us to some legendary figures. There are incredible artists such as Mamie Smith and Ethel Waters, who paved the way for generations to follow, and in Waters’ case became a proud icon for the LGBTQ community. You can hear the first tracks from legendary opera singer Enrico Caruso, or the transcendent cellist Pablo Casals. Even on a scratchy recording from over 100 years ago, the magic comes through with all of these artists. There are recordings by Fanny Brice, the real-life Funny Girl portrayed by Barbra Streisand. There is the multi-talented Sophie Tucker, called “the last of the red-hot mamas.” Bert Williams was the first Black artist to break through the color barrier and star in a leading role on Broadway. Kid Ory recorded the first commercially-released tracks by a New Orleans African-American jazz band. You can hear Europe’s Society Orchestra, the first African-American orchestra to have their work recorded, and Cuban-born conductor Max Dolin directing his orchestra for “La Golondrina.”
For us, these recordings provide an aural time capsule, a way of capturing fragments of the past. You can browse pop stars from Billy Murray to Harry Lauder, or hear John Phillip Sousa’s marches. But you also get a glimpse of the politics of the time. Some of our favorites include songs about women’s suffrage (“She’s Good Enough to Be Your Baby’s Mother (and She’s Good Enough to Vote With You)”) and comic laments about Prohibition such as Bert Williams’ “Everybody Wants a Key to My Cellar.”
Rediscovering the incredible early recordings by African-American artists is also an occasion for more somber reflection. They were recording at a time of legally-enforced segregation and the shameful tradition of minstrel shows. 10 Many of the songs from the era contain racist language and demeaning and misleading stereotypes. There was also rampant exploitation of Black talent: Black musicians were routinely excluded from copyright’s benefits and denied both recognition and compensation for their work. The artists featured above were unusual in that they gained some recognition for their contributions in the face of a colossally unfair system, but this does not mean that they were treated fairly. Discrimination, lopsided contracts, and an exclusionary music business deprived many of these artists of the compensation their work so richly deserved. 11
Don Juan (first feature-length film to use the Vitaphone sound system)
The Cohens and Kellys (prevailed in a famous copyright lawsuit)
The Winning of Barbara Worth (a Western, known for its flood scene)
The first four films on the list include performances by the great Harold Lloyd, Buster Keaton, Rudolph Valentino, and Greta Garbo. Moana is a work of docufiction filmed in Samoa by Robert J. Flaherty, who made the famous 1922 film Nanook of the North. Copyright buffs will remember The Cohens and Kellys from the famous copyright case Nichols v. Universal, in which Judge Learned Hand said (among other things) that stock characters are not copyrightable. Faust is a German expressionist take on the eponymous play by Goethe. Because Goethe’s play was in the public domain, the filmmakers were free to reimagine it. And that borrowing went in more than one direction. On the right, you can see one of the scenes in Faust, which inspired the strikingly similar “Night on Bald Mountain” scene from Disney’s Fantasia.
Musical Compositions
Every piece of recorded music is covered by two distinct copyrights, one over the original composition—the words and music—and the second over the actual recording of the song. Earlier we listed sound recordings from before 1923 entering the public domain. Here are some of the compositions from 1926 that will be joining them.
Bye Bye Black Bird (Ray Henderson, Mort Dixon)
Snag It (Joseph ‘King’ Oliver)
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (Irving Berlin)
Black Bottom Stomp (Ferd ‘Jelly Roll’ Morton)
Someone To Watch Over Me (George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin)
“Miracle on 34th Street,” “It’s a Wonderful Life,” and several versions of “A Christmas Carol” are some of the most popular Christmas films. For its Christmas audio offering based on a classic film, Sole Twin Audios chooses to take a different track (trains are important here) by adapting a less familiar film, “Holiday Affair” (1949). This choice (based on a 1950 audio performance for radio) renders this Christmas-themed production both familiar yet also fresh. There are the traditional Christmas themes of second chances, but presented in a new way, and the show is as relevant to our own time as it was when the movie was released in 1949…
Why celebrate the public domain? When works go into the public domain, they can legally be shared, without permission or fee. That is something Winnie-the-Pooh would appreciate. Community theaters can screen the films. Youth orchestras can perform the music publicly, without paying licensing fees. Online repositories such as the 
In 2022, experts 
Orquesta Max Dolin, 
