Forget The Walking Dead. Let’s face it, nothing scares like audio drama, and if you’re here, it’s because you realize We’re Alive is your own particular shade of zombie poison.
The good folks at the zombie podcast got some great undead love from Mike Williams at Techland.
Halloween is never over while these masters of the macabre are still weaving their tales. Long live the Zombies!
More great Halloween audio drama going across the airwaves.
From the VCStar:
“NFL star and former San Diego Charger running back Chuck Muncie is Celebrity Host for Every Now and Then Theatre’s Halloween radio mystery, “Shorty Cut Across.” The drama will air commercial free on NewsTalk 1520 KVTA and 1400 KKZZ, on Saturday and Sunday, October 30 and 31 at 8pm…”
The Transcontinental Terror is boarding on Halloween Night.
Don’t delay and get on the train while you still can!
Sound Stages Internet Radio as well as affiliate stations all across North America will present hours and hours of spine tingling terror!
With a Cavalcade of Horror from SIX Times Zones. Six hours of premiering audio horror from the masters of the audio macrabre.
Beginning at Six PM Atlantic Time.
Scream you then!
Looking for an extra squeal of delight this horror season?
May we recommend the amazing Halloween Tree from Colonial Radio Theatre. Not only is it Bradbury approved, it’s the best adaptation of this classic tale.
The dramatization is also a winner in the stores showing up as the number one drama sold of Bradbury’s work in Amazon. Well done CRT!
And hey, while you’re there, pick up a couple more of their adaptations too. Halloween is just around the corner!
Come and join Jack on Wednesday night, at the Halifax’s Living Room at 2353 Agricola St for a fun and entertaining exchange on the Theatre of the Mind: The Audio Drama Revivalist Movement!
Wednesday night, October 20th- 7:30-9:30 at the Living Room on Agricola Street Radio Drama is alive in Halifax!
With the implementation of cheap alternatives, digital sound editing has trumpeted a return of the audio arts- not least of which “Radio Plays”! Podcasts and streaming, radio and CD’s are just some of the distribution methods that a number of individuals and groups have used to express extremely rich and diverse audio theatre. In this workshop, Jack will present the history of this new Golden Age, the basics of Audio Drama creation, and share some of the keys of vocal acting, writing, and directing. Everything a dramatist needs to know to be involved in this growing movement! From reading scripts, to sound effects, podcast suggestions to the vast possibilities of writing original or adapted works, come share the old days of pure theatre of the mind, now brand new!
Come one and come all!
We can’t help ourselves. We love Movies for the Blind.
These good folks take all kinds of great and schlocky movies from the past and make ’em so you can do all the work in your brain.
We’ve mentioned this before, but visuals as much as we like them, are really not very good for exercising the imagination- certainly reading is better- but Audio Drama is just the best. After all, how much better is it to recreate a scene with a little dialogue, a little narration, or a few well-placed sound effects?
Go check out MftB today! May we recommend as a beginning The Last Man on Earth?
Or better yet.. go subscribe so you don’t miss a thing!
The College Hill Independents that is!
Radio Drama Revival’s Fred Greenhalgh gives Audio Drama a boost in one of the more recent articles on the re-emergence of audio theatre with the growth of the Internet in a piece called Airwave Renaissance by Natalie Jablonski.
We have a little wince when we see words like “we forget there was a time when…” and “stirrings of life”, its good to see some people who haven’t had an interest in all things audio take a little notice.
But we think that Audio Drama has been off life support for a while, thank-you. The Sonic Society ranges from 30-40,000 listeners a week and ranging up towards the hundred mark, there’s a pile of people out there making audio drama. Sure we don’t hit youtube levels, but how many stage plays go viral? Or new painters?
While certainly there are some folks who reflect the old timey radio stylings, I’d say that modern audio drama has really upped its gain. Companies like Colonial Radio Theatre and Radio Repertory Company of America and Jim French Productions (companies that aren’t even mentioned in the article) have been doing quite well in the United States.
Someone wake the doctor, the patient has slipped out the door.
I feel very blessed to be on the ground floor of this latest, pardon the appropriation Fred, Revival of Audio Drama. I know Fred feels the same way. And while podcasting hasn’t exactly thrown pots of money in the direction of radio drama providors… it hasn’t made money for standard radio folks like the BBC, CBC, or other huge organizations. That’s not a limitation of the medium of audio drama, but rather the expectation of folks in the modern age of the Internet.
Our minor corrections aside, go read Airwave Renaissance yourself and tell us what YOU think.
After all, my grade 11 students haven’t listened to any audio dramas. Of course, they never heard of podcasts either, and were shocked to find out that some of their favourite kind of music was available for free on their I-pods.
It’s not so much Audio Drama that needs to hit the mainstream, but the idea of podcasting itself.
Kenneth Jarman has written a good introduction about, well, introductions to Audio Drama in the Examiner.
After six years of Audio Drama trumpeting, we sometimes wonder if there’s still a street in a city, a pasture in the farmlands, or a grove in the hinterland that doesn’t know about the amazing re-genesis of modern Audio Drama, but it’s amazing how many people:
a. Don’t know about it.
b. Think it’s just reposting Old Time Radio
or
c. Don’t think that Audio Drama would be any good to listen to as an alternative to music.
To them, I always ask. “How great would it be to watch movies in your car without having to stop looking at the road?” or “Wouldn’t cleaning the house or the dishes go a lot faster if you had a movie to watch without actually watching it?” or “How many times have you said you need to go for a walk or work out, but you just have no way to look forward to doing it?”
I know this Fall, I’ve made walking a daily (usually twice daily) practice, and I’ve listened to so much more. Sometimes I’m in the middle of a story, so I go for a longer walk just to finish it up.
Could Audio Drama actually promote healthy bodies as WELL as healthy minds?
We’ll get our scientists on that right away. In the meantime, have a read of Jarman’s piece. It’s a great primer!
Have a gander as Paeter from Spirit Blade Productions give us a look see at his method for making Dragon noises. So very cool!
Our very own Jack J. Ward is smiling a whole lot through the fear lately- Vincent Price style fear! We already told you that Colonial Radio Theatre is producing Audio Dramas based on the Blue Water Comics.
Well Jack is going to be working hard at his desk penning some of those Audio Drama adaptations from the comics.
And yes, he couldn’t be happier….
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