This week we have a trilogy of features beginning with Josh Dyer’s Shadowwood- The Curse of Norton Folgate with Aidan Dickson and Jenna Rose, and a couple of audio fiction pieces including The Promise by Glenn Dickson, and “1101 Wellington Way” by Vivian Lermond and Hand-to-Mouth Theatre.
In our season 15 finale Lions Den Theatre returns with Reefer Madness The Audio Play. A new adaptation of the seven-year-old adaptation of the 1936 film. Originally performed during the lockdown through Facebook Watch Party!
Jack and David take a cruise this week with Barjory Buffet Cruise Detective. One last holiday before getting ready for the Mutual Audio Drama Conference in Halifax, Nova Scotia July 24th-26th!
This week David and Jack return in time for the final episode of 2019 and this time with Eli MacIlveen and Fable and Folly Productions’ Civilized Episodes 1-3, and a short fiction called “A Very Trout Christmas” from Shades of Vengeance!
Well over a decade ago, we remember the conversation well: “What should we call radio drama now that it’s having a resurgence on the Internet?”
On the Sonic Society, you can hear us
ruminate in our show intros considering a number of terms- audio drama, audio theatre, audio plays, audio pulp, audio cinema, audio movies etc… It became clear that a single term was needed to best to describe the medium. Most people decided that “radio drama” didn’t cut it, because the medium wasn’t limited to radio anymore. So, almost by default, the consensus circled their wagons around: “Audio Drama”. And it has been that way ever since.
At least, it was. Recently, with the public discovering podcasts (Isn’t it amazing?!), audio stories have become hot commodities. About five years ago, on the Sonic Society, we recommended the name “Podficts” for podcast fiction. A lot of people rejected that moniker, but the term “podcast fiction” stuck as news agencies, anxious to come up with a global term for story in sound, tossed out as many things that didn’t say “old-fashioned radio drama” as possible. Naturally, folks jumped on the bandwagon. New producers rebranded their theatre-of-the-mind as “audio fiction”. But, there may be good reason not to jump ships midstream.
Now if you’re not running an audio drama podcast this wouldn’t apply. Maybe you’re reading short fiction stories, or non-fiction stories, or articles. In those cases, “audio fiction” is probably your best label. But, if you’re producing in the medium of multi-cast audio theatre here’s a couple of reasons to keep the name “Audio Drama”:
Every time someone asks what is our favourite “audio fiction” podcast, we need clarification. Because our first thought is, “Do they mean Audio Drama? No, they must mean an audiobook podcast, right?”
In the Sonic Society, we love all audio tales. There’s no hierarchy of quality when it comes to terms. But, choosing the wrong term certainly creates confusion. “Audio Drama” is here to stay. Why not revel in it?
After all, “New Coke” successfully replaced “Coke Classic” right? Oh, wait a minute…
Rebranding Audio Drama as “Fiction Podcasts” seems to be all the rage. Some time ago we called these “podficts” for short. Regardless, it’s nice to see the CBC taking the medium seriously again.
Check out Fiction podcasts are giving new form to the old art of the radio drama and maybe give them a nudge that the Sonic Society has been in their backyard for 15 years 🙂
Long before our multi-screen, multi-platform world existed, people used to huddle around a radio to listen to the latest episode of a drama series. Today, this old art form has been given new life in the form of podcasts.
Fiction genres — like drama or horror — are a booming area in the podcast universe, which so far has been dominated by reality-based offerings featuring true crime, news or interviews.
That they’re mobile and often free has also helped bring them to a larger audience than ever before.
New York-based podcast company Gimlet Media says fiction has untapped potential for audience growth in the podcast arena.
“Fiction really is our big bet for, like, groundbreaking new content that doesn’t sound like anything else,” says Nazanin Rafsanjani, Gimlet’s vice-president for new show development.Nazanin Rafsanjani, Gimlet Media’s vice-president of new show development, says fiction genres are ‘groundbreaking new content’ for podcasts. (Alice Hopton/CBC)
The bet has already paid off: Gimlet’s first scripted series,Homecoming, proved so popular that Amazon turned it into a Golden Globe-nominated TV series starring Julia Roberts and Canadian actor Stephan James.“What’s exciting about fiction is that you can tell any kind of story … if you have the right talent writing it and creating it.”
Gimlet also produces the macabre tale The Horror of Dolores Roach and a comedy, Sandra, starring Kristen Wiig.
“The way you’d want to sit down and watch a movie or get super engrossed in a television show, that is how our fiction team really thinks about the projects that we take on,” says Rafsanjani.
Homegrown theatre
A Toronto team has taken Canadian plays and turned them into serials on the PlayME podcast, bringing homegrown talent to listeners around the world.“We want playwrights to become a household name,” says Laura Mullin, co-creator of PlayME and co-artistic director of Toronto’s Expect Theatre.
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After 20 years in the Canadian theatre industry, Mullin and business partner Chris Tolley set out to put a bigger spotlight on Canadian writers and talent.“We just wanted to have an opportunity to take the great work that we were seeing and let a larger audience [hear] it,” she says.
Since its launch in 2016, PlayME has received more than one million downloads in more than 90 countries, and has ranked as high as #2 in the Arts category on the iTunes chart.
A recording session for What a Young Wife Ought to Know, for the CBC Podcast PlayME. Chris Tolley, left, with playwright Hannah Moscovitch, centre, and Laura Mullin. (CBC/Evan Mitsui)
“We’ve heard everything from people telling us that they’re listening to learn English [to] people that are going out to [see] shows because they had heard a play,” says Mullin.She hopes programmers and artistic directors are also listening.
The PlayME catalogue, which is now on CBC’s roster, features a diverse range of stories from coast to coast, with 60 per cent of the writers female and 60 per cent people of colour.
‘Intimacy’ of radio drama
Hannah Moscovitch, a Dora Award and Trillium Book Award winner, says podcasts make Canadian theatre much more accessible because audiences don’t have to be local or shell out for pricey tickets.“This way people can access the work all the time, whenever they want. I want people to be able to hear my work.”
A series of letters she discovered inspired her to write the story about a young wife trying to get legal birth control in Ottawa in the 1920s, which has been turned into What A Young Wife Ought To Know.
“I loved the intimacy of radio drama,” she says. “I’m happy that it’s coming back in this way.”
Jamie Dyer brings us the first five episodes of The Hudsons along with the Mad-Con promo. Get your tickets today!
For the festive season Jack, Jeff, and Lothar- the Amigos- check out the classic CBC series Vanishing Point with the episode “Closing Night” where they consider life, death, and life again… HAPPY CHRISTMAS EVE EVERYONE!
This week Jack and David explore the world of the podcast Rabbits Podcast with Carly Parker, and talk about the upcoming No Sleep Live show in Toronto.
The Internet is buzzing with the news that Audible.com has decided to launch a five million dollar fund to find and play audio drama writers. The Digital-Reader has all the details:
Audible, the digital audiobook giant, announced Tuesday that it would create a $5 million fund to commission new works from emerging playwrights — not for the stage, but for people’s headphones and speakers.
As audio fiction seems to be having a moment, in the realm of podcasts, Audible plans to draw from the vast pool of young writers to create one- or two-person plays. They will be available beginning late this year, the company said.
Playwrights can apply for grants to cover both “industry standards” for new commissions and the cost of production, said Donald R. Katz, Audible’s chief executive and a former journalist and author.
“I’m hoping that people just come out of the woodwork,” Mr. Katz said.
Audible is hoping to fund dozens of playwrights. This will certainly help put proof in the pudding that we’re entering a new age of Audio Drama listeners and production!
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