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Blake Sets Sail

April 14, 2016 / Jack / 0 Comments

It was with some sadness that fans of Blake’s 7, the powerful series created first for the BBC by Terry Nation from 78 to 81, heard of the death of Gareth Thomas. His reprisal of the role in The Liberator Chronicles in 2012 created a whole new generation of fans.

The Telegraph has the story:

…Gareth Thomas passed away this morning, 13th April 2016, from heart failure.

“Our thoughts are with his wife Linda, and his family and friends.”
Blake’s 7, which was created by Terry Nation and ran from 1978 to 1981, follows the travails of Blake, a political dissident banished from Earth for his part in a series of uprisings.

Along with other prisoners and a telepathic alien, Blake leads a guerrilla war from his spacecraft, Liberator, against the totalitarian Terran Foundation regime.

Blake was controversially killed off in 1981 but Thomas reprised the role in 2012 for an audio series called The Liberator Chronicles.

Though Thomas will be most fondly remembered for his role as the intergalactic resistance leader, he enjoyed a varied acting career that began in 1965 when he played Benvolio in a TV adaptation of Romeo and Juliet.

Later, he enjoyed long stints playing Ron Radley in the ITV drama Parkin’s Patch, Adam Brake in the ITV drama Children of the Stones, and Charles McCallister in the ITV comedy drama Distant Shores, alongside Peter Davison and Samantha Bond.

Thomas’ last credit came in 2011 when he played Gareth Harper in the BBC hospital drama Holby City.

Sci-fi fans were were quick to pay tribute to Thomas on Twitter.

Safe etheric seas, sweet Prince!

Toodle-oo Downton Who

April 14, 2016 / Jack / 0 Comments

Racontour Radio, the folks who brought mesmerizing re-creations of Dr. Who and War of the Worlds, are at it again with A Fond Farewell to Downton Abbey! “Downton Abbey: A Staged Radio Play Parody”. Friday the 15th. Check out the details from the Morristown Green:

The theatrical troupe returns to the Morristown & Township Library on Friday, April 15, 2016, at 7 pm, for what may be the final gathering of the library’s Downton Abbey Support Group.

‘Downton Abbey’ fans Lorraine Rosenberg (portraying Lady Edith), Kathleen Mandaglio (Lady Mary) and Beverly DeFabiis (Anna, wife of Bates) at Downton Abbey Support Group meeting, at the Morristown & Township Library. Photo by Kevin Coughlin

Although we suspect the need for this group therapy is growing more acute.

Last month marked the end of the popular PBS series, which spent six seasons chronicling the Crawley family’s fictional struggles to preserve its aristocratic lifestyle in post-World War I Britain.

Friday’s parody is free. Period costumes are encouraged. Refreshments will be served –let’s hope the library staff bakes scones, a specialty of the house — and rumors are flying around about some musical surprises.

The library is at One Miller Road in Morristown. Here is the library’s show description:

A Fond Farewell to Downton Abbey! “Downton Abbey: A Staged Radio Play Parody”

Friday April 15, 2016

7 PM

The Library’s long-standing band of Crawley family enthusiasts, the Downton Abbey Support Group (to support the show’s fans during the long breaks between new episodes), is lamenting the fact that come March 2016, the show will have completed its sixth and final season.

The real Downton Abbey–Highclere Castle. The Morristown & Township Library will bring you up to speed on the PBS series, on Dec. 6 at 7 pm.

But to send the show off with the grandeur it deserves, the library will become Highclere Castle as the Downton Abbey Support Group hosts Raconteur Radio’s performance of Downton Abbey: A Staged Radio Play Parody.

Raconteur Radio performs scenes of the show as a radio play but with period costumes, theatrical lighting, golden age radio equipment and extensive sound effects!

Raconteur Radio stages theatrical presentations of vintage radio plays, classic works of literature, and pop-culture parodies for live audiences throughout the Tri-State area.

Fixsoniced by The Archers

April 14, 2016 / Jack / 0 Comments

the-archers-2 The tale of Helen and Rob Titchener, characters in the BBC’s radio soap opera “The Archers”, has an entire nation transfixed as the violent conclusion Sunday night’s past saw Helen stabbing her abusive husband in front of their young son. During the episode, #TheArchers was trending on Twitter as tens of thousands of listeners vented their emotions. The benefits of such high drama was the Helen Titchener (nee Archer) Rescue Fund, which swiftly hit its target of raising 100,000 pounds ($142,000) for the domestic abuse charity Refuge.

Find out all about the dramatic events at the In-Cyprus Article.

The Mandela Effect

April 13, 2016 / Jack / 0 Comments

Not to be confused Fiona Broome’s theory of The Mandela Effect, the The Nelson Mandela Foundation just announced that they will be launching “Mandela: An Audio History” which will document “the struggle against apartheid through the intimate accounts of Nelson Mandela, as well as those who fought with him, and against him”.

Read all about this exciting new series in the NMF’s Press Release.

Odd Fanboys!

April 13, 2016 / Jack / 0 Comments

odds Fanboy Comics (soon to be Fanbase Press) took another step towards brand new audio drama as they signed on Sam Cushion for their radio drama series which is adapted from the comedy action novel The Odds by Robert J. Peterson. Read all about it in the Fanboy article from friend of the Society Barbra Dillon.

Episode 467- Atheist Audio

April 12, 2016 / Jack / 0 Comments

Tonight on the Sonic Society, Jack’s in a tiny place and David keeps looking for him, but instead finds theAtheist Apocalypse podcast!

His Voice was “Magically Delicious”

April 12, 2016 / Jack / 0 Comments

13Anderson1Obit-master675 Great loss to the world of radio drama and voice acting on April 10th, when Arthur Anderson passed away at the age of 93. The New York Times article reported:

Arthur Anderson, who performed on radio as a teenager with Orson Welles’s Mercury Theater and appeared on Broadway, in films and on television, but whose most enduring role was as the voice of Lucky Charms cereal’s leprechaun, died on Saturday in Manhattan.

As the last of the Golden Age of Radio begins to fade into the distance, I find myself thinking back as to how much of an impact they made, not just on those children who grew up with radio and radio drama, but the grandchildren, and the great grandchildren. My parents loved radio plays and bought LP’s for me to listen to in my formative years. Even now, archive.org keeps putting more and more old time radio shows into the public domain. Go through the available Mercury and Campbell’s Playhouse Theatres and have some time to listen to Anderson’s salad years.

Rest well, sweet prince!

Casting Call!

April 11, 2016 / Jack / 0 Comments

It’s that time of year for us at EVP where we start looking to the universities and local theatre guilds to get a solid group of actors for our audio dramas. We have fantastic performers, but sometimes they go inactive, get overused, don’t have time, or move away, and it’s always good to have a fresh supply.

If local acting isn’t in your wheelhouse for the time being, or if you want to try to go the route of fresh new faces (voices), maybe you might want to give Casting Call Club. Membership is free (although they do have enhanced premiums for those who pay) and there’s all kinds of opportunities. Check it out!

Vintage Hitchcock Radio

April 11, 2016 / Jack / 0 Comments

2-s47dtu_preview_featured The Oskaloosa Herald shares an exciting live radio theatre performance:

With “Vintage Hitchcock,” performed by William Penn University’s theatre department, you will visit neither London nor the 1920s, but you will become the audience of a radio show from several eras. “I really would like the audience to come in and take time to close [their] eyes and just listen to what it sounds like. This is designed to be a radio play, and we really tried to tackle it from that point of view,” said director Andy McGuire.

Three of Alfred Hitchcock’s early films have been adapted into radio plays by playwright Joe Landry. “The Lodger” will be first, followed by “Sabotage.” After a brief intermission, “The 39 Steps” will finish out the evening. “They’re all made with great reverence and love for Hitchcock,” said McGuire. The filmmaker is known for being a master of nail-biting suspense and the thriller genre. “A lot of times people think of theatre as this farce and this comedy. These plays are fun, they have their fun moments, but they’re not really comedies.”

Find out everything about Friday and Saturday’s performances that are offered free from this article College Students to Perform Vintage Hitchcock.

Tigers and Bunnies and Audio Drama, Oh My!

April 10, 2016 / Jack / 0 Comments

tigerbunny A growing popular add to a BluRay collection seems to be additional audio drama programmes. With the popular Japanese animation Tiger & Bunny there’s a brand new radio drama with the whole cast.

Crunchy roll has all the details:

The Japanese Tiger & Bunny Bluray Box will include all 25 episodes of the original TV series on 12 Bluray discs. In addition to the bonus materials included in the 9 individual Tiger & Bunny Bluray releases, the new box set will also include an original audio drama CD and new interviews with the voice cast.