Re-Imagined Radio has celebrated the anniversary of “The War of the Worlds” several times by re-telling the story. This year, on Devil’s Night and the occasion of its 84th anniversary, Jack and David play their explorations into the radio storytelling that may have influenced Orson Welles’s radio adaptation of the 1898 novel by H. G. Welles. In addition to samples from these earlier radio stories, interviews with Welles provide additional insight for this episode, “The War of the Worlds: Possible Influences.”
Jack and David continue the horror this month with The Sheridan Tapes #1. In 2018, famed horror writer Anna Sheridan disappeared, leaving behind only a box of mysterious cassette tapes and for their second feature one of the anthology episodes from Wrong Station with “A Walk in the Park”. She was walking home on one of the snowiest nights of the year, she tells me. She kind of loses track of time, and eventually comes to this park. A place she’d never heard of, and one she was never able to find again. That big park, with that little house right in the middle of it.
Jack and David begin this haunted episode with a remake of the classic “The Shadow” from No Soap Radio with “The Silent Avenger” to be followed by a second feature from Badlands Cola… A haunting manifesto tape. A town built on dinosaur bones. Radio stations have gone awry. Has Sunny’s latest private investigation case brought them to the sleepiest place in Canada, or have they stumbled upon something terrifying in the Badlands?
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?
Jack is by himself as he makes his way to meet up with David and brings along with him “The Milkman of St. Gaff’s” episodes one and two! Lovecraft meets Kafka in this serialized fantasy/horror podcast about Howie, a troubled young man who joins the milkmen on the island of St. Gaff’s, only to discover that the milkmen harbor a dark and dangerous secret!
David finds the spooky gardening shed and announces our two features from The Nightlight, winner of best fiction podcast featuring creepy stories written by and performed by black actors. This week we have episode 101: Letters from Home by Justina Ireland, and the bonus episode Stories of Love and Revenge.
