David Schwimmer – The Sonic Society

Yet more evidence that the world of Audio Drama is heating up by Audible‘s announcement, The Conversation has an article entitlted: How podcasting is having a major revival with new audio productions of The X-Files and Doctor Who. Looking at some of the exciting releases like The Invisible Man, Homecoming, Doctor Who, Bronzeville, and X-Files. Everyone is starting to jump on the audio drama bandwagon:

Starting in November, the US psychological thriller Homecoming was released as a podcast staring David Schwimmer, Oscar Isaacs and Catherine Keener. This was followed by the Bronzeville serial starring Larenz Tate and Lawrence Fishburn, which brought 1940s underworld Chicago to life.

Over in the UK a number of classics have been making headlines as richly imagined audio productions. The Invisible Man, released in February starring John Hurt, kicked off a series of high-quality HG Wells releases for production company Big Finish, and in April Wireless Theatre Company produced Black Beauty with Samuel West and Tamzin Outhwaite.

Meanwhile Doctor Who fans are thrilled to hear that the popular pairing of David Tennant and Billy Piper are back, opening the Tardis door on a new run of audio adventures. And David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson will be reprising their classic roles this July in X-Files: Cold Cases on Audible.

But then, why wouldn’t you?

Edge Studios website made a rather curious pronouncement recently.

” The heyday of radio drama gave way to television drama, but the genre never entirely died. It survived here and there — on radio, records, on-stage and the Internet – till now it has been coming back, in a big way.”

It looks like more and more folk are taking notice that the modern audio drama movement (MADaM if you will) has begun to take off. In this blog post from Edge Studios they name off the following popular shows:

“The Truth” is an early anthology series that debuted in 2012. The acting is naturalistic, but recent storyline is rather surreal.
“Welcome to Night Vale” is another early entry. It features a narrator rather than dialog, in what’s been called a “bizarre storytelling form.”
“Limetown” launched in 2015. It’s about a fictional reporter with (equally fictional?) American Public Radio, but it’s a podcast, not a radio program. Reviews have compared it to The Message, and Limetown has been similarly popular at iTunes.
“LifeAfter” the second series produced by Panoply and GE Podcast Theater, which they launched late in 2016.
“The Message” is kin to “General Electric Theater” in the golden days of television. Will this someday be referred to as the “golden days of podcasting”? If so, what will have changed or emerged by then?
“Alice Isn’t Dead” emerged to haunt 2015. Fantastical, but definitely not a comedy.
“The Orbiting Human Circus (of the Air)” features a multi-person cast, and well-known guest stars Tim Robbins and Mandy Patinkin.
“A Night Called Tomorrow,” available only through Howl, a collection of content for $4.99 a month.
“Fruit” is also on Howl, but previews and at least some episodes are available elsewhere.
“Homecoming” is a “psychological thriller” cast with A-list actors. Now you know what voice actors like Oscar Isaac, Catherine Keener, David Schwimmer, David Cross, and Amy Sedaris have been doing lately.
“Serendipity” is called “a preview of audio drama’s future” by the New York Times. It presents audio fiction gathered worldwide.

Some of these shows you’re recognize as podficts, and some of these are behind pay walls. Go read the original article and remind them, that we’ve been here watching the slow boom of our beloved medium for a while now.

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Tag: David Schwimmer

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