The Sonic Society

Showcasing the very best in new Audio Drama

Tag: Horror (Page 1 of 7)

The Definitive Collection of 20 Years of Jack J. Ward’s Audio Plays

May 26, 2023 / / 2 Comments

As Jack J. Ward basks in one of his finest moments- that being in the very chair that Robert E. Howard wrote not only Conan- The Barbarian, but all his great works… He was asked recently to provide a list of all the scripts he has written for all his various incarnations and basic times. As we’re coming close to the 20th anniversary of The Sonic Society (Put it on your calendar folks- it’s September 1st, 2024, Jack has provided the list so far with some tantalizing suggestions of what you can expect now that he’s completed his masters’ degree:

The Sonic Society Collection:

The Sonic Society- The World’s Largest and Longest-Running showcase of modern audio drama

Pre-Mutual Audio Network Feed (The Radio Memories Network 2005-2019): https://sonic.libsyn.com/sonicsociety/2008/06

The Mutual Audio Network Feeds (2019 and Onwards):
The Broadcast Feed (on Sundays and Mondays) https://feeds.megaphone.fm/mani
Monday Matinee weekly (2015 onwards replays) https://feeds.megaphone.fm/MUTUAL5370851038
Sunday Showcase weekly (Current releases from 2019 onwards) https://feeds.megaphone.fm/MUTUAL9188504915

Sonic Echo– Conversations with Lothar Tuppan and Jeffrey Billard – The Amigos! with guests looking at the very best of old time radio.

Sonic Speaks– Jack interviews the makers and shapers of the audio drama world

Sonic Summerstock Playhouse– The summer season of the Sonic Society where producers from the modern audio drama community recreate old time radio scripts for fun with their contemporary acting troops!

Sonic Retrospectives– Our tribute summer series for those who have left the modern audio drama community too soon (SADLY ONGOING)
Bill Hollweg
Mark Bruzee

JACK WARD’S PRODUCTIONS AND SCRIPTS:
All produced scripts can be found at the Sonic Cinema Podcast or through Sonic Cinema website

The Sonic Cinema Production Classic Series: 2003-2005
The Shadowlands– Shadowlands Theatre was the premiere original anthology series from Jack J. Ward. Combining Suspense and Dark Fantasy, this exciting series became the basis for the Deadly Sins Series and other compelling tales of mystery, and horror.

  • The Seven Deadly Sins- A seven-part series of original tales from dark comedy to darker horror, plays of the past to terror of the future exploring the turning parts of the soul. Six parts completed: (Pride: And Low, Thou I Walk, Envy: Completion, Greed: Ghosts of the Present, Gluttony: Soul Survivor (Ogile Award Honorable Mention), Lust: Spin, Spin, Spin, Wrath: The Hitchhiker)
  • Graves’ Shift Starring Phillipa Graves– “Open for Business” The pilot first audio drama script written by Jack Ward from his time in university exploring the noir tales of his female detective
  • Biff Straker and the Spaceways (Old World)– The one-shot pilot episode of Jack’s parody of Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon with his own pulp hero, Biff!
  • Remotely Possible– A single Shadowlands episode exploring remote viewing and the depths of fear
  • Hill Manors- “More Action than a Burma Railroad” A live tribute to the great “Fawlty Towers” series by John Cleese & Connie Booth
  • Firefly- Old Wounds– The Internet’s first fan fiction of the science-fiction classic “Firefly”.
  • The Dead Line Anthology- Tales of crime drama inspired by Alfred Hitchcock Presents (Initial run included: Goth Girl, Jeremiah Crandal- Funeral Detective, Messages, Right Number Wrong Party, The Replacement Show, Rule of Three)
  • The Dead Line Shorts Anthology- less than a half hour presentations of this series (Initial run included: Anniversary, Choice, Deathbed Confessions, Duel, Fiend to the Old, John, Lighter, Night Driving and Sherry)

Electric Vicuna Productions: 2006-2021

  • Firefly- Old Wounds “Wedding Day” – The much demanded follow up to the Internet’s first fan fiction of the science-fiction classic “Firefly”.
  • The Wave Front Anthology- a science fiction collection that explores futuristic societies, distopic nightmares, technological travesties and bleak tomorrows. (Initial run includes: Borrowed Time, Black Knight, Alone in the Night (Mark Time Silver award winner), Voting is Anonymous
  • The Wave Front Shorts Anthology- less than a half hour presentation of this series (Initial run includes: Acquisitions, Alien Invasion Cancelled, Distant Voice, Galaxy Master versus the Varn, Name Please, Nanites, Pets, Reservations, Spring, Trans-Humanity, Voices)
  • The Dead Line Anthology- (Continued run includes: “Faith” also as the final Deadly Sins Script for “Sloth”, Daybreak, Coach #6, Clay Pigeon Shooting)
  • The Dead Line Shorts Anthology- (Continued run includes: I’m Home)
  • Darker Musings Anthology Series-  an anthology series of fantastical mystery and terror.
    Inspired by Rod Serling’s Twilight Zone, Darker Musings always includes an air of another world that may be an alternate universe, or a terrifying nightmare, one in which the characters can not wake up.(Initial run includes: Breathing Space (one-man show), Muse of Madness, One by One, and Phil Morris~ Celestial Lawyer
  • The Darker Musings Shorts Anthology- less than a half hour presentation of this series (Initial run includes original and original adaptations of: Barney, Bravery. Plague Studies, The Chaser, The Monkey’s Paw, and Tulpa)
  • Gate, a coming of age fantasy series in 10 parts; Gate McNeil, a young girl, discovers she is the one person in the world who can challenge the darkness and demons threatening to take over the world
  • The Jack and Shannon Show- in an homage to great sit-coms of old, two hosts of the Sonic Society fictionalize their life and friends (3 Seasons)
  • Spaceways Starring Biff Straker (New World)– imaginary pulp hero Stephen “Biff” Straker takes part in a secret experiment to prove Albert Einstein’s Theory of Relative Time. The experiment goes wrong and Straker is thrown from the 1990s into the 31st Century! – STILL IN PRODUCTION
    The reboot fun action series, no longer a straight parody. (Initial 5 episode run: Year Zero: The Future is Now, The Haunted World, The Fallen Angel, The Pool of Death, The Man Called Methuselah – STILL IN PRODUCTION
  • Consortium Comics Anthology- is a collective series of superhero shorts by Jack J. Ward (Initial run includes: Blue Defender, Any Man) – STILL IN PRODUCTION
  • Action Adventure Audio Theatre, pulp-pounding adventures inspired by the OldTime Radio series Escape (Initial episode: The Most Dangerous Game) – STILL IN PRODUCTION

The Sonic Cinema Production Returns Series: 2022-

  • Retro Rockets Anthology- From the far-flung silver age of science fiction, comes a new anthology. (Initial episode: Spirit Drive) – STILL IN PRODUCTION
  • The Wave Front Anthology- (Series continues with: Market Crash) – STILL IN PRODUCTION
  • The Christmas Wreath- Seasonal stories to touch the heart and delight the ear (Initial release: The Gift of the Magi) – STILL IN PRODUCTION

Jack Ward adaptation Scripts Produced for Colonial Radio Theatre:

  • Dead Ahead– On a restless ocean, a group of weary survivors contemplate their grim fortune: What had started out as a fun little fishing trip soon turns into a nightmare of damnation, trapped on a floating prison.
  • Vincent Price Presents Volume 3– “The Best in the Universe” Dramatized by Jack J. Ward, from a story by Paul J. Salamoff. Assignments on frontier planets always irritate intergalactic mob hitman Randall Stiles and his partner Jake Mackey, and this mission would soon prove why.

New Series Currently in Production (Unreleased):

  • Prairie Fire- an audio drama Weird Western 10 part series
  • Flight of the Airmen- At the turn of the 20th century who are the protectors of the skies for this strange modern age? Canada’s The Airmen!
  • Wingman– Ripped from the archives of the fictional radio theatre of the 1930’s. Wingman and Fly Boy save the world from Nazis infiltrators and evil criminals in America!
  • Adventures by North!- In the early 20’s in Canada, a group of adventurers found their way exploring every mystery this vast country concealed!
  • The Fates of Mace Windu- By mass request this audio Star Wars fan fiction six-part series explores what happened to Mace Windu at the end of George Lucas’ prequel
  • John Carter- A Princess of Mars- The original Science Romance of the first of the pulp space heroes is explored through the first full-audio drama adaptation of the best-selling novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs!
  • Proximity– A Third Age (First Person) account of humanity’s attempt to reach the Proxima star system.

Other things to look for. Script collection books on many of these series, and upcoming work through The Mutual Audio Network.

Special Thanks to Lothar Tuppan (The Ninth Tower Productions) and Jeffrey Billard (Audio Groove Cats Productions)- THE AMIGOS!, David Ault co-host and the “Kevin Bacon” of 6-Degrees of separation in Audio Drama (David Ault Actor, Narrator, and Science Communicator), and the rest of the United Artists of Audio from Mutual- Pete Lutz (Narada Radio Company), John Bell (Bell’s in the Batfry), JV Torres (The Rise of King Asilas), Scott Mosher (CNY Table Reads). Joshua Price and the Queen of Audio Drama herself Tanja Milojevic (LightningBolt Theater of the Mind), Richard Frohlich (Texas Radio Theatre), Richard Summers (aka Captain Radio!) and Austin Beach (Broken Bard Studios) who constantly and eternally inspire, collaborate, and support his work!

It’s not Foley, but it’s still great Sound Effects!

November 16, 2022 / / 2 Comments

A Sound Effect Blog has a very interesting post on how to create horror sound effects.

It’s a detailed discussion from sound designer/re-recording mixer Joe Dzuban who has worked with some great horror masters of film today like James Wan and Guillermo del Toro.

While I bristle at the word “foley”- a term that’s used for movies and not really applicable for the sound effects we develop in audio drama, its great to have access to it. After all, foley is created to provide sound to coincide with footage shot with film. Audio Drama SFX are used live, as well as in post-production but created not to represent the sounds in visuals but rather to build story from the acting and the script. I’m known for not “crossing the streams” of my artistic endeavors even though I appreciate each and every form. But, if our medium matters, it’s important to give Audio Drama it’s due. You wouldn’t call the pages of your best-selling novel, “slides”, so why “foley” instead of “SFX”?

It is true that many people come to Audio Drama being visual consumers of story first, and that explains why so many think of foley as being the first term that comes to mind, but what’s more important is that we can find some crossover with the mediums, just like we do with live stage plays, comics, or audiobooks. Audio Drama is the most flexible of artistic mediums as it can wander across all others (except perhaps Miming!).

The key element is that generated sound in audio drama requires the listener to understand what the producers and writers are marking as important. While film can contrast foley against images to provide discordant tones and even moods, Audio Drama requires accuracy so that a fluency of sound creates a congruent understanding of the full setting and meaning of the story.

So, check out what tricks and tips in the above article might work well in an audio drama sound effect library, and bring your thoughts into the comments.

Howelling Wisdom

August 24, 2018 / / 0 Comments

Recently, our Sonic Echo team have been talking about the classic Nightfall horror suspense series from CBC Radio in the eighties. Bill Howell, the senior producer had a fascinating take on the challenge of getting an audience in Radio Drama. From the Theatre Research in Canada Journal. 1990’s article Bill Howell from Canadian Radio Drama in English: Prick Up Your Ears:

According to CBC producer Bill Howell, however, such numbers do not really constitute an audience (even though, of course, the word ‘audience’ derives form the Latin verb audire, ‘to hear’).
They represent individual listeners, simply because there can be no interaction between them and the performers. The experience necessarily is subjective and internalized.
The play is created in the imagination of the listener. This is both the weakness and the strength of radio drama. It precludes the communal experience, the interaction of stage event and audience response so vital to live theatre; but it creates a condition of intimacy, a personal voice in the ear, which live theatre cannot replicate.
Bill Howell considers radio theatre a kind of paradox: ‘It comes out of a sense of community, but finally radio drama is a community of two’ – the radio whistling into the listener’s ear. Most importantly, it develops the art of listening – listening as active and participatory. And in this age of visual stimulation, listening has become almost a lost art.
Rarely is the whole concentration focused on sound. The general assumption in our hurried society is that listening is secondary and passive; it fills in the background during more important activities such as ironing and washing the dishes. The result is that most of us hear very little. We tend to hear what we want to hear, what we think we hear.
We become closed to new perceptions. Only the strident and shocking sounds cut through – what television announcers now call ‘sound bites.’ Radio drama, however, is foreground listening.
It works only if it commands the whole attention of the audience, and this is a difficult thing to do.

Almost forty years later and the challenge is still real, Mr. Howell. Thank you.

One By One

October 30, 2016 / / 0 Comments

One of our fan favourite shows has a new listener. Laurence Raw reviews One by One in his Radio Drama Review site.

Darker Musings Anthology, 30 October 2012
This disturbing tale, with more than a distinct echo of Orson Welles’ War of the Worlds, concerned Dan Cummings (John Bell), the self-styled ‘Old-Tmey Man’ of a local Canadian radio station, who is about to retire after having spent a long career in broadcasting, and built up a loyal following. 
 
One Hallowe’en night be begins his nightly programme as usual by exchanging platitudes with a caller, even though it becomes slightly embarrassing when that caller refers to his wife.  However the entertainment is abruptly interrupted by a newsflash: an accidental crash in the locality of Halifax, Nova Scotia has caused widespread panic.  Cummings tries his best to make light of the news, and introduces an archive broadcast of a 1980s radio classic of horror, especially for the occasion. 
 
Despite his valiant attempts to create a nostalgic – and perhaps comforting ambience – painful reality keeps intruding.  The broadcast keeps being interrupted by worse and worse news; eventually leading to panic and violent death.
 
One by One is a consciously intertextual piece, designed to remind listeners that horror stories are not just for pleasure; they can intrude in our lives.  We have to be vigilant and guard against complacency so as to protect ourselves.  John Bell gave a chilling performance as the elderly host, whose smooth-as-molasses voice gradually became more and more panicky as he discovered the reality of what was happening around him.  The director/ writer was Jack J. Ward.  

 

Sonic Workshop 1- Star Plot from Jeff Musick

July 19, 2016 / / 0 Comments

Sonic Workshop is a special series designed to listen to audio drama with a more collegial critical ear. A group of experienced audio producers and writers talk about an audio production with aim of helping to improve and support new works. In our inaugural episode we present Star Plot by Jeff Musick. Thanks so much Jeff, for letting us into your playground!

« Older posts

© 2025 The Sonic Society

Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑