Radio Drama Revival

This week we continue our coverage of the audio drama awesomeness that happened at CONvergence 2013 with a feature of Our Fair City's live show, the Archibald Funnypants Variety Hour. Knowledge of the Our Fair City universe is helpful, but not required, to enjoy this tongue-in-cheek live event that uses the format of an old time radio live show, but transposing it to the dire climate changed corporatocracy of OFC. There are twisted versions of classic songs, funny moral skits, and a show host that has juuuuuuusttt too loose of a tongue to be safe for radio. Recorded live at CONvergence 2013, amidst a weekend of madness that also included the inaugural Mark Time Broadcast Center's 5 Minutes of Fame, wherein random attendees of the CON were pulled into our room to record short radio plays. The post Episode 339 – Our Fair City Live appeared first on Radio Drama Revival.

Reporting live from Convergence Con 2013, Craig Finseth, Matthew Boudreau, and Fred Greenhalgh get together to announce the winners of the 75th Anniversary War of the Worlds radio contest. We received 10 entries from 4 countries, all under 15 minutes and celebrating the story of War of the Worlds (both the classic radio drama as well as the HG Wells novel). Contest requirements were: Arrival inside a meteorite. Tripods are used for locomotion. Massive destruction. Natural biological solution. The Winners! Bronze - The Refertilization of the Weed Planet 313 Silver - Herbert West versus The Martians (A Tale of Our Fair City) GOLD - Dead London by The Wireless Theatre Company   The post Episode 338 – War of the Worlds Anniversary Contest Winners appeared first on Radio Drama Revival.

We continue our tour of radio noir by featuring a radio drama adaptation of Raymond Chandler's "Goldfish," the first Philip Marlowe short story, recorded entirely on location in the Pacific Northwest where Chandler originally set it. Harris Yulin stars as Marlowe with Harry Anderson as the lethal bad-guy "Sunset." With an outstanding cast of Seattle actors including Peggy O’Connel, David MacIntyre, John Gilbert and Kevin O’Morrison and an original blues score, featuring Janie Cribbs' torchy "My Lonely Love Affair." We go on to talk to Otherworld Media writer/director/producer Judith Walcott, who talks about how she met her to-be husband David Ossman at a radio workshop in San Francisco, and how mad nights cutting tape at WGBH led to matrimony. The pair has produced dozens of radio plays over the years; we talk about some of the innovative things they've done, how media has changed, and the future of radio drama in a 'niche casting' world. The post Episode 337 – Raymond Chandler’s Lost “Goldfish” and an Otherworld Interview appeared first on Radio Drama Revival.

Our summer noir theme returns with FinalRune's 2010 production of Open Season, the pilot episode of a series based on the books by Archer Mayor and featured in the Wall Street Journal. An old lady tormented by lewd phone calls blasts a man with a shotgun as he walks in through the door, and Brattleboro;s everyman detective, Joe Gunther, is called out to investigate. But nothing is as it seems... We also give a shout-out to the HEARNow Festival kicking off in Kansas City, MO! The post Episode 336 – This Time, It’s An Open Season appeared first on Radio Drama Revival.

This week we celebrate the Audie-award win (Audio Drama category) of Swordspoint, written by Ellen Kushner and produced by SueMedia Productions. Swordspoint is a tale of derring-do in the city of Riverside, where men live and die by the sword. We spoke with Ellen and Sue back in December about adapting Swordspoint as an illuminated audiobook, where key passages of the swashbuckling original fantasy are rendered with a full cast, music, sound effects. Today, we have selections from the second Riverside book available as an illuminated audiobook from Sue Media - The Privilege of the Sword, also written by Ellen Kushner, and an Audie-nominee in the Multi-voiced performance category. We include the book's intro by @neilhimself and the second chapter, read by Barbara Rosenblat and featuring a full cast and original music in the 'illuminated' sections. We also talk about the HEAR Now Festival - coming June 20-22 in Kansas City, MO - which will premiering Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere in the USA as well as featuring the world-premiere of FinalRune's The Cleansed: Season 2. The post Episode 335 – Privileged At the Swordspoint appeared first on Radio Drama Revival.

June is unofficially dubbed 'mystery drama month,' kicking off with a BANG with the 70s Noir New York Mafia Drama "Thing Thing of Ours" by Scott Spaulding's Decorated Air Theater. Tensions are high within the Colombo Crime Family as gunshots ring out a few days before Christmas 1977. The fella’s scramble to get answers and deal with the aftermath. Who got shot? Who did it? But more importantly…Who’s the Boss? Jump in for a smooth-talkin', knee-breakin', wise guy flush soiree in the gritty streets of New York. Also, a shout-out for Hear Now Festival, a celebration of audio drama arts coming to Kansas City, MO June 20th – 23rd, 2013. The post Episode 334 – This Thing of Ours is Looking for a Boss appeared first on Radio Drama Revival.

This week we take a step out of the real to visit the bizarrely delightful land of Komi Before the Trees, a radio drama centered on the adventures of a young Treean named Komi, who has one year left to move around the world before he takes root and grows into a tree like his parents. Um, so off he goes. We hear the first 3of what are now up to 8 installments of this surreal jazzy story, more of it up at: https://soundcloud.com/komibeforethetrees Written by Delwin Campbell with editing help from Jeffrey Olson and Elise Moltz, recorded in part at KVRX 91.7 and recorded in many tiny jam sessions by Jeffrey Olson (percussion), Eric Peana (bass, guitar, vocals), Delwin Campbell (percussion, ukulele, vocals), and Ari Bina (violin). We also talk up some summer swelterers for the audio drama community, including the Atlanta Fringe Radio Fest, Hear Now Festival, and the Mark Time Broadcast Center at CONvergence 2013. The post Episode 333 – Adventuring with Komi Before the Trees appeared first on Radio Drama Revival.

Part 3 of 3 This week we're featuring Parts 4 and 5 of Will of the Woods byAudio Epics - the Belgium-based audio drama troupe headed by Domien De Groot and Eline Hoskens (and featuring the splendid musical talents Peter Van Riet). Adapted from the Dutch language De Wezens Van Het Woud, this five-part series tells the story of elves (not quite the Tolkien variety) who live happily and untroubled in the mushroom houses that grow on an enormous tree in the middle of the Infinite Woods. They are led by the wizard Saffredon, the eldest and wisest living among them. All inhabitants of the tree trust his wisdom and counsel, especially his young pupil Nuzwick. Despite Saffredon’s attempts to teach Nuzwick about the Will penetrating the very fabric of the Woods, Nuzwick’s mind dwells on Myrilia, a girl he’s [not so] secretly very much in love with. One day, as Nuzwick and Myrilia go out to search for some anemones, they discover a mysterious gate, which, despite looking many centuries old, they could swear was never there before... And, as is the thing with mysterious gates, they are sometimes better left unopened... From the creators of The Witch Hunter Chronicles, here is a new, lushly imagined audio drama fantasy for you based on the Flemish Audio Drama “De Wezens Van Het Woud”, published by Audio Epics in 2007. The post Episode 332 – A Final Stop in the Will of the Woods appeared first on Radio Drama Revival.

Part 2 of 3 This week we're featuring Parts 2 and 3 of Will of the Woods byAudio Epics - the Belgium-based audio drama troupe headed by Domien De Groot and Eline Hoskens (and featuring the splendid musical talents Peter Van Riet). Adapted from the Dutch language De Wezens Van Het Woud, this five-part series tells the story of elves (not quite the Tolkien variety) who live happily and untroubled in the mushroom houses that grow on an enormous tree in the middle of the Infinite Woods. They are led by the wizard Saffredon, the eldest and wisest living among them. All inhabitants of the tree trust his wisdom and counsel, especially his young pupil Nuzwick. Despite Saffredon’s attempts to teach Nuzwick about the Will penetrating the very fabric of the Woods, Nuzwick’s mind dwells on Myrilia, a girl he’s [not so] secretly very much in love with. One day, as Nuzwick and Myrilia go out to search for some anemones, they discover a mysterious gate, which, despite looking many centuries old, they could swear was never there before... And, as is the thing with mysterious gates, they are sometimes better left unopened... From the creators of The Witch Hunter Chronicles, here is a new, lushly imagined audio drama fantasy for you based on the Flemish Audio Drama “De Wezens Van Het Woud”, published by Audio Epics in 2007. The post Episode 331 – Walking Deeper in the Will of the Woods appeared first on Radio Drama Revival.

This week we're thrilled to bring back to work of Audio Epics - the Belgium-based audio drama troupe headed by Domien De Groot and Eline Hoskens (and featuring the splendid musical talents Peter Van Riet). This five-part series is Will of the Woods, the story of elves (not quite the Tolkien variety) who live happily and untroubled in the mushroom houses that grow on an enormous tree in the middle of the Infinite Woods. They are led by the wizard Saffredon, the eldest and wisest living among them. All inhabitants of the tree trust his wisdom and counsel, especially his young pupil Nuzwick. Despite Saffredon’s attempts to teach Nuzwick about the Will penetrating the very fabric of the Woods, Nuzwick’s mind dwells on Myrilia, a girl he’s [not so] secretly very much in love with. One day, as Nuzwick and Myrilia go out to search for some anemones, they discover a mysterious gate, which, despite looking many centuries old, they could swear was never there before... And, as is the thing with mysterious gates, they are sometimes better left unopened... From the creators of The Witch Hunter Chronicles, here is a new, lushly imagined audio drama fantasy for you based on the Flemish Audio Drama “De Wezens Van Het Woud”, published by Audio Epics in 2007. The post Episode 330 – Entranced by the Will of the Woods appeared first on Radio Drama Revival.

This week we take a departure from our usual programming to enjoy a thoroughly different poetic experience in Roger Gregg's album Serpent in the Bee Loud Glade. Derived from his short-run theatre experience "The Bee Loud Glade Cabaret," the studio album takes original lyrics as well as classic poems and dramatizes them in a way you have never heard poetry expressed before.  There is music - oh yeah - but way beyond music, we have sound effects, smashing, crashing, pop grinding tunes soaring overtures and effects that re-imagine poetry for the 21st century.  You've never heard anything quite like this, and I hope you enjoy our visit to the Bee Loud Glade, featuring originals by Roger as well as adaptations of Emily Dickinson, James Joyce, and W.B. Yeats. We follow this first-ever music set with an original audio drama (whew!) the Howl of the Mac Tire from Crazy Dog Audio Theatre's "Beyond the Back of Beyond" mini-series.

Episodes 3 + 4 Followed by Exclusive Interview Take a surly trip to a gritty, dystopian neighborhood of Los Angeles called the 'Hothouse' in this thrilling new serial by TV writer Joel Metzger. All of downtown LA is enclosed by a massive glass wall -- making a hyper-capitalist, Orwellian, city-within-a-city called "The Hothouse." Jason "Bruiser" Brusman used to be a cop -- but after getting trapped in the Hothouse, he's become an enforcer for the powerful corporation that controls the Quarantine. Part detective, part hit-man, Bruiser slugs it out with grimy Hothouse underground -- with one twisted plot leading to the next. Bruiser's heart is outside the walls -- with his wife and daughter -- and every day he's separated from them... he becomes more and more like the grimy underworld he battles. In episodes three and four of Hothouse Bruiser, we're introduced to a sinister voice who will play games with Bruiser, all the while showing us the darkness that lies below the city and below the walls of the Box.  We also get a chance to chat with Joel, who talks about life as a TV writer and how the desire to have complete creative freedom with a production led him to take a 60-minute TV script and turn it into the 4.5 hr audio serial. Get ready for a ride... to the Hothouse. This show has quite the cast... Paul Nobrega .................. Bruiser Traci Lords ........................... Vera Grayle Jim Storm ............................ Mr. Saeger John Terry .................................... Chlorine Buddha Claudia Christian ...................... Chief Plagman Armin Shimerman .................... Dr. Wolverton John Billingsley ............................  The Man Upstairs Michael Welch ........................ Ash Hamilton Denise Crosby ..................... Ginny Mills Cliff Simon ........................... The Hothouse Sniper Gideon Emery .................. The Pipe Vanessa Angel .............................. Miss Power Tools Sonita Henry ..................... Jill Strauss Kirsten Roeters ...................... Risa Brusman Fanny Veliz .............................. Riley Brusman James Leary .............................. Graveyard Mike Tom Beyer ................... Spider Robin Gwynne ........................ Tuesday Last Ira Katz ......................... Janitor Alexander Von Roon ........................... Professor Tough Guy Lyle Skosey ............................. No Hand Stan Brantley Kearns .......................... Seager’s Lawyer Vito LaMorte ............................ Muzzy Palermo Billy Scott ............................... Private Huiza

Take a surly trip to a gritty, dystopian neighborhood of Los Angeles called the 'Hothouse' in this thrilling new serial by TV writer Joel Metzger. All of downtown LA is enclosed by a massive glass wall -- making a hyper-capitalist, Orwellian, city-within-a-city called "The Hothouse." Jason "Bruiser" Brusman used to be a cop -- but after getting trapped in the Hothouse, he's become an enforcer for the powerful corporation that controls the Quarantine. Part detective, part hit-man, Bruiser slugs it out with grimy Hothouse underground -- with one twisted plot leading to the next. Bruiser's heart is outside the walls -- with his wife and daughter -- and every day he's separated from them... he becomes more and more like the grimy underworld he battles. In the first two episodes of Hothouse Bruiser, we're introduced to the rough and tumble streets of the Hothouse, as we meet Bruiser in his quest to escape the walls. But it's not just glass that's in his way - soon we have snipers, the corrupt corporation, sexy and dangerous dames, and darker figures trying to do him in. Get ready for a ride... to the Hothouse.

This week we continue the celebration of The Leviathan Chronicles – Season 2, an example of how fantastic science fiction audio drama can be when you combine great writing, a spectacular cast, and searing sound effects. MacAllan Orsel enters the shattered world of Leviathan as perhaps the only chance the community has of enduring an attack on their leader. But will the immortals trust her? Does she have what it takes to lead them? We get a sneak preview of Chapter 27, and then follow up with an interview with Leviathan Chronicles creator Christof Laputka and Sound Designer Robin Shore of Silver Sound. Leviathan Chronicles Season 2 is being released with a pretty unique strategy, the entire first half is available for paid download now - so you can purchase the first half and power through it now, or be patient and listen to it free of charge via the podcast. We’re pretty sure that once you hear this, you are not going to want to put it down. Dig in and enjoy the adventure.

It's here! After two years of hard work, Leviathan Chronicles Season 2 has hit the streets. The action-packed, richly imagined sci-fi epic throws the unsuspecting MacAllan Orsel into a world of intrigue, immortals, high-tech prowess and US Government special Ops. We won't spoil the riveting First Season, but suffice to say Season 2 starts off with an adrenaline-packed foray (I mean, how many audio dramas have GPS-tracking rocket launchers in their first episode?) and gets crazier from there. Leviathan Chronicles Season 2 is being released with a pretty unique strategy, the entire first half is available for paid download now - so you can purchase the first half and power through it now, or be patient and listen to it free of charge via the podcast. We're pretty sure that once you hear this, you are not going to want to put it down. Dig in and enjoy the adventure.