Audio Drama – Page 118

CBC Radio Drama: Faster Than Light

Hugo and Nebula award winning author Robert J.Sawyer has just announced the completion of a third pilot for the proposed weekly radio science fiction radio show FASTER THAN LIGHT. Produced by Joe Mahoney and Fergus Heywood for CBC Radio One, the half-hour long program includes:

-An interview with Julie E. Czerneda, one of Canada’s best SF writers

-A mini documentary on aliens in movies

-A short essay by Robet J. Sawyer on “the other” in science fiction

-An original full-cast radio drama based on Richard Matheson’s 1950 short story “Born of Man And Woman”!

Sounds like a real winner. The word is that if the pilot is picked up there could be as many as ten episodes of Faster Than Light broadcast over the summer! We will keep you updated as more information is available, this is really terrific news!

Posted by Jesse Willis

Review of Big Big Space by Roger Gregg

SFFaudio Review

Big Big Space: The Complete Series
By Roger Gregg; Performed by a full cast
3 CD’s – 3 Hours [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: Crazy Dog Audio Theatre
Published: 2001
ISBN: 689232069827
Themes: / Science Fiction / Comedy / Audio Drama /

Included in this 3 CD set are three hilarious one-hour audio dramas in 6 episodes – The Cabaret of Forbidden Celestial Delights, Big Jim Chancer and the Space Pirates, and The Zombies of Dr. Krell. The shows were originally broadcast on Ireland’s RTE Radio 1.

The cast of characters includes the crew of the starship Amadan: Captain Roslyn Sane, First Officer Hoax Minstrel, Counselor Disco Trojan, and Robot RomManDroid. The scripts have a lot of fun at the expense of the genre, and at the mainstays of Star Trek especially. Captain Roslyn Sane sounds and acts much like Trek’s Captain Janeway, and David Murray is brilliant as First Officer Hoax Minstrel – I swear he’s performing the part as “William Shatner as Captain Kirk” with hilarious results. The crew experiences adventures, dealing with teenage fractal quarks, evil accountants, and demanding extras, and poking witty, merciless fun at science fiction along the way.

All three shows were recorded live – live cast, live music, live effects, and live audience – which harkens back to the golden age of radio comedy. The shows are thoroughly entertaining and very funny. The live audience obviously enjoyed themselves, and so did I.

Don’t take my word for it! Listen to one of the episodes (“Who’s Afraid of Rotwang Krell”) at the Crazy Dog website.

The set is also available from ZBS.

posted by Scott D. Danielson

Roger Gregg of Crazy Dog Audio Theatre has recentl…

Roger Gregg of Crazy Dog Audio Theatre has recently posted two fabulous interviews:

First up is an interview of Dirk Maggs, audio theatre producer. He’s produced many audio plays and has won awards for An American Werewolf in London (I have GOT to find a copy of that one) and Superman: Doomsday and Beyond. Some of the topics discussed: audio theatre scripts, audio theatre actors, and the production process. Dirk’s latest show is The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: Tertiary Phase, which will broadcast soon on BBC Radio 4. The interview has many pictures from that production.

Second, an interview of Paul Deeley, the sound engineer on the Hitchhiker production. Deeley has worked closely with Dirk Maggs on a number of projects. Gregg interviews Deeley on the technical aspects of production – again, there are many cool pictures throughout, taken while recording Hitchhiker’s Guide.

Both of these interviews are full of great information about audio theatre. Check out all the other Crazy Dog interviews here.

More on Roger Gregg soon – in the pipeline is his hilarious Big Big Space production, available from ZBS.

Posted by Scott D. Danielson

Happy New Year! I’ve been experiencing a growin…

SFFaudio Online Audio

Happy New Year!

I’ve been experiencing a growing appreciation for audio drama – I’ve always liked them, but lately I’ve been enjoying a renewed enthusiasm for the medium. Here are several good links to check out:

The Crazy Dog Audio Theatre has a list of the “greatest productions conceived specifically for audio” called The Masterpiece Gallery. Find it here.

The folks who bring us the Mark Time Award have a Science Fiction Audio Hall of Fame. Find it here.

A great place to buy Audio Drama is ZBS, the home of Meatball Fulton of Ruby fame.

Yuri Rasovsky, audio dramatist extraordinaire, has a website full of good stuff. Find it here. Some items of interest include an online text called The Well-Tempered Audio Dramatist: Producing Audio Plays in the 21st Century, reprints of some excellent Yurika! essays from Audiofile Magazine, and a list of his currently available productions.

And here is an essay by Yuri Rasovsky on the Audiofile magazine website called Audio Drama Today, which includes his “Audio Drama A-List” – ten accessible, enjoyable audio dramas.

Enjoy!

Posted by Scott D. Danielson

Review of The Moon Moth [AUDIO DRAMA] adapted from the novella by Jack Vance

SFFaudio Review

SFFaudio Essential The Moon Moth
By Jack Vance; adapted by George Zarr
Performed by a Full Cast
Duration: 73 minutes 22 seconds
Available at: http://www.scifi.com/set/playhouse/moth/
Producer: Seeing Ear Theater
Themes: Science Fiction / Mystery / Aliens / Identity / Sociology /

A tone-deaf detective pursues a singing assassin through an opera of blood in this classic satirical thriller by Jack Vance. On the planet Sirene everyone wears a mask according to his status — or strahk — in society. Communication is accomplished through singing accompanied by a plethora of instruments, each of which signifies a different emotional mood or is used to talk to a different social caste. The problem is, the assassin Angmark is a master of Sirenese customs and — like everyone else on Sirene — his face is hidden behind a mask. Our doddering ambassador-detective’s only hope: to learn to use his own mask — the lowly Moon Moth — before Angmark relieves him of a head to put it on.

“The Moon Moth” is one of the best short science fiction stories tackling ideas of alternative social systems. Most stories of this type are found in full length novels like Robert Silverberg‘s A Time Of Changes or Ursula K. Le Guin‘s The Left Hand Of Darkness, but what is so delightful about this story is how densely packed with excellence it truly is. “The Moon Moth” is whimsical story with a truly original alien culture, the tale is part social commentary, part social satire and an absolutely terrific variation on the locked room mystery all packed successfully into 73 minutes of goodness! David Garrison and the rest of the Seeing Ear Theater cast are hilarious and effective but the real kudos has to go to George Zarr who so skillfully adapted Jack Vance‘s 1961 short story to the audio drama form. And unbeleivably, this play is still available for free on the internet! Very highly recommended!

posted by Jesse Willis

Big news for Hitchhiker fans! (Yes, I am one…) …

SFFaudio News

Big news for Hitchhiker fans! (Yes, I am one…) In February, 2004, on BBC 4 Radio, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy radio series will continue! From the Crazy Dog Audio Theatre website (go there for the full story):

BBC RADIO 4 presents an ABOVE THE TITLE PRODUCTION

THE HITCH HIKER’S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY

by DOUGLAS ADAMS

THE TERTIARY, QUADRENARY & QUINTESSENTIAL PHASES:

“LIFE THE UNIVERSE AND EVERYTHING”,

“SO LONG & THANKS FOR ALL THE FISH”

& “MOSTLY HARMLESS”

Twenty-five years after the original radio series of DOUGLAS ADAMS’ HITCH HIKER’S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY exploded into the public consciousness, the further exploits of its bewildered hero ARTHUR DENT are being brought to life in their original medium.

Drawn from Douglas Adams’ later Hitch Hiker novels, the adventures continue in LIFE, THE UNIVERSE AND EVERYTHING, which will be dramatised in six half hour episodes, SO LONG AND THANKS FOR ALL THE FISH and MOSTLY HARMLESS, which will comprise four episodes each.

As the original two series were dubbed the PRIMARY and SECONDARY phases by Douglas Adams, these new series form the TERTIARY, QUADRENARY and QUINTESSENTIAL phases, and will at last finish the ‘trilogy in five parts’.

The original Hitch Hikers radio cast is returning; SIMON JONES as Arthur Dent, GEOFFREY McGIVERN as Ford Prefect, SUSAN SHERIDAN as Trillian, MARK WING-DAVEY as Zaphod Beeblebrox and STEPHEN MOORE as the much loved Marvin The Paranoid Android.

Again, more of the story on the Crazy Dog Audio Theatre website.

Posted by Scott D. Danielson