The Rustlers was first published in Zane Grey’s Western, February 1953. Now according to the official Elmore Leonard website The Rustlers is set in Arizona but Leonard’s title for it, when it was submitted for sale was “Along The Pecos” – the Pecos is a river that doesn’t originate or pass through Arizona (instead it flows south from New Mexico and into Texas before it joins the Rio Grande, the border between Texas and Mexico proper. In fact, the story begins near Anton Chico, New Mexico, what is now a “census designated place” just south of the head of the Pecos. In any case, The Rustlers was Elmore Leonard’s 11th story, we are told, and similar legend suggests that Leonard’s first dozen tales sold for 2 cents a word; meaning this story, at approx 5,762 words, probably earned him about $115.
The Rustlers by Elmore Leonard
read by Tommy Patrick Ryan
|MP3| – 30 minutes 4 seconds [UNABRIDGED]
Talked about on today’s show:
Blue Book, 1951, Planets In Combat, the prose in this novel is “turgid”, here comes the trolling, swollen and distended and congested, To Sail Beyond The Sunset, short punchy sentences, larded up with excessive detail and flowery prose, Lovecraft, turgid vs. intricate, complex vs. complicated, like a clock or a little watch, tiny little things designed and built to have a precise effect, to appreciate the exact feeling, be accurate in your criticism, why are they using these slurs, you can’t just swap in Scazli, Annalee Newitz, Our Opinions Are CorrectEpisode 65: We’re Officially Done with Lovecraft and Campbell, Evan tricked Jesse, Will tricked Jesse, “I’ll allow it”, why we can dismiss John W. Campbell and H.P. Lovecraft, read Ayn Rand, an incredibly odd and limiting and damaging world view, replaced, or filtered through Scalzi, Olav’s beef with Ayn Rand, a 15 page didactic rant, the sun rises again, Atlas Shrugged, The Fountainhead, an article by Annalee Newitz reading a book review of a biography, a very interesting block quote, starting as a socialist and ending as a libertarian, Glory Road, I Will Fear No Evil, any redeeming features, was it turgid?, it can’t be turgid, they don’t want people to read Heinlein, maybe they’ll become libertarians?, Rand Paul vs. Ron Paul, in the American context, if you want to understand the United States, a preponderance of non-Americans, treaty six territory, how could you read a book like this and say it has nothing of value, a whack ideology, Neo-liberalism, Neo-conservativism, a kind of censorship ideology, you absolutely must read all the Heinlein, a certain amount of pushback on gatekeepering, talking to fans vs. writers, Paul lives in twitter writerland, nothing past 10 years ago (or 30 years ago), don’t do your homework, how far back do you “need” to read to sell today, safely skip, Heinlein TLDR, “just read Scalzi”, Old Man’s War, “Scazli is the new Heinlein”, marketing of people, X is the new Y, she/her pronouns should be they/them, an explainer in The New York Times right before Lovecraft Country started, trying to understand reality, this is not applied, people not doing their homework is what bothers Jesse, not a new thing, Scalzi wrote up giant piece, Poe is not a third rate writer, where’s the evidence that Lovecraft is sexist?, Lovecraft is not interesting on gender, The Thing On The Doorstep, Zealia Bishop, The Mound, humble and respectful, The Unnameable, Heinlein is incredibly progressive, The Pleasant Profession Of Robert A. Heinlein, The Number Of The Beast, SPRUNG, other womens’ parts, it’s a kissing book, appropriating, adjacent to the sexual revolution, Stranger In A Strange Land was very influential, ahead of the curve, students pushing for access to birth control, early wifeswapping, as a female human being Maissa didn’t want to read it, talking about breasts and nipples makes you a sexist, arguing with podcasters who are not listening to us, Farah Mendlesohn, where’s the audiobook?, The Great God Pan by Arthur Machen, the fauns, the move overs, the gregarians, tiny pans, affectionate, addicted to hugs and nuzzlings, they have hands, they wanna eat your pies, they’re wonderful!, that’s from The Unnameable, a less rapey version of Pan, Little Fuzzy, the fauns of Venus, the fog-eaters of New London, dragons and fauns, a fantasy Europe, Paul is very lucky, a juvenile (novel), he becomes a man, he must act like a man, his grandmother gets younger, a child soldier, a lot of ambivalence, where Charlie Jane are coming from, goddamn it Heinlein why are you going on about this?, war and the army, Starship Troopers, is it fascist?, Paul Verhoven is arguing with Heinlein, how we should react to Heinlein, interesting relationships, modality of talking to other people and bureaucracy, this is a book about waiting around in the airport, seem nice, talkin’ to the cops, dealing with passport and immigration, displaced person, The Wizard Of Oz, the characters he meets and the lessons he learned, his home is space, the asteroid belt, citizen of the Solar System, Citizen Of The Galaxy, recycled elements, picks up stuff from his own life, Thorby, re-writing Rudyard Kipling’s Kim, Annapolis, Farmer In The Sky, Time Enough For Love, a lot of material out there, the comic book, two different audiobooks, the Full Cast Audio audiobook, abridgments, some fools add sound effect of a creaking door, a new kind of audiobook, Bruce Coville’s company, maybe 30 minutes shorter, you don’t need sound effects, the Blackstone Audio audiobook, the Chinese restaurant owner, the casting was different with the artist drawings, the only commercially available one, out of circulation, a super-shame, lost forever, have a friend like Jesse, The Boy’s Life version (low rez), appealing to Boy Scouts Of America, Evan was a Boy Scout, youth movements of the 20th century, feeding people into the military, the Chinese Boy Scouts, the Hitler Youth, militarism, Evan largely agrees with Jesse about war, what kind of war is this?, a revolution, The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress from a point of view, libertarian, anti-colonialist aspect, a breakup of Empire story, a fantasy, the American Revolution, the settler colonists declaring independence, the support and consent of the fantasy natives, Heinlein is awash in something, rocked by national liberation movements, up to a certain point in the novel, Chinese, some of them are bad guys and some of them are good guys, fantasy national liberation movement, aristocratic dragons, libertarian dragons, we have to be careful about saying Heinlein is a libertarian, Heinlein is not Ayn Rand, entrenched in their way of life, enjoy their boomerness, more and more or less and less aware of people who are not you, being in the military is like being in a socialist state, struggling over and over again, the American Revolution, the way Canada came to be, a secret, getting in on the rest of Canada, we promise to send you a train, what else we gonna do?, a bargain and a deal, get swallowed up by the States, the U.S. Revolution as a coup d’eta, this flaw, yet another Civil War, he is aware of it, a foundation style people above this nationalism, Podkayne Of Mars, Heinlein went and visited the Soviet Union, pointing out gulags on a map, he’s not one thing, Ayn Rand’s objectivism is objectively wrong, Red Tory, the Red Tory manifesto, libertarianism with a conscience, conservative, free expression, free speech, being free, he might think the hippies reading his book uncouth but he won’t bash them for it, bookleggers, do we or don’t we, McCarthyism, this whole backstory behind this current war and revolution, the planet that was destroyed, hidden knowledge, yes but not really, all of Heinlein’s stuff is set in the same universe (Future History), the Antarctic revolution, even the terrible stuff, oh Jesse, way to goddamn long, Tunnel In The Sky, remember the least, teeth on edge, aged poorly, out of place, the early horseriding, L. Ron Hubbard, New Mexico landscapes, out of place, squaw, Indian buck:
[“We’ve got all day,” he cautioned Lazy, “so don’t get yourself in a lather. That’s a stiff climb ahead.” Don was riding alone because he had decked out Lazy in a magnificent Mexican saddle his parents had ordered sent to him for his birthday. It was a beautiful thing, as gaudy with silver as an Indian buck, but it was as out of place at the ranch school he attended as formal clothes at a branding—a point which his parents had not realized. Don was proud of it, but the other boys rode plain stock saddles; they kidded him unmercifully and had turned “Donald James Harvey” into “Don Jaime” when he first appeared with it.]
12 hours good job, the Venusian dragons, Sir Isaac Newton, sidekick aliens, the hero of his own story, Lummox, a forgettable book, quite far into the book, he’s in an airport or on an airplane, the Heinlein Society concordance, beuraucratic functionaries, strawmen, probably straight out of his own life, every ad in the first 20 pages (of a certain class for white people), military schools, prepschools, nature schools, school life away from his family, a happy reunion, central High School in Kansas City, he moved out west, politician, 1776 Independence Lane, a real thinker, so many opinions, not a hard SF book, what this new technology means, an infodump with gobbledygook words, as confused as I am, to get us that technology tyhat he needs to get us to other planets, constantly going into rebellion, so American, with an international view, a strawman villain, written for a teenage audience, I’m going to torture you, you’re going to walk out of here with no teeth, the Chinese bank, he’s in the middle, break the rules to help out a friend, deliberately obstructing, you’re right here it is, interaction with bureaucracy, Bureaucracy (InfoCom game), bureaucracy is important for Heinlein’s outlook, a reality, in that job, taking initiative, there are people who will follow the rules, there are other people, WWI fighter pilot, rules are for the obedience of fools and the guidance of wise men, exceptions, an advocate, lost in the system, argument with government, libertarian Canadians, part of the maturation process, parents as authority, negotiated, crying in the checkout line, when do people become libertarians, highschool and college, freemen on the land, Annalee Newitz and Charlie Jane Anders, a nice liberal guy like Scalzi, don’t deny that right to anybody, don’t say he’s turgid when he’s not, the motivation is so important, the reason they’re using it is because they’re saying you shouldn’t read it, paternalistic bluecheck elites, thank you for giving me permission not to read this homework, constantly rant at kids, that’s a strawman, you cant have a conversation with me, talking to my young friend Will (barely out of diapers), toastmasters at the con, if you don’t read Heinlein you’re not a real science fiction fan, sexism and hatred, push against that continuing pressure, people still say to Olav you need to read Heinlein or else, Heinlein explain to Farah Mendlesohn, lots of idiots on the internet, how much of it is trolling?, Will keeps saying Jesse’s a fan, Jesse runs a fanzine?, why is Heinlein important?, like saying H.G. Wells is important, if anything should be named after anything, Hugo Gernsback’s gonna get his due one day, adapting his work for the screen, Wells is basically forgotten, his stuff is amazing, The New Accelerator, a short story about methamphetamine, a hilarious very critical story of science and commercialism, H.G. Wells’ review of Metropolis, these turgid waters, a problem cohering, Jesse’s retort, this isn’t part of my identity, people fight over who is a fan, so intense for people, Robert Silverberg is just a cranky old man at this point, more heat than light, this conversation is turgid, parentage, until he signs up for the Venusian armed forces, the relationship romance stuff is very thin, there’s no kissing in this book, she kisses him, he could be a keeper, the tom tom girl, the wife who cooked the breakfast, a lack of female characters, the “I’m adult now” switch, adult decisions, initiated into adulthood, enlists by accident, the High Guard, the leeches, I have to stand up for what I believe in, I Will Fear No Evil, the decadent end of empire scene, New Chicago is mostly underground, when the “uncle” character, a huge tip, Heinlein is all the characters, he’s also Jubal Harshaw, the triumvirate we see most clearly in The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress, the loveable sidekick, every kind of love interest, these types, why Heinlein is so controversial, he’s really engaging with stuff, he’s very intellectual, an ambivalence and equivocation, citizenships, gung-ho, when he gets the ring back, an argument over a point of principle, principle is the foundation of how Heinlein deals with everything, rudeness as a high crime, he is fundamentally express his own life philosophy, a short interview with Alec Nevala-Lee, Heinlein didn’t contribute in the way he wanted to, capable of changing the future by doing the equivalent of science, the training of the people who were all going to do that, China’s push on science fiction is a push on STEM, the relationship between science and engineering, got interested in science, the theoretical part of putting together a nuclear bomb, when Heinlein tries to contribute WWI, he didn’t make the Wonder Weapons, writing is thinking, imperialistic, having our hero be a Filipino, he’s an American just like us, nobody says “Philippines was a colony of the United States” (and still is, kinda), he doesn’t give that ring back to his girlfriend, he takes back his ring, he’s off in the stars in his head right now, her father is shocked, if that’s sexism, all women secretly want you to give them rings and not take them back, why so many people give women rings, he knew what he was doing, a strange spiking of his own narrative, he’s an adult now, I’m a man, he totally implied he was going to go back and get her, he’s kind of a dummy, fogeater fogeater fogeater, he was in the fog the whole time, I’m a man now, father, I fulfilled my commitments, an assumed happy ending, that interstellar starship, you have to be married to do it, the “wither thou goest” type, the frontier that Philip K. Dick is always going with, Friday, Red Planet, Dread Of Heinleinism by Charles Stross, a pastiche of one of a very specific few books, the underlying question, the answer is yes, people are determined to forget the past, how quickly the Venerians create the new bureaucracy, laws and currency, all this didactism, how rebellion is done, cell systems, no philosophy, very psychological, taxation, Mike is the government, Mike is the George Washington character, Heinlein being international, a citizen of the system, Evan is not offended by that, Thomas Paine, all the Tories move north or to England or to the Caribbean, a massive apathy, the Black diaspora, Sierra Leone, a propagandist for the French Revolution, The Rights Of Man, anachronistic, Glenn Beck, why the left adores Paine, anti-British, Liberty in a bottom up way, he’s not the coup d’etat part of the revolution, his message is not compatible with the United States, Che Guevara, Donald E. Westlake’s first published story as an adult, Patrick Henry, Jesse told this story three times, god gave him liberty, died of McCarthyism, the Monore doctrine, liberty liberty liberty, all these lies people are telling themselves, secular saints, its very important it is to read Heinlein to understand the United States, highly influential, utterly forgettable in plot and detail, Americans misunderstanding the united states, what Canadian health care is, are there death panels?, Heinlein is a little glimpse outside of the borders (by analogy), Olav got passed over by the death panel this month, ignorance spawned on purpose, how did this happen, Russia has socialized medicine, being facetious on purpose, Olav is trolling!, its probably slightly less worse in Canada, that’s Jordan Peterson, Rachel Notley, a small country, Evan hasn’t read that much Heinlein, Starship Troopers, everyone is saying you shouldn’t, Double Star, communication 100 years ago was shouting out the window, Michio Kaku, nobody calls him on it, apparently its Jesse’s job, what’s the logic what gets you angry…, that Jimmy Dore video, deep fear someone somewhere is having a good time, that kayfabe thing, Donald Trump doesn’t trigger Jesse at all, people like to be lied to, you tell yourself a fiction, allowing you to not think, The Dreams Our Stuff Is Made Of: How Science Fiction Conquered The World by Thomas M. Disch, “America is a nation of liars, and for that reason science fiction has a special claim to be our national literature, as the art form best adapted to telling the lies we like to hear and to pretend we believe”, what’s the USA immediately do when it finishes its revolutions, like Haiti did, why that coup d’etat line rings so true, their still called Governors, the Anglo-American legal system, protect property from the majority, a civil war about these issues, Scalzi’s blog post, one of the commenters wants to cancel Jefferson because he supported the French Revolution, except Haiti, biggest slaveholder around, a relatively egalitarian distribution of property, under his own ideology, a dream, the Homestead Act, co-opted by the railroads, the War of 1812, Henry Adams history is way to long for someone like Jesse (it is 2,000 pages), Hamiltonians, Wilson in this book?, what do we make of the Venerians?, the Little Fuzzies of this planet, Galileo, exchange students, Chinese and Korean students, a stripper name, Heinlein is uncancelled, John W. Campbell was a great writer, ?!.
The SFFaudio Podcast #555 – Jesse, Paul Weimer, Terence Blake, Mark Finn, Alex talk about Shadows In The Moonlight aka Iron Shadows In The Moon by Robert E. Howard
Talked about on today’s show:
trademark, registered, copyright, Vale Of Lost Women, rattle Mark’s cage, red caped monkey, more construction, more constructed, barbarism vs. civilization, propagandizing this idea, the middling Conan, formula, Rogues In The House, the beginning of the greatest hits album, if he were Aerosmith this would be “Walk This Way”, touchstones, essential elements, the damsel in distress, bloody trail of vengeance, piracy, savage ape, supernatural menace, what do you want from a Conan story, a representative story, there’s wizardry, dream magic, this is what Conan is all about, this is what Conan does, if there was a snake, squirmed an burrowed like a snake, the comics, it starts similarly to Red Nails, the end of the beginning, fruit, giant monster, alone in the wilderness, why did you run out of this jade palace, the Garden of Eden, Queen Of The Black Coast, monkey monsters, a forbidden place, working through, this is what manly men act like, this is what a man is, where Olivia looks at the two jungle creatures, how they’re alike, Shah Amurath, barbarian in response, a Cimmerian vs. the Cimmerian, a response to what he and Lovecraft were arguing over, Howard thought Lovecraft was smarter than him, test those theories, page 30, was there a serpent in..?, PulpCovers doesn’t want to be PC, without judgement but with a pattern, unashamed of being a manly man, pirate costumes, carrying a gun around, chivalrous towards women, Lovecraft is a gentle-man (a gentlemen), what a man is, Terence territory, a pre-philosophy for manhood, the way men love Conan, doing ablutions, iron thews, a male and female gaze, ewww gross, powerful, Tweets Of High Adventure, tweet length prose, every sentence has the language, art, unashamed, its all pure, Vale Of Lost Women is “problematic”, a distilled essence, no casual Conan readers, in for penny in for a pound, this masculinity, did he have a choice in Texas in the 1920s?, acceptable work for a man, vocational training, taking a day job, begging letter, worst fucking human being ever, the boxing stories, bareknuckle boxing, intellectual conversation, never about particulars, newspaper stories to back up their thought processes, news clipping, the only way to run a city, the story in the boat, in the prose, we don’t sell our children, stories of Comanche, a warts and all presentation, ethnic cleansing, riding with the Cherokee, a mindset, an ideal, there are no rules right now, Gertrude Hemken loved Conan, studying philosophy, Nietzsche, John Milius and Oliver Stone, Conan The Barbarian (1982), a through line, sitting in the agora listening to the philosophers, life is an illusion then I’m an illusion too, Solomon Kane is the religious philosopher, scenes of melancholy, a debate on masculinity, a constructed virtue, the body or the mind, the idea of the wild and nature, Lovecraft’s wild, you’ve got the wild inside you, human beings , women are shapely, every muscle is supple, pantherish, his scabbard purrs, it comes from silk, a relationship between what shah Amurath vs. the ape vs. Conan, toxic masculinity, I’m a barbarian buy I’m not a monster, a king of Akif, Turanians vs. Hyrkanians, Hyrkanians are a race and Turanians are a nationality, the Persian Gulf vs. the Caspian Sea vs. the Black Sea, maps of Hyboria, Vedyha is India, Khitai is China, the islands of Mu, filling in the historical record, a starting place, walk these things back into the Hyborian age, analogs, she’s a devi not a rani, he needs a Mediterranean, adventure locations, a pirate this week, the Kozaki are the Cossacks, the Mongols, Red Sonja vs Red Sonya, her sister’s a real person, her father’s a real person, Haws Of Outremer by Robert E. Howard, Mark wrote the afterword, the Punisher in armor, the Cormac Fitzgeoffrey stories, the same emotional space, riding out on the steppes, Oriental and Middle Eastern adventures, Flesh + Blood (1985), Rutger Hauer and Jenifer Jason Leigh, the Dark Horse Comics adaptation, the art, Olivia doing the narration doesn’t make sense, 2 and half days, the confrontation in the reeds is one of Howard’s best scenes, you really hate that guy, when he’s getting chopped to bits, Olivia has two dreams, when Conan’s rowing and the other in the ruined temple, a prologue, what her dream is, the negroes who aren’t negroes, not-kushites, black and made of iron, what does it mean?, expressing their otherworldliness, black statutes but not statues of black people, an artificially baroque language, some sort of race thing, the golden youth, possibly raped, the sky reflected in the water, both a sea and a lake, one third the salinity of the rest of the oceans, flying through the sky, she’s describing it to Conan, she’s supposed to be telling Conan’s story, we shouldn’t be inside her head and not past tense, he can’t hold down a job, pillage a few towns over, holding out for a management position, wear sandals to tread the jeweled thrones, the blue of the sea, mirrors of stars, a phantasmal oarsmen, a quiet slumber, his iron thews, that female gaze, shying away from Robert E. Howard, annoyed by the mire, unmanned by bugs, how far a man can throw a stone, showing off his thews, testing his theory, she’s traumatized, a princess laid low to the status of a slave, a couple (at the end), not telling fairy stories, men and women equally tough in a fight, Ronda Rousey, women are subject to male violence, a romance (an adventure) out of horrible circumstance, we’re not used to today, Yemen right now, 70-80 year old text, a historical basis for women adventurers, easy to gravitate to, Joan of Arc, the women pirates, women doing what men do, he’s not pulling this stuff out of his butt, Howard’s historical stories, Conan was a commercial endeavor, pulp era titillation, why Margaret Brundage did those covers, Seabury Quinn, when he comes back, the women have changed positions, evil queens, swordswomen, a shift in agency, in the Dark Horse adaptation, in the actual story it’s all her, saving him in order to save himself, Valeria is competition for Conan, Red Sonja’s character is mostly that, equally wily, Olivia is just a regular person, crawling into that den of pirates, how tortured they have been, the male version of Olivia, Conan knows everybody, Sergius, a boss fight, the TV tropes for this story, three point landing, divine right of kings, Conan the rules lawyer, Tim Truman’s Dark Horse comics adaptation, a defense of the switch to Olivia’s POV, the thing that Conan did, the guy in the story that everybody’s heard about, getting into it, Conan’s perspective, the disembowelment, seeing that same scene again from that POV, the Roy Thomas adaptation is not to add any words, Roy Thomas is amazing when he captures Howard’s prose, the new Marvel travesty (Conan The Barbarian and Savage Sword Of Conan) “ass” is used twice in July 2019 issue, cur, dog, slut, special language, Island of the Temple Statues, why that change, it changes the dynamic, hard not cruel, quartering, “quarter? I’ll give you quarter!”, Olivia’s really active, this formula, beautiful babe in distress, check off those boxes, you can take my stories or leave them, playing it up, why the text feels so weird, three set pieces, don’t forget the giant ape, strung like beads on a string, Conan on a weekend, they should hire the person who runs Conan The Salaryman, how it resonates with Paul, flipping your desk, Thor: The Dark World (2013), adjectives attitude and viewpoint on the world, Frank Miller’s Sin City, Conan in a noir story, just a crazy guy (with a code), code vs. philosophy, a personal moral compass, allowing for an exception, Conan is his own arbiter, there’s always an angle to be played, we can take Conan at his word but nobody else can, Olivia over his shoulder and he’s running away, high heels vs. mountain cat, the only thing that can unman me is mosquitoes, a supple ass, those outside, too nice a guy, Gertrude Barrows Bennett, faces and asses?, girls like prepping, men like to be thought of as competent, how to be, how to be a man, the right attitude, its more like…, why does Howard never take us to Cimmeria?, the whole point is to see a man out of his element and see how he should act, those roving feet, something powerful about that idea, how to be a man, “what’s real, man?”, it’s good to have skills, the prose is gorgeous, the unnamed monkey, we need to talk about the parrot, bad biology, if this is near the tropics, New World parrots are colourful, a thousand year old parrot, Jesse wasted his time, the parrot as the harbinger, the chorus, we got the idea, if Howard had seen a parrot, Da Vinci’s Demons, the communist memes, some Nazi left over from WWII is giving a speech, justifications for tweets, macaw, why he put it in this fantasy world, research is hard, fantasy world, letters to Harold Lamb in ADVENTURE, it’s so good, a fruit they’ve never seen before, there’s a dinosaur in it, getting snakes wrong, a failure of the work, a fringe moment, the new Age Of Conan Belit comic is shit, a ship at full sail in a storm hidden in a harbour with gunports, Baggywrinkles by Lucy Bellwood, a sailor’s story should be written and drawn by people familiar with ships, Lovecraft defends him as a poet, his poetry is beautiful, 700 poems!, the complete poetry of Robert E. Howard, Cimmeria, some great lesbian stuff, the alliteration and rhythm, the lull of the rowing, he was fantastic at it, how he did it, looking at meters and couplets, Howard intuited, his prose has that richness, scenes of horrible violence, kings dying from poison, beauty in the savagery, why nobody has been able to write a convincing Conan story, the vocabulary and the rhythm, Howard was able to write Lovecraft stories, a different disposition, The Black Stone, The Challenge From Beyond, Queen Of The Black Coast, the language is the main character, the checkpoints could be seen as mechanical, a complex story, an inspiration to early Dungeons & Dragons, mixing and matching, skill checks, Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, not enough angry monkeys, Giant Ape, kobolds, why does he like monkeys so much, is Howard wrestling with Darwin, Thak, Moon Of Zimbabwe, he doesn’t like to come out of the forest, gorillas, base emotions, Howard’s stance on mankind, cycles of history, that backslide into savagery and barbarism, Thak wants to be a man, a ladder you can climb, Gulka the Gorilla Slayer, gorilla as a stand in for the lecherous intentions of people of colour, to refute Darwin and prop up racism, that wonderful willful disconnect to justify a bad belief system, using the stories of the bible and the trappings as a weight of authenticity, The Murders In The Rue Morgue by Edgar Allan Poe, from the monkey’s POV, the sailor who brought him to France, dragon, flying monkeys in Queen Of The Black Coast, a thing in culture at the time, King Kong, The Uncharted Isle by Clark Ashton Smith, the Hippocampus Press documentary: Clark Ashton Smith: Emperor Of Dreams, Dagon, a per-Atlantean civilization, babies sacrificed to a gorilla god, an Atlantean dream story, monkeys are in the air man, The Wizard Of Oz, a phenomenon, everybody got gorillas on the brain, gorilla suits, a course correction after the 1970s, Planet Of The Apes, Sailor Steve Costigan stories, an animal reflection, using natural terms, why Solomon Kane is always a wolf, El Borak is fast and deadly, hawk noses, vulpine eyes, connecting to a larger natural world, sacrificing something superior to them, the psychological basis for bullfighting, suppleness vs. strength, he wins with dexterity as much with strength, he’s upped his wisdom, his constitution, he can lie in a snowbank, the Tibetan monks, the yoga of inner heat, pro-nature, Conan is a part of nature, Lovecraft as a nature as a scary other, nature with gambrel roofs nearby, how much was Howard out in boats, a rural existence, hiking and camping, New Mexico, Carlsbad Caverns, Galveston, Texas, how he writes about stuff, the Walden variety of gentlemen on holiday, longhand letters, the things some writers will do not to finish a story, going back to it vs. being out of it, getting past miscegenation, deep ones, Cthulhu, shapeless formless, slithering shadow, in Howard’s world, the last of their kind, the end of the age of megafauna and megaflora, he’s still working on his monkey ideas, fringe science, discredited anthropological stuff, one of the greatest magazines ever printed, a whole series about the Kozaki, a fight with Yildiz, making whole connections by people who can capture the voice, The Scarlet Citadel, this guy’s lived a life, I’m gonna git Conan, we can fill in that stuff for ourselves, the best thing about Conan, he’s the least asshole asshole in the room, why he’s in a bad mood, I already told him I wasn’t going to do it, Black Gate blog, Hither Came Conan, The God In The Bowl, the one with the snake god, barbarism vs. civilization, the reason why you have them in so many of the stories, Farnsworth Wright, in the first 11 Conan stories, issue 21 of the Dark Horse series, the reason Olivia was sold, the Queen of Ophir, undercutting the idea, ABlaze‘s Conan series, Jesse will fight that monkey god, Terence doesn’t hang out in the French comic book stores, more spare more simple, a feminist ending, I want to sail the seas with you, I will bring you with me, Conan, “I will make you the king of this inland sea, Conan”, it ends with the parrot, scorch king Yildiz’ pantaloons, John Bolton anti-Iranian propaganda, People Of The Black Circle, the Persians as the bad guys in western history, Howard’s sympathies, “Oriental Adventures”, the El Borak stories, throwing the Brit under the bus, every man has the capacity to be a shithead, shithead or victim, the compass needle, the course correction, melded with a dark god from an ancient tomb, Conan as the antidote for too much corruption, where the politics comes in, Conan The Cimmerian, Tomas Giorello, you gotten soften, unexpectedly cheerful, if this was happening in the 1990s, the Del Rey Conans, disengage the De Camp and Lin Carter, pop-culture Conan fighting pop culture Wolverine, Savage Avengers, the onramp, CHiPs , you’re sullying the legacy, deeply understanding and respecting the prose, how the fuck can they get away with this?, an editorial failure, she has the voice in her head, that it’s funny, we need thews and no ass, the recipe, Red Sonja with Roy Thomas and Esteban Maroto, it will get cancelled, By Crom, Shel Kahn’s Conan Is My Spirit Animal, attributed to Genghis Kahn, what is best in life, coffee, women lamenting, pulp magazine philosopher, Philip K. Dick as a paperback philosophy, what these weird guys spread across the United States, everybody should be lucky enough to have access.
The SFFaudio Podcast #362 – Jesse, Paul, and Marissa talk about The Game-Players Of Titan by Philip K. Dick.
Talked about on today’s show:
Ace Books F-251, December 12th, 1963, The Man In The High Castle, nominations, a worthy follow-up?, a high bar, somehow I ended up in a taxi with no memory of how I got there, whaaah?, bluff (the game), the landed class of a depopulated earth, Monopoly, Candlyland, Liar’s Dice, the game of Life, dice, cards, spins, their powers of imagination, just so ridiculous, Marissa really liked it, a short story by Dick, Jupiter, test the game on the kids, there’s something to this, the way we conceive of how Philip K. Dick wrote his novels, we know almost everything about H.P. Lovecraft, but Dick was a talker not a letter writer, one aspect of Dick’s life, the game aspect, sitting around playing Monopoly is an obsessive horrible experience, egomania, weirdly emphatic, very philosophical, if Monopoly was a real thing… (and it kind of is), it has very little to do with skill, lots of luck, Peter Garden had a rough night and got into an argument with his car, the car scenes, the cars are some of the most realized characters in the book, the elevator spills its guts, simulated personalities, doors and elevators and cars, the Rushmore effect, a kettle that reports on you, how the rushmore circuit got installed in everything, the Talky Toaster episode of Red Dwarf, AI circuits, Mork & Mindy, Pocatello, Idaho, Berkley, California, New Mexico, the plot, Earth has been subjugated by the Vugs, nuclear war, immortality, bindmen, the Titanians, that’s not the plot, the Earth-Titan War, sterilizing most of the earth, factions of Vugs, are the Vugs trying to live on Earth, living like humans, a lot of telepaths, The Pirates Of Penzance, Mr. Tagomi’s lin: “Things are seldom what they seem, Skim milk masquerades as cream”, the key for Dick to doing that cool thing, Pete Garden’s visit to Titan, they change the reality of what’s on Pete’s card, Steve Jobs’ reality distortion field, Joe Schilling, that little hint, Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?, a really cool cipher, please tell me if I’m human or not, psionics, telepathy, had Dick taken it even farther, Dick and his characters are on speed in this book, checklist of Dick themes, homeopapes, boobs, marital infidelity, the men are the major players, are they trading property and women?, the reason I have to get divorced…, having a baby is national news, somebody in Ontario had a baby, why is their syndicate called “pretty blue fox?”, NATO-style call codes, ham radio enthusiasts, PBF, two or three books back, robot brains on little carts (the Lazy Dogs), childish, Now Wait For Last Year, Dick is teaching his kids, children’s culture that we forget when we are adults, if I was to pop out a baby next year, distraction techniques, maybe as a social dating thing, another glimpse into Dick’s life, a playful book, character names, a couple named Angst, a guy named Calomine, Lucky Luckman, Mr. Gains, a cop named Hawthorne, sin (Nathaniel Hawthorne), the Vugs had initials, E.B. Black, E.G., a clue for us, a moderate vug, a very soft occupation, interpolation of the vugs into Earth’s society, the U.S. occupation of Japan after WWII, okay, I guess we’re playing the game, a way to encourage humans to keep breeding, the depopulated earth, that record store in New Mexico, a village sort of feel to the novel, in other novels, his core set (of characters), a haunted landscape, Peter Garden, Pete as a symbol for infidelity, importing a wife in for him, she bites the rabbit paper, a little more kosher, Garden, a story, a very short story by Dick called Out In The Garden, a wife and her duck, a duck in a suitcase, grocery shopping and getting her hair done, Sir Francis the drake, a poem by Yates, Leda And The Swan, Zeus turns into a swan and rapes a woman, a poem about sexual assault, Helen of Troy, a fantasy story about a woman who has had a relationship with her duck, a guy is cuckolded by a duck, Dick is always worried about his wife cheating on him, Sylvia, name puns, not even probable, Freya, the goddess of fertility, Carol, Pat McLean, an eight year old sought after by a 200 year old man, that crazy big bender, gotta go take all the drugs (like it is his job), the ending fake out with the drugs, getting precog abilities when taking meth, double blind (or double bluff?), a cold war metaphor, like poker with even more random elements, Solar Lottery, pairing books, different cultured futures, what is destiny and fate?, a completely legitimate way to go, instead of a meritocracy or a democracy, let’s just magnify this out a bit, well, that marriage didn’t work out, Eye In The Sky, a group in the same way, Inception, whose dream is it this time?, a clique of people you spend time with, it’s about Dick’s personal life, social dynamics, intruding on things, the outsider vs. the insider, Dick divorces his wife Sally but that’s okay because John likes her and…, Sally brings his new boyfriend in from the east coast, success, the pseudopodia robot cleaner, riper and ready for potential citizens, the non-bindmen, how did that happen?, now you can have all the property in California, the Jack Gaughan cover, what’s going on?, a stack of deeds, there’s not enough detail to reconstruct this game in reality, Jesse says “undercooked” a lot, the human squares, rolling is spinning (maybe), I hate Monoply (but I really do hate it), it fascinates us, a brilliant horrible strategy, controlling the housing supply, brilliant and evil, everything to do with Monopoly is horrible, the origin story of Monopoly (the Landlords Game), showing the evils of capitalism, trusts roll-in, he stole the game, her idea is thrown out and the rules she lays out in Monopoly actually occur, the ironies of Life, a horrible game, it happens within the family, you can see it coming, it’s crushing, what are the vugs playing for?, playing for a life on Earth, what Luckman’s doing, the vugs got so entranced with the game they created that they are subsumed by it, crass to gain power (instead of playing it for a lark), he’s trying to crush the kids, I don’t wanna play that game, Jesse’s housing costs are because of how others are playing the game of life, they’re playing the game wrong, live read books then later die (there’s no winning), a way to spend a rainy afternoon with your kids, the psionic talents, telekinesis, telepathy, precognition, Pat gets a bit of the precog’s point of view, the precogs could be wrong, finally methamphetamine does a good thing, all the layers of deception, it was kind of exciting and leavened with dollops of humour, Max the passive-aggressive car, driving Joe down the bumpy street, so many good scenes, a little bit of Ubik, it’s in our future, a lot of technology talking to characters, coming up soon, AG-Chemi from The Simulacra, like a parallel world, if you take the rules of any one Dick novel…, using JJ-180, I love Philip K. Dick’s mind, The Cosmic Puppets, Peter and Mary, he re-uses names, one could very easily, a Philip K. Dictionary, the checklist, he’s such a fnool, The War With The Fnools, the wonderful thing about a book like this, unofficial Harry Potter encyclopedias and concordances, unlike Lovecraft, S.T. Joshi, Robert M. Price, the Journal Of Philip K. Dick studies, how many of the stories use the name Pete or Peter, homeopapes and autofacs, the rabbit paper, there’s a story called Autofac, we’d buy the heck out of that book, do it as a blog put it together as a book.
The SFFaudio Podcast #074 – Jesse and Scott talk about the recently arrived audiobooks with assistance and commentary by Luke Burrage
Talked about on today’s show:
New York, “your whole life is a holiday”, The Way Of Kings by Brandon Sanderson, The Wheel Of Time series, “the entire world is imagined from the ground up”, Blackstone Audio, The Shadow Hunter by Pat Murphy, neanderthals, cave bear, “a little cave dude”, The Ugly Little Boy by Isaac Asimov, Robert Silverberg, Robert J. Sawyer’s Neanderthal Parallax trilogy, shamanic or shamanistic, The Science Fiction Book Review Podcast, Urban Fantasy Alert, City Of Ghosts by Stacia Kane, the Chess Putnam series, First Drop Of Crimson by Jeaniene Frost (Book 1 in the The Night Huntress World series), paranormal romance vs. urban fantasy, spade vs. Spade, vampires, by , southern Gothic, Flannery O’Connor with zombies, the full zombie vs. the half zombie vampire, The Reapers Are The Angels by Alden Bell, The Walking Dead by , Being Human (tv show), Dark Shadows, Hawaii 50, V, Half Blood Of Brooklyn by Charlie Huston, Stephen King, noir urban fantasy?, On Stranger Tides by Tim Powers, Subterranean Press, Bronson Pinchot, pirates, magic, voodoo, Brilliance Audio, Bearers Of The Black Staff by Terry Brooks, Caviar by Theodore Sturgeon, Shannara, Audiofile Magazine, Connecting the Robots and Empire (Foundation) series, demon war, war dudes and siege engines, The Speed Of Dark by Elizabeth Moon, autism, Mary Robinette Kowal’s review of the Books On Tape edition of The Speed Of Dark |READ OUR REVIEW|, Luke’s idea for a paranormal romance set in the stone age, “urban cave fantasy”, Quicksilver by Neal Stephanson, audiobooks are being shaped to the length of an Audible credit, The Baroque Cycle, The Lies Of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch |READ OUR REVIEW|, “it ends in Gibraltar”, Penguin Audio, Zorgamazoo by Robert Paul Weston, Dr. Seuss, Roald Dahl, science fiction, Zero History by William Gibson, Max Headroom, Elmore Leonard, great writing is not enough, Michael May’s Adventure Blog article on back of the book copywriting, taking the risk of writing only the keywords, Starship: Mutiny by Mike Resnick |READ OUR REVIEW|, Kirinyaga by Mike Resnick |READ OUR REVIEW|, Finch by Jeff Vandermeer, StarShipSofa, weird fantasy vs. new weird, the George Zarr talk (The SFFaudio Podcast #071), Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot a BBC radio drama, “if you’re 14 years old and you’re listening to this…”, fantasy women, Ranger’s Apprentice by John Flanagan, Young Adult fiction, the The Ruins of Gorlan series, I Am Number Four, Battlestar Galactica, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, This Immortal by Roger Zelazny, Dune by Frank Herbert, Children Of Dune, Bad Blood by John Sanford, James Lee Burke, Santa Fe Edge by Stuart Woods, by Michael Kramer, the Richard Stark Parker books (Books On Tape), Ed Eagle vs. Eddie The Eagle, New Mexico, puzzling murder, false identity, lush and exclusive resorts, family, vegetarian, car, crash, human, not human, zombie, mystery, maggot infested corpse, brink of death, flesh off her bones, Dust by Joan Frances Turner, should be able to know it, OVERLORDS!, Childhood’s End by Arthur C. Clarke, The Time Machine by H.G. Wells, The Caves Of Steel by Isaac Asimov, Have Spacesuit, Will Travel by Robert A. Heinlein, futuristic gadgetry, Snow Crash, Virtual Light by William Gibson, “the first really good augmented reality book”, The Steel Remains by Richard K. Morgan.
In the United States, radio drama is virtually dead. But just after the internet blossomed, “radio” drama briefly revived itself. Between 1997 and 2001 dozens of Science Fiction and Fantasy stories were produced by a dedicated and talented crew of multimedia artists, writers, actors and musicians using the RealPlayer technology to delivery “radio” drama via streaming audio. And what a revival it was!
Starting small and building bigger and better productions until its demise, the SEEING EAR THEATRE was arguably much better than the SCI-FI channel that spawned it. It managed to capture some of the top living SF writers of today, like Harlan Ellision, J. Michael Straczynski, and Kim Stanley Robinson. It also produced some classic stories, from the likes of Fredric Brown, Poul Anderson, and William Tenn.
Much of Seeing Ear Theatre‘s output was, until 2007, available at the abandoned SET section of the Sci-Fi Channel’s website. But, since then there has been nothing but fading memories of an amazing dot.com experiment, audio grandeur, flushed away into a shadowy realm of digital flotsam.
Until now.
Below you will find a fairly complete listing of most of the original material produced by Seeing Ear Theatre. There are certainly holes in this collection, but the majority of the goodness that was originally available in RealAudio is now available in MP3 format, thanks to the fans who loved it.
I have also provided the details to the few commercial releases of Seeing Ear Theatre dramatizations.
Enjoy!
Seeing Ear Theatre – Kindred
Based on the novel by Octavia E. Butler; Adapted by Tony Daniel Performed by a full cast
4 or 5 MP3 Files – Approx. [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: Seeing Ear Theatre
Published: 2001
Provider: OctaviaButler.net / Archive.org
Based on Octavia E. Butler’s 1979 novel. Cast:
Alfre Woodard as Dana Franklin
Lynn Whitfield as Sarah
Mykel Bath as Young Boy
P.J. Brown as Patroller #1 and male radio announcer
Leo Burmester as Kevin Franklin
Jacqueline Cuscuna as Harriet
Caroline Clay performing Slave Narratives and female radio announcer
Kevin Daniels as Nigel
Elenni Davis-Knight as Slave Girl, Hagar and Young Alice
Mot Filipowski as Patroller #3
Christopher Gardner as Young Nigel
Michelle Hurd as Alice
Marc John Jeffries as Sammy
Ezra Knight as Isaac and Jacob
Thomas Lyons as Rufus Weylin
Saundra McClain as Hannah
Craig McNulty as Blane and Coach Driver
Corliss Preston as Margaret Weylin and the Doctor
Lou Sumrall as Patroller #2 and Wagon Driver
Margot White as Rufus at Six Years Old
Nick Wyman as Tom Weylin
with Ruby Dee performing Slave Narratives Crew:
Directed by Brian Smith and Jackie Cuscuna
Produced by Brian Smith and Laurissa James
Original Score Composed by Ohad Talmor
Foley Sound Effects by Sue Zizza and David Shinn
Sound Design by John Colucci
Voice Editing by John Colucci and David Shinn
Casting by Laura Richin and Judy Bowman
Executive Producer, Brian Smith
Part 1 |MP3| Part 2 |MP3| Part 3 |MP3| Part 4 |MP3|
Alternative source: Part 1 |MP3| Part 2 |MP3| Part 3A |MP3| Part 3B |MP3| Part 4 |MP3|
Seeing Ear Theatre – History Of The Devil
Based on a play by Clive Barker; Performed by a full cast
5 MP3 Files – Approx. 3 Hours 8 Minutes [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: Seeing Ear Theatre
Published: May 1999 A deprived and lovelorn Satan is sick and tired of living in Hell. He bemoans the loss of his angel-wings, his freedom of flight, his elegance and grace. And he misses God. So he calls a trial to seek re-admittance into Heaven. As the trial moves through space and time we revisit scenes of humanity’s failures — or are they the work of the Devil, his own wicked crimes? If Satan wins his day in court, he’ll be reunited with his Father in Heaven. And if he loses? He’ll spend eternity here with us — on Earth. Based on a play from 1980. Cast:
Dylan Baker
Katherine Borowitz
Simon Jones
Chip Zien
Part 1 |MP3| Part 2 |MP3| Part 3 |MP3| Part 4 |MP3| Part 5 |MP3|
Seeing Ear Theatre – Snow Glass Apples
By Neil Gaiman; Performed by a full cast
2 MP3 Files – Approx. 46 Minutes [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: Seeing Ear Theatre / Harper Audio
Published: 2002
ISBN: 0060012560
|READ OUR REVIEW| Once upon a time there lived a young princess with skin as white as snow, with hair as black as coal, with lips redder than blood. Most people think they know what happens to this young unfortunate girl. Most people are wrong. Tony-award winning actress Bebe Neuwirth (Chicago, Sweet Charity, and TV’s Cheers) stars as a wise Queen who wants nothing more than to reign over her kingdom peacefully but is forced to match wits with an inhuman child who has an unnatural taste for blood. Crew:
Produced and Directed by Brian Smith
Sound Design by John Colucci
Co-Producer, Laurissa James
Art design by Kevin Doherty
Web design by Michael Blancaflor Cast:
Bebe Neuwirth as the Queen
Martin Carey as the Huntsman
Mark Evans as the Prince
Merwin Goldsmith as the Lord of the Fair
J.R. Horne as the Archbishop & Friar
Alissa Hunnicutt as the Maidservant
Randy Maggiore as a Soldier
Kate Simses as the Princess
Nick Wyman as the King
Part 1 |MP3| Part 2 |MP3|
Desktop Wallpaper |JPG|JPG|
Seeing Ear Theatre – An Elevator And A Pole
By Tony Daniel; Performed by a full cast
2 MP3 Files – Approx. 57 Minutes [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: Seeing Ear Theatre
Published: The amazing ensemble of Kyra Sedgwick, Oliver Platt, Peter Gallagher, and Stanley Tucci star in a supremely demented cross between Samuel Beckett, Harold Pinter, and the Marx Brothers! A strangely compelling “pole” rises up somewhere in the desert. After contemplating the pole (and their own navels) for a moment, our heroes — or are they anti-heroes? — risk being thrown off the Earth if they do not begin climbing. …Meanwhile, another group has been trapped in an elevator for days, assured that soon “the lubricant will penetrate the mechanism” and they can finally get out. Each discovers that any idea of conscious control of one’s own personal destiny is an illusion – and a deadly illusion at that. This may be the wildest, weirdest, and most thought-provoking Seeing Ear Theatre production ever! Crew:
Produced and Directed by Brian Smith
Associate Producer, Laurissa James
Original Score Composed and Performed by Ohad Talmor
Foley SFX by Sue Zizza and David Shinn
Sound Design by John Colucci Cast:
Anne Bobby as Jolene
Peter Gallagher as Del
JR Horne as Ins
Ezra Knight as the Voice
Evan Pappas as Shell
Oliver Platt as Hank
Kyra Sedgwick as Melany
Stanley Tucci as Po
Part 1 |MP3| Part 2 |MP3|
Seeing Ear Theatre – The Martian Crown Jewels
Based on the story by Poul Anderson; Adapted by Andrew Joffe ; Performed by a full cast
1 |MP3| – Approx. 35 Minutes [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: Seeing Ear Theatre
Published: 1998? The Martian Crown Jewels have been stolen! The theft threatens to destroy diplomatic relations between Mars and Earth. Inspector Gregg, of the Earth police force stationed on Mars is stumped! Who can solve the baffling mystery and avert a galactic catastrophe of cataclysmic proportions? None other than Mars’ greatest private investigator, Syaloch, a seven-foot stork who lives in the “Street of Those who Prepare Nourishment in Ovens.” He is a brilliant thinker who (despite being a 7 foot tall bird) is the very image of another ”great detective” from Earth’s past. Can Syaloch, after all his reading of Earth’s Sherlock Holmes, crack the case in this delightful playfair mystery? Elementary! Crew:
Produced and Directed by George Zarr
Sound Design by John Colucci and David Shinn Cast:
Bronson Pinchot as Syaloch
Felix Van Dyk as Inspector Gregg and Officer Ybarra
Nicholas Haylett as Yagamata
Marc Fine as Steinman
Martin Carey as Hollyday
Mark Evans as Ramanowitz
Seeing Ear Theatre – The Time Machine
Based on the novel by H.G. Wells; Adapted by Charles Potter; Performed by a full cast
2 MP3 Files – Approx. 62 Minutes [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: Seeing Ear Theatre
Published: A scientist invents a wondrous time machine made of ivory, crystal, brass – and a handheld computer — in our updated drama based on the H.G. Wells masterpiece. Our intrepid inventor uses the device to travel 90,000 years into the future, where he discovers the childlike Eloi, who live in ignorant bliss on the surface while the hideous, subterranean Morlocks dwell below. Crew:
Produced and directed by Charles Potter
Sound Effects by Arthur Miller
Edit by Molly Thompson
Mix by David Rapkin
Recorded at Back Pocket Studios, New York Cast:
Joe Morton as the Time Traveler
Timothy Jerome as Herb Wells
Alissa Hunnicutt as Weena
Margaret Albright
Matthew Arkin
John Brady
Jeff David
Ramon de Ocampo
Peter Newman
Part 1 |MP3| Part 2 |MP3|
Seeing Ear Theatre – Black Canoes
Adapted from the story by Tony Daniel; Performed by a full cast
1 |MP3| – Approx. [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: Sci-Fi.com / SeeingEarTheatre
Published: September 1, 2000 “the story of two people who venture into the countryside and end up in a series of bizarre adventures involving a primitive village and things that are not what they seem.” Crew:
Produced and Directed by George Zarr
Sound Design by John Colucci
Voice Editing by David Shinn
Foley Effects by Sue Zizza and David Shinn
Original Music Composed and Performed by Elliot Sharp
Special thanks to Randy Blume and Donna Kat of Hands On Clay Cast:
Claudia Black as Carol Verdane
Anthony Simcoe as Edward
Peter Waldren as Nestor, Hega, and Bashi
Fran Rizzo as Deti
Dan Anthony as Jodu
Alissa Hunnicutt, Rebecca Nice, Fran Rizzo,
Aeryn Sun, and Ka D’Argo as the Jungian Mississipians
Seeing Ear Theatre – Titanic Dreams
Based on stories by Robert Olen Butler; Adapted by Sarah Montague; Performed by a full cast
1 |MP3|- Approx. 44 Minutes [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: Sci-Fi.com / SeeingEarTheatre
Published: January 2000? In the still night air on April 14, 1912, an iceberg pierces the hull of the Titanic. A young American woman and an aging English bachelor connect briefly on the deck of the doomed vessel. She is unwillingly placed in a lifeboat, and he returns to the smoking lounge to await the inevitable. Decades later, they connect again; he has dissolved into the water that claimed his life, while she has passed through time onboard the lifeboat. Gigi Edgley and Clancy Brown star as the ill-fated couple who embrace life from the depths of death. Based on Robert Olen Butler’s short stories “Titanic Victim Speaks Through Waterbed” and “Titanic Survivors Found in Bermuda Triangle.” Crew:
Produced and Directed by Laurissa M. James Cast:
Gigi Edgley as The Woman
Clancy Brown as The Man
Debi Mae West as Roberta
Tuck Milligan as The Husband
Jane Gennaro as The Wife
Seeing Ear Theatre – The Moon Moth
Based on the short story by Jack Vance; adapted by George Zarr Performed by a Full Cast
2 MP3 Files – Approx. 73 Minutes [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: Seeing Ear Theater
Published: 2000? 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.
|READ OUR REVIEW| Crew:
Produced and directed by George Zarr
Sound Design by John Colucci and David Shinn
Music Direction and Sirenese Musical Performance by Douglas Anderson Cast:
David Garrison as Edwer Thissell and Provisionist Greenward
Tuck Milligan as Haxo Angmark and Messenger Slave
Ian Reed as Esteban Rolver and Bright Sky Bird
Mort Banks as Cornelly Welibus and Maskmaker
Mark Victor Smith as Mathew Kershaul
Leah Applebaum as Computoid, Maiden, Female Slave, and Rex
George Zarr as Steward and Paul
Andrew Joffe as Forest Goblin, Benko, and Sand Tiger
Paul Amodeo as Hostler and Toby
Part 1 |MP3| Part 2 |MP3|
Seeing Ear Theater- The Lucky Strike
Based on the novelette by Kim Stanley Robinson; Adapted by Fiona Avery; Performed by a full cast
2 MP3 Files – Approx. 73 Minutes [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: Seeing Ear Theater
Published: Was dropping the atomic bomb on the civilian population of Hiroshima the right thing to do back in 1945? Was there a middle path between the A-bomb and invasion? In this gripping alternate history, the Enola Gay isn’t the plane that drops the bomb. Instead it’s the Lucky Strike, as Timothy Hutton plays the pilot of the plane, a man with a burning question on his conscience. Crew:
Produced and Directed by Brian Smith
Sound Design by John Colucci Cast:
Timothy Hutton as Frank January
Jonathan Davis as Cpt. McDonald
Richard Ferrone as Dr. Forest
Michael Hannon as Cpt. Shepard
Hank Jacobs as Cpt. Jim Fitch
Peter Francis James as Father Getty
Tuck Milligan as Colonel Scholes
Scott J. Rayow as Colonel Dray
Abigail Rose Revasch as Audrey
Ross Stoner as Lieut. Matthews
Mather Zickel as Haddock
Part 1 |MP3| Part 2 |MP3|
Seeing Ear Theater – A Good Knights Work
Based on the short story by Robert Bloch; Adapted by George Zarr; Performed by a full cast
2 Broadcasts – Approx. 44 Minutes [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: Seeing Ear Theater
Published: A Connecticut yankee serving King Arthur’s court? Tony Danza helps a time-traveling Arthurian knight fulfill his quest, but gets himself in a great deal of trouble with the modern day police as a result in this comic gem from the pen of Robert Bloch, author of Psycho and many other horror and fantasy classics. Crew:
Produced and Directed by George Zarr
Sound Design by John Colucci
“Old McDonald, You Can Keep Your Farm” Words and Music by George Zarr
Guitar by John Colucci Cast:
Tony Danza as Butch
Simon Jones as Pallagyn
Sam Coppola as Thin Tommy Malloon
Todd Cummings as Bertram and Sergeant
Andrew Joffe as Roscoe and Door Guard
J.R. Horne as the Wealthy Man
Glenn Zarr as Jefferson
Part 1 |MP3| Part 2 |MP3|
Seeing Ear Theater – The Jaguar Hunter
2 MP3 Files – Approx. 65 Minutes [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: Seeing Ear Theater
Published: In this lush and seductive drama from award-winning writer Lucius Shepard, Lou Diamond Phillips (star of film and Broadway) plays Esteban Caax, a poor Honduran hunter coerced into tracking the forbidden ‘Black Jaguar of Barrio Carolina.’ Esteban stalks the cat using the method of his ancestors — only to have the jaguar mysteriously transform into a seductive Mayan woman (played by Tony-winner Chita Rivera). The hunter and hunted are soon intertwined in a seductive dance which forces them to tread a dangerous path between everyday reality and a world of ancient Mayan mystery that, in the end, might easily lead to Esteban’s death. Cast:
Produced and Directed by Brian Smith
Original Music Composed and Conducted by Ohad Talmor
Sound Design by John Colucci Crew:
Lou Diamond Phillips as Esteban Caax
Chita Rivera as Miranda
Al Espinosa as Juan
Ramon de Ocampo as Eduardo/Raimundo
Denise Casano as Customer/Widow
Rafael Ferrer as Onofrio/Grandfather
John LaGioia as Father
Sara Ramirez as Encarnacion
Part 1 |MP3| Part 2 |MP3|
Seeing Ear Theater – Firewatch
Based on the story by Connie Willis; Adapted by by Tony Daniel; Performed by a full cast
Publisher: Seeing Ear Theater
Published: 2000 Young Bartholomew (played by the star of Broadway’s “The Green Bird,” Sebastian Roché) is a graduate student in history from a future Oxford who is assigned to join and study the famous Fire Watch Brigade-the volunteer corps whose brave members kept St. Paul’s Cathedral from being burned to the ground by Nazi incendiaries. In the course of his stay Bartholomew falls in love—and falls under suspicion of being a Nazi spy. He discovers that history is not only very much alive-it may well be set on killing one ill-prepared graduate student in particular. Crew:
Produced and Directed by George Zarr
Sound Design by John Colucci
Vocalists, Paul Amadeo and Cheri Leone
Guitars, John Colucci and Robert Legault
Original lyrics by Tony Daniel
Original music by George Zarr Cast:
Sebastian Roché as Bartholomew
Rika Daniel as Frieda
Ian Reed as Langby
George Holmes as Dunworthy
Rita Ben-Or
Anthony Ferguson
Nicholas Haylett
Gideon Juvenal
Ron Keith
Giovanni Pucci
John Rainer
Dieter Riesele
Vicki Stuart
Felix Van Dyke
Nicky as the Cat
Part 1 |MP3| Part 2 |MP3|
Seeing Ear Theater – Facade
By Amanda Hopkins; Performed by a full cast
1 |MP3| – Approx. 32 Minutes [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: Seeing Ear Theater
Published: To be young, and rich, and dead-what could be better? Madison Avenue advertising executives snort the ashes of their dead boss as a means of both getting high and developing ideas for their devastatingly effective campaigns. But who is using whom? How can you win in a battle to the death when your adversary has already been there and back? Crew:
Produced and Directed by Tony Daniel and Laurissa M. James
Sound Design by John Colucci
Original Music written and performed by Matty Karas and Cheri Leone Cast:
Anne Bobby as Melania
Craig McNulty as Levin
Jon Adams as Delton
Lisa Nicoll as Amy
Marchand Odette as Hailey
Martin Carey as David
Seeing Ear Theater – Sleepy Hollow: The Legend
Based on a short story by Washington Irving; Adapted by George Zarr; Performed by a full cast
1 |MP3| – Approx. 20 Minutes [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: Seeing Ear Theater
Published: 1997 A musical retelling of the classic Washington Irving story… Set in early 19th century Tarrytown, New York, the story centers on Ichabod Crane, and itinerant schoolmaster whose spindly outward appearance bears a striking resemblance to his last name… On a chilly October evening in 1997, Seeing Ear Theatre presented its first edition of live Halloween audio drama, performed before an audience from the stage of the Museum of Television and Radio in Manhattan. It was broadcast as it happened on coast-to-coast radio and international webcast. Adapted from the story The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow. Crew:
Directed by George Zarr Cast:
P. J. Sosko as Hendrick
Paul Amadeo as Hans and Messenger
Paul Singleton as Ichabod Crane
David Grunner as Kid 1
Laura Sheridan as Kid 2
Timmy Rifesnider as Kid 3
Rebecca Nice as Mrs. O’Brien and Neighbor
Alissa Hunnicutt as Katrina Van Tassel and James
Andrew Joffe as Baltus Van Tassel
Jef Betz as Brom Bones
Cheryl Blake as Neighbor
Seeing Ear Theater – A Dry Quiet War
By Tony Daniel; Performed by a full cast
2 MP3 Files – Approx. [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: Seeing Ear Theatre
Published: 2000 A weary warrior from the Big War at the End of Time returns home to his rightful place in the past. His only desires–rest for his battle-torn mind, and the chance to rekindle the love that he thought he’d lost forever. But “glims”—violent killers that our warrior helped to create—are not far behind. These outlaws from the far future are determined to wreak a twisted revenge on the universe that has rejected them, and upon one weary warrior in particular. Crew:
Produced and Directed by George Zarr
Sound Design by John Colucci
“There Was a Lass From Veller’s Reef” – Lyrics by Tony Daniel, Music by George Zarr Cast:
Wilbur Fitzgerald as Henry Bone
Sheila Head as Bex Thredmartin
Tuck Milligan as Marek
Fran Rizzo as 2X2L
Mort Banks as Peter Thredmartin
Andrew Joffe as Father Wu
Jane Gennaro as Garnoth the Halandana
Ed Lane as Rall Mfutu and Adjutant
Karen Braga as Proximity
Part 1 |MP3| Part 2 |MP3|
Seeing Ear Theater – Diary Of A Mad Diety
2 MP3 Files – Approx. 45 Minutes [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: Seeing Ear Theatre
Published: What if God were one of us? What if, in fact, God was some hack writer from Queens going by the name of Gunther Black? And say God was having a little problem with multiple personalities and schizophrenia. Say God was losing his frigging mind! With manic abandon and stylish elan, Stanley Tucci, star of such films as Big Night and the up-coming Joe Gould’s Secret, brings you…God. But this is God with a bit of problem. God with His consciousness split into thousands of personas, into dozens of nations. Crew:
Produced and Directed by Brian Smith
Associate Producer, Laurissa James
Original Music Composed and Performed by Jeff Van Nostrand
Sound Design by John Colucci Cast:
Stanley Tucci as Gunther Black
Tim Jerome as Dr. Prendergorst
Jackie Angelscu
Joey Diconcetto
Derek Dooley
Joseph Grasso
Michele Santopietro
Larc Spies
Part 1 |MP3| Part 2 |MP3|
Seeing Ear Theater – Child’s Play
Based on the short story by William Tenn; Adapted by Andrew Joffe; Performed by a full cast
1 |MP3| – Approx. 36 Minutes [AUDIO DRAMA] Things couldn’t possibly get worse for Sam Weber, the world’s biggest loser. He’s behind on his rent. His girl is falling for another man. And, oh yeah, the worst thing of all. Sam is a lawyer. It seems Sam’s luck has finally changed when the time lines get crossed and he accidentally receives a mysterious package delivered from the future. Sam sets about improving his life–by creating life itself. Even for such a loser as Sam, it’s child’s play when you have a “Bild-A-Man Kit” from 2523 A.D. Oh, Sam is a loser, all right. But now he’s a loser with a powerful chemistry set from over 500 years in the future! Crew:
Produced and Directed by George Zarr
Sound Design by John Colucci Cast:
Jim Brachitta as Sam Weber
Bruce Altman as Lew Knight
Mort Banks as Census Keeper and Courier
Joan Copeland as Mrs. Lipanti
Jerry Mayer as Bild-A-Man Instructor and Judge
Cyd Quilling as Tina Hill
Seeing Ear Theater – The Shade Of The Slowboat Man
Based on the short story by Dean Wesley Smith; Adapted by Kristine Kathryn Rusch; Performed by a full cast
1 |MP3| – Approx. 34 Minutes [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: Seeing Ear Theatre
Published: She cannot allow herself to love him. Yet she loves him so. She is a vampire. She knows better than to fall in love. But he is her “slowboat man,” and he has transported her to reaches beyond both the living and the undead. She cannot allow herself to love him. Yet she loves him so. Can even the heart of a vampire be broken? Crew:
Produced and Directed by Brian Smith
Associate Producer, Laurissa James
Sound Design by John Colucci Cast:
Annabella Sciorra as the Vampire
Richard Edward Long as John Morgan
Christopher Burns
Alissa Hunnicutt
Andrew Joffe
John Kolvenbach
Christine Lavren
Seeing Ear Theater – Greedy Choke Puppy
Based on the story by Nalo Hopkinson; Performed by a full cast
1 |MP3| – Approx. 37 Minutes [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: Seeing Ear Theater
Published: March 10, 1998 Some in Trinidad say the soucouyant is an old woman–a crone who takes the form of a fireball at night and steals the breath of children to add more years to her unnatural life. But these are all foolish folk tales left over from a simpler time, right? So says young Jacky, who is writing her dissertation on such fairy tales at the local university. And just because Jacky’s grandmother believes in such things, that doesn’t make them real, does it? Crew:
Produced and Directed by Brian Smith
Original Music Composed and Performed by Jeff Van Nostrand
Sound Design by John Colucci
Foley SFX created by Sue Zizza and Alex Oliszewski Cast:
Brenda Denmark as Soucouyant & Narrator
Venida A. Evans as Granny
Jasha Godschilde as Terry
Jacqueline Gregg as Carmen
Melanie Nicholls-King as Jackie
Seeing Ear Theater – The Nostalgianauts
Based on the short story by S.N. Dyer; Adapted by George Zarr; Performed by a full cast
1 |MP3| – Approx. 29 Minutes [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: Seeing Ear Theatre
Published: 2000 Crew:
Original audioplay written by George Zarr
Based on the short story by S.N. Dyer
Produced and Directed by George Zarr Starring:
Kate Simses as The Girl
Beng Spies as Gar Also featuring:
Larc Spies
as Jock 1 and Class President
Derek Dooley
as Jock 2 and Jean-Luc
Jane Gennaro
as Mom and Mrs. Trout
Leah Applebaum
as Net-Girl and Phone Voice
Sound Design by
John Colucci What would you do if you had the ability to travel twenty-five years into the past? Visit relatives or friends from a quarter of a century ago? Maybe try and alert your younger self to what the future holds? Now look at it from the other end. What would your younger self think about being visited by an older version of yourself? Crew:
Produced and Directed by George Zarr
Sound Design by John Colucci Cast:
Kate Simses as The Girl
Beng Spies as Gar
Larc Spies as Jock 1 and Class President
Derek Dooley as Jock 2 and Jean-Luc
Jane Gennaro as Mom and Mrs. Trout
Leah Applebaum as Net-Girl and Phone Voice
Seeing Ear Theater – Knock
Based on the short story by Fredric Brown; Performed by a full cast
1 |MP3| – Approx. 22 Minutes [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: Seeing Ear Theatre / Beyond 2000
Published: 2000? “The last man on earth sat alone in a room. There was a knock at the door…” The horror of, of course, doesn’t lie in the story but in the ellipses — the implication of *what* knocked at the door? The tale “Knock” opens with those two sentences, then spins a narrative that details a handful of surviving humans imprisoned in a zoo-like environment. They are under study by Zan, an alien race preparing to colonize the Earth. Cast:
Narrator, Ira Burton
Rene Auberjonois as Walter
Lorna Raver as Woman
George as himself Crew:
Produced and Directed by Yuri Rasovsky
Recordist, Warren Dewey
Mixer, Jamie Cerniglia
Seeing Ear Theater – The Man Who Could Work Miracles
Based on the short story by H.G. Wells; Suggested by a script by David Gold; Adapted by Andrew Joffe; Performed by a full cast
1 |MP3| – Approx. 29 Minutes [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: Seeing Ear Theatre
Published: An eccentric black comedy inspired by the H.G. Wells short story. To spark a revival of faith on earth, two angels grant a down-trodden human the power to work miracles. Bad idea. Their semi-altruistic spark unwittingly ignites the ultimate big bang. Crew:
Produced and Directed by George Zarr
Sound Design by John Colucci Cast:
Marc Fine as Ozzie
Rich Jones as Mike
Todd Cummings as George Spellman
Jane Gennaro as Evelyn
Tony Hoty as Pete, Cabbie, and a Light Sleeper
Seeing Ear Theatre – The Propagation of Light in a Vacuum
By James Patrick Kelly – Performed by a full cast
2 MP3 Files – 47 Minutes [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: Seeing Ear Theater
Published: Seeing Ear Theatre takes you to an strange and illogical place, where our laws of nature have been repealed. In this “unreality,” near is very far away, time ticks at random — from yesterday to tomorrow to today — and imagination is the key to survival. Where did everyone go? When our hero awakes after his starship breaks reality’s speed limit, his fellow crew members have mysteriously vanished. All alone on a ship he barely understands, he stares into the depths of madness but manages to look away — with the help of his imaginary wife. Together they are haunted by the secret of the runaway starship. Dedicated to Blair Hundertmark Crew:
Produced and Directed by Brian Smith
Sound Design by John Colucci Cast:
Paul Giamatti as The Spaceman
Alissa Hunnicutt as The Imaginary Wife
Christine Lavren as Varina & Computer Voice
George Zarr as Old Man
Jef Betz as Young Man
Part 1 |MP3| Part 2 |MP3|
Seeing Ear Theatre – Breakaway, Backdown
By James Patrick Kelly; Performed by a Full Cast
1 |MP3| – Approx. 36 Minutes [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: Seeing Ear Theater It’s the future, and living in space is no laughing matter. It’s hard work, and hazardous to your health, cutting life expectancy by 40 to 50 years. What kind of person would give up 40 to 50 years for the adventure of breaking away from Earth? Not Cleo. She tried desperately to break away, to start a new life in space, but failed. She backed down. Crew:
Produced and Directed by Brian Smith
Foley SFX created by Sue Zizza and David Shinn
Sound Design by John Colucci Cast:
Jacqueline Cuscuna as Cleo
Tara Sands as Jane
Lynette Sheldon as Elena
Christopher Burns as Pocket Jesus
Alissa Hunnicutt as Lucy
George Zarr as Computer
Seeing Ear Theatre – Emily 501
By Tamara Hladik; Performed by a full cast
2 MP3 Files – Approx. 41 Minutes [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: Seeing Ear Theatre
Publisher: Sitaine Nuluhaya is an exo-archeologist and a linguist, sent on a mission in the Cygnus system to explore the ruins of an extinct culture. As a scholar of languages, she is delighted to discover an unknown, alien language, but this ancient tongue might not be as dead as she thinks… Crew:
Produced and Directed by George Zarr
Musical echoes performed by Bobby, Hunnicutt, and Nice
Sound Design by John Colucci Cast:
Anne Bobby as Sitaine Nuluhaya
Alissa Hunnicutt as Computer
Rebecca Nice as Poetry Reader
Part 1 |MP3| Part 2 |MP3|
Seeing Ear Theatre – Marilyn Or The Monster
Based on a short story by Jack Dann; Adapted by Jack Dann and Brian Smith; Performed by a full cast
2 MP3 Files – Approx. 45 Minutes [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: Seeing Ear Theatre
Published: Jack is haunted. He can’t sleep at night, terrified of an unseen monster; in fact, he hasn’t had a decent night’s sleep in over 30 years… since before he was in Vietnam. His psychiatrist believes he suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. But for Jack, the real problem lies much deeper– and holds a far greater truth than he could possibly imagine… Based on the short story “Marilyn” by Jack Dann. Crew:
Produced and Directed by Brian Smith
Sound Design by John Colucci Cast:
John Heard as Jack
Thom Christopher as the Psychiatrist
Michele Santopietro as Marilyn
Christopher Burns as Soldier #1
Jim Carroll as Soldier #2
Tucker Smith as the Sergeant
Part 1 |MP3| Part 2 |MP3|
Seeing Ear Theatre – Sorry, Wrong Number
By Lucille Fletcher; Performed by a full cast
1 |MP3| – Approx. 25 Minutes [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: Seeing Ear Theatre
Published: 1999 Lucille Fletcher’s “Sorry, Wrong Number” originally appeared as an installment of the dramatic series Suspense and was named the greatest show of all time by Orson Welles. In Fletcher’s tense and claustraphobic tale, the bedridden Mrs. Stevenson mistakenly plugs into a telelphone conversation between two men plotting an innocent woman’s murder. The play unfolds from Mrs. Stevenson’s trapped persective, on the bed, alone–the telephone line her only connection to the outside world. Crew:
Produced and Directed by Brian Smith
Associate Producer, George Zarr
Live Foley SFX, Sue Zizza and David Shinn
Pre-mixed SFX and Tape Ops, John Colucci
Sound Engineers, Jane Pipik and Miles Smith
Original Music composed and performed by Ohad Talmor
Program announcer, George Zarr Cast:
Claire Bloom as Mrs. Leona Stevenson
Anne Bobby as Chief Operator & Hospital Clerk
Todd Cummings as Sergeant Duffy & Western Union
Rebecca Nice as Operator
Dick Rodstein as George
George Zarr as First Man & Information
Seeing Ear Theatre – Jumping Niagara Falls
By Brian Smith and George Zarr; Performed by a full cast
1 |MP3| – Approx. 40 Minutes [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: Seeing Ear Theatre
Published: 1998 Seeing Ear Theatre proudly presents the world premiere of “Jumping Niagara Falls,” an all-new sequel to Lucille Fletcher’s classic, “Sorry, Wrong Number.” “Jumping Niagara Falls” follows the fatal path of murderous husband Elbert Stevenson and his new (and much younger) girlfriend, Phoebe, as they embark on their first vacation together, to Niagara Falls. Also along for the trip: the implacable, revenge-bent spirit of Mrs. Stevenson. Recorded LIVE at the Museum of Television and Radio in New York City.
Written by Brian Smith and George Zarr Cast:
Claire Bloom
Tim Jerome
Anne Bobby Crew:
Produced and Directed by Brian Smith
Associate Producer, George Zarr
Live Foley SFX, Sue Zizza and David Shinn
Pre-mixed SFX and Tape Ops, John Colucci
Sound Engineers, Jane Pipik and Miles Smith
Original Music composed and performed by Ohad Talmor
Program announcer, George Zarr
Seeing Ear Theatre – Feel The Zaz
By James Patrick Kelly – Performed by a Full Cast
2 MP3 Files – Approx. 65 Minutes [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: Seeing Ear Theater
Published: ???? Play croquet with Muhammad Ali, bake cookies with Gertrude Stein, or take John Wayne’s philosophy course. That’s the allure of Starscape, the interactive VR celebrity Web site, where you can visit with your favorite stars of the 20th century. Live the glamour. Become the legend. Unfortunately for Dylan McDonough, artistic director of the site, the year is 2037, which means that most of the people on the net could care less about old, dead celebrities. Starscape is reeling. Their zaz is way down. Until the arrival of Vanity Mode, superstar wannabe. Vanity is an odd egg, a Down Syndrome patient with a Computer Aided Thinking implant, and a voice and attitude like liquid sex. This is her story.
Part 1 |MP3| Part 2 |MP3|
Seeing Ear Theatre – Murder Mysteries
Based on the story by Neil Gaiman; Performed by a full cast
2 MP3 Files – Approx. [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: Sci-Fi.com / SeeingEarTheatre
Published: 2000?
|READ OUR REVIEW| In this mystery noir set in heaven’s City of Angels before the fall, the first crime has been committed. It is an awful one. While the angelic hosts labor to create the world and its workings, one of their number is mysteriously slain by one of their own. Raguel, Angel of Vengeance, is mandated by Lucifer to discover both motive and murderer in this holy dominion that had so recently known no sin. Crew:
Produced and Directed by Brian Smith
Sound Design by John Colucci Cast:
Brian Dennehy as Raguel
Anne Bobby as Tink’s Friend
Christopher Burns as Saraquael
Thom Christopher as Lucifer
Ed Dennehy as Zephkiel
Michael Emerson as Narrator
Traci Godfrey as Tinkerbell Richmond
Evan Pappas as Phanuel
Part 1 |MP3| Part 2 |MP3|
Seeing Ear Theatre – Meet The Neighbor
By George Zarr; Performed by a full cast
1 |MP3| – Approx. 13 Minutes [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: Seeing Ear Theatre
Published: ???? Fasten your ears, you are about to enter a dialogue-free zone. Seeing Ear Theatre once more takes you to a dimension where, in lieu of words, a world of sound effects, grunts, and breathing paint a remarkably vivid narrative. In this auditory environment, you will join an astronaut on his solitary mission to an uninhabited planet. Or is it? What he encounters, and learns, transcends all conventional wisdom. And aside from brief snatches of Earth transmission, no one speaks — leaving you free to connect the aural dots with your own imagination.
Seeing Ear Theatre – Orson The Alien! The Untold Story Behind The War Of The Worlds
Loosely adapted from the novel by H.G. Wells and a play by Orson Welles; Adapted by Terry Bisson, Brian Smith and George Zarr; Performed by a full cast
1 |MP3| – Approx. 1 Hour 3 Minutes [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: Seeing Ear Theatre
Published: 1998? starring Walter Koenig On October 30th, 1938 Orson Welles shocked the world with his faux “news” broadcast of an Alien invasion from mars; thousands of people believed the reports and streamed into the streets, panicked and screaming for their lives. Now, 60 years later, Seeing Ear Theatre asks the question, “What if two real aliens were listening to Welles’ historic broadcast? And what if they, too, believed the reports to be authentic and felt obliged to travel to Earth to help save us from the dreaded Martians? What then, Orson? Walter Koenig (Star Trek’s Chekov, Babylon 5’s Bester) stars as one such alien, a Commander on a seemingly routine peace-keeping tour of deep space, routine that is until his young Cadet (Paul Singleton) surfs the space dial and finds “news” of Grovers Mill, New Jersey, and heat rays and charred bodies. S.E.T. regulars Jef Betz, Rebecca Nice, and George Zarr star as Bud, Rosie, and Lester, three out of luck Brooklynites with nothing much to lose, including their hapless lives. And Dick Rodstein makes his Seeing Ear Theatre debut as the boy wonder himself, Orson Welles. Cast:
Dick Rodstein as Orson
Walter Koenig as Commander
Paul Singleton as Cadet
Jef Betz as Bud
George Zarr as Lester
Rebecca Nice as Rosie Crew:
Produced and Directed by Brian Smith
Associate Producer – George Zarr
Live Foley SFX – Sue Zizza and David Shinn
Pre-mixed SFX and Tape Ops – John Colucci
Sound Engineers – Jane Pipik and Miles Smith
Original Music composed and performed by
John Colucci and George Zarr
Program announcer – George Zarr
Seeing Ear Theatre – The Wheel
By Jeff Kraus and Sue Zizza; Performed by a full cast
2 MP3 Files – Approx. 51 Minutes [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: Seeing Ear Theatre
Published: May 17, 1998 In this post-apocalyptic fable, Owen and Topsie cross the near-endless Desert of Glass, staying one step ahead of the radio-active glowwinds, in search of their origins, their childhood home–and a tape machine that will let them hear the one artifact their late father left behind, a voice recording of who they are and how they came to be… Cast:
Roxann Dawson
Andrew Robinson
Part 1 |MP3| Part 2 |MP3|
Seeing Ear Theatre – Daughter Earth
Based on the story by James Morrow; Performed by a full cast
2 MP3 Files – Approx. 36 Minutes [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: Seeing Ear Theatre
Published: 1998 Speaking before a Senate subcommittee, Pennsylvania farmer Ben Garber recounts the strange year in which he and his wife brought into the world a very unusual child. Little “Zenobia” (as she comes to be called) is a bouncing baby biosphere, loved by her parents, despised by her older brother and covetted by men of power and authority. But what does Zenobia want, and what does her presence mean for the future of mankind? Science and nature clash in this touchingly humorous fable of family, responsibility and all our hopes for a better tomorrow. James Morrow has been called “America’s best satirist” by science fiction critic James Gunn. Here he has adapted his own award-winning short story exclusively for Seeing Ear Theatre. Fans of Morrow can hear an excerpt of his novel Blameless in Abaddon in our Readings area. Daughter Earth can be found in his short story collection Bible Stories For Adults.
Part 1 |MP3| Part 2 |MP3|
Seeing Ear Theatre – Other Worlds
By Charles Potter; Performed by a full cast
1 |MP3| – Approx. 29 Minutes [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: Seeing Ear Theatre
Published: 1998? The astonishing account by the swashbuckling hero Cyrano de Bergerac, playwright, inventor and the greatest of all the King’s musketeers in 17th century France. This 30 minute audio adventure takes our hero to the Moon — via the French-Canadian frontier — for encounters with a threatened race of extraterrestrials and a couple of Earthborn saints. Then it’s on to the Sun for more surprise encounters before our wanderer touches down on terra firma again… but we won’t tell you where. You have to be there, or be square!
Seeing Ear Theatre – Time’s Arrow Time’s Spiral
By George Zarr; Performed by a full cast
1 |MP3| – Approx. 30 Minutes [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: Seeing Ear Theatre
Published: Written December 1998 A furious confrontation between two brothers mutates into a non-stop duel of vengeance. As their orbit of homicidal retribution widens, it bursts from the dawn of time and spills into history, embroiling ancient Roman soldiers, sea-journeying Puritans, lawmen of the Old West, and two American Presidents. Who wins and who loses as the fraternal cycle of birth, retaliation, and death erupts into the remote future? Originally titled Til Next Time
*The hymn “being righteous in all need savior mighty in thee heed” (first line is a reference to “Brian Smith.”)
Cast: Paul Amodeo, Jef Betz, Leah Applebaum, Mort Banks, Andrew Joffe, and Rebecca Nice
Sound Design by John Colucci
Directed by George Zarr; Produced by George Zarr and Brian Smith
Seeing Ear Theatre – Alice In Wonderland
Based on the story by Lewis Carroll; Adapted by Charles Potter; Performed by a full cast
2 MP3 Files – Approx. 55 Minutes [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: Seeing Ear Theatre
Published: 1998? Seeing Ear Theatre’s Original and faithful production features film star Lili Taylor (I Shot Andy Warhol, The Imposters) as Alice and Simon Jones (The Hitch-Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy) as the White Rabbit. In an effort to bring a new look to the timeless classic, artist Elaina Ganim has incorporated John Tenniel’s original “Alice” illustrations into an exciting new series of mixed-media set designs, while Rachel Gibbs has set them in motion using RealPlayer’s G2 technology. Crew:
Directed by Charles Potter and Brian Smith
Sound Design by David Rapkin
Foley Sound Effects by Arthur Miller
Set Design by Elaina Ganim
G2 Presentation by Rachel Gibbs Starring:
Lili Taylor as Alice
Rebecca Nice as The Queen of Hearts
Alissa Hunnicutt as The Duchess & Doormouse
Dick Rodstein as Mad Hatter
Chris Phillips as March Hare
George Zarr as Gryphon & Knave
Merwin Goldsmith as Cheshire Cat
Tim Jerome as French Mouse & Mock-Turtle
Bill Raymond as Caterpillar & The King
Simon Jones as Charles Dodgson & White Rabbit
Part 1 |MP3| Part 2 |MP3|
Seeing Ear Theatre – The Flat Edge Of The Earth
By Brian Smith and Terry Bisson; Performed by a full cast
2 MP3 Files – Approx. 70 Minutes [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: Seeing Ear Theatre
Published: ???? In this haunting tale of magical realism, two strangers, a blind woman (Nana Visitor) and a steely businessman (Alexander Siddig) meet on an ill-fated airplane ride, en route to the sunny beaches of the Caribbean. And though they get off to a bitter and bickering start, with nothing in common, they soon find that there is something more, something strange but familiar between them, unspoken. And when the plane crashes on an uncharted island they find themselves the sole survivors–and like Dante in “Inferno” they realize that they too have come to the middle of their lives, lost and alone, “trapped in a dark and mysterious wood, with the straight way lost.”
Part 1 |MP3| Part 2 |MP3|
Seeing Ear Theatre – The Country Doctor
Based on a short story by Franz Kafka; Performed by a full cast
1 |MP3| – Approx. 13 Minutes [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: Seeing Ear Theatre
Published: 1997 Mark Hamill stars in an illustrated dream-narrative about a country doctor called out on a dark and blizzard-filled night… called out, and into the unknown… called out, and swept up into the spiraling fury and forward rush of–what? Cast:
Mark Hamill
Seeing Ear Theatre – The First And Last Musical On Mars
By George Zarr; Performed by a full cast
3 MP3 files – Approx. 85 Minutes [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: Seeing Ear Theatre
Published: 1998? The First Internet Musical Features 14 Original Songs, 15 Singers, 7 Musicians And The One And Only Mary Jo Pehl from Mystery Science Theater 3000! The fully orchestrated production features strings, drums, horns and piano performing all styles of music from rock, pop, and blues to contemporary musical theater. Mary Jo Pehl performs in a cameo role, singing a stirring country western ballad which is sure to become a classic. The musical was written, composed and directed by George Zarr.
Part 1 |MP3| Part 2 |MP3| Part 3 |MP3|
Seeing Ear Theatre – George And The Red Giant
Adapted from a story by Stephen Baxter; Adapted by Eric Brown; Performed by a full cast
2 MP3 Files – Approx. [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: Seeing Ear Theatre
Published: 1998? On Babylon 5, Londo (Peter Jurasik) and G’Kar (Andreas Katsulas) have forged an uncomfortable alliance in order to maintain a tenuous galactic peace. In “George and the Red Giant,” Katsulas and Jurasik are once again forced into an unlikely partnership, this time as two New Yorkers from the 1990s who are trying to escape an alien world millions of years in the future. Further adding to their troubles, the two men have somehow been transformed into flying lemurs.
Based on the short story George and the Comet by Stephen Baxter. Crew:
Additional Dialogue by Sean Redlitz and Brian Smith
Directed by Brian Smith
Sound Design by John Colucci Starring:
John Colucci as the Baseball Announcer
Peter Jurasik as Phil Beard
Andreas Katsulas as George Newbould
Rebecca Nice as Carrie Beard
George Zarr as the Builder and Medic
Part 1 |MP3| Part 2 |MP3|
Seeing Ear Theatre – The Bigger One
By Gregory Benford; Performed by a full cast
1 |MP3| – Approx. 8 Minutes [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: Seeing Ear Theatre
Published: 1998? The Big One–an 8.1 Richter scale earthquake– has struck Southern California. The Pacific Ocean has broken through new openings in the San Andreas Fault. A tidal wave has buried low-lying Mexicali and is continuing to rush inland… as Pamela Merkle, a news reporter, and Doug Aron, her driver, push 100MPH, dodging traffic in an attempt to stay on top of the ”story” AND outrun the massive wall of water behind them… Starring:
Jef Betz as Doug Aron
John D’Arcangelo as the First Man
Andrew Joffe as the Announcer
Rebecca Nice as the Woman
Raquel Starace as Pamela Merkle
George Zarr as Herb Walker Crew:
Sound Design by John Colucci
Seeing Ear Theatre – Too Late An Experiment In Sound
By Brian Smith, George Zarr, and Rick Bradley; Performed by a full cast
1 |MP3| – Approx. 10 Minutes [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: Seeing Ear Theatre
Published: 1998? Sounds paint pictures, often times better than words or photographs; they evoke something different in each of us… This week, we present an experiment in sound, a narrative composed solely of sound effects, grunts, groans, sighs, yawns, and screams… We invite you to write in with your own thoughts, your own version of the events that you hear… Let your imagination loose, let it go… and write!
Seeing Ear Theatre – The Signal Man
Based on the short story by Charles Dickens; Adapted by George Zarr; Performed by a full cast
1 |MP3| – Approx. 29 Minutes [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: Seeing Ear Theatre
Published: 1998? It is 1860. A female reporter is drawn into the haunted, frenzied hallucinations of a railroad signal-man. Are the terrors he experiences a form of insanity — or a frightening shade of reality? Are his blood-curdling nightmares simply coincidence — or omens of horror to come? Starring:
Leah Applebaum as the Reporter
Guy West as the Signal-Man
Paul Amadeo as Eddie, a railroad worker
Joe Curt as Tom, an engineer
Rebecca Nice as Millie Crew:
Directed by George Zarr
Original Score by George Zarr
Audio Engineering by John Colucci
Audio Mixing/Sound Design by Sue Zizza
Seeing Ear Theatre – A Clean Escape
Based on the short story by John Kessel; Performed by a full cast
1 |MP3| – Approx. 29 Minutes [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: Seeing Ear Theatre
Published: 1998 In the privacy of her office, a psychiatrist torments a man suffering from a faulty memory. Or does she? When treatment becomes a struggle for power, who can separate reality from illusion, lies from truth, sanity from insanity, guilt from innocence? And what is at stake in the world outside the room? Spend a session with Robert Lynch and Dr. D. S. Evans in John Kessel’s mind-bending dance of reality, fantasy, and psychological horror, A CLEAN ESCAPE. John Kessel’s latest novel, CORRUPTING DR. NICE, has been praised by writer Kim Stanley Robinson as “the best time travel novel ever written.” Kessel’s recent collection THE PURE PRODUCT contains the story version of “A Clean Escape,” plus the novelette “The Miracle of Ivar Avenue,” a finalist for this year’s Nebula Award. Crew:
Directed by Brian Smith
Sound Design by Rick Bradley
Foley Sound Effects by Sue Zizza and David Shinn Starring:
Paul Amodeo as Robert Lynch
Rebecca Nice as Dr. D.S. Evans
Seeing Ear Theatre – Herd Mentality
By Kurt Roth; Performed by a full cast
2 MP3 Files – Approx. [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: Seeing Ear Theatre
Published: 1998 The cast of the hit Sci-Fi Channel TV series, Mystery Science Theater 3000, stars in this original audio comedy by newcomer Kurt Roth. Roth’s short stories have appeared internationally in magazines and anthologies such as Odyssey and The Chronicles of the Round Table. In “Herd Mentality,” he and the MSTies take an absurd comic turn into the old west–back to Roswell, New Mexico, circa 1872, for a look at the “first” Roswell Incident. Starring:
Kevin Murphy as Luke Logan
Mike Nelson as Tom Garrett, Feldar the Alien, and Hank Harker
Paul Chaplin as Pat Garrett and Vokon the Alien
Mary Jo Pehl as Ma Garrett, Zargon the Alien, and Bessi the Cow
Barbara Halas as Sam Ballinger, Moon the Horse, and Dying Cows
Jef Betz as Cal Harker and Dalton Crew:
Directed by Brian Smith
Sound Design by John Colucci
Foley Sound Effects by: Sue Zizza and David Shinn
Original Music composed by George Zarr
Part 1 |MP3| Part 2 |MP3|
Seeing Ear Theatre – The Death Of Captain Future
Based on the short story by by Allen Steele; Adapted by Brian Smith; Performed by a full cast
Publisher: Seeing Ear Theatre / Dove Audio
Published: November 1998
ISBN: 0787118133 Marina Sirtis (Counselor Troi on Star Trek) and Neil Dickson (Prof. Ian Matheson on She-Wolf Of London) star in this original production of Allen Steele’s Hugo-Award winning novella of the same name. Allen Steele has written numerous short stories including the recent “…Where Angels Fear to Tread,” nominated for a Nebula Award this year. In this comic and bitter piece, he takes us for a tragic trip aboard the Comet, commanded by Bo McKinnon, an obese slob who’s convinced that he’s the 1940’s pulp SF hero, Captain Future!
Part 1 |MP3| Part 2 |MP3|
Seeing Ear Theatre – Think Like a Dinosaur
By James Patrick Kelly; Performed by a Full Cast
2 MP3 Files – Approx. 49 Minutes [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: Seeing Ear Theater
Published: ???? Michael O’Hare (Commander Sinclair on Babylon 5) stars in this original dramatization of the Hugo Award winning novelette of the same name, by author James Patrick Kelly. Many of Kelly’s short stories, including this one, have appeared in The Year’s Best Science Fiction. This haunting tale of deep space travel and fractured identities is Kelly’s and Michael O’Hare’s first venture into the medium of audio dramas…
Part 1 |MP3| Part 2 |MP3|
Seeing Ear Theatre – Wanted In Surgery
Based on the novella by Harlan Ellison; Performed by a full cast
1 |MP3| – Approx. 23 Minutes [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: Seeing Ear Theatre
Published: 1998? “Wanted in Surgery” is based on the novella of the same name by Harlan Ellison; it was originally produced for South African radio in the 1950’s but Harlan Ellison and Brian Smith have revised and updated the story for a 90’s audience. Harlan Ellison also performs the lead role in this disturbing, futuristic tale…
Seeing Ear Theatre – The Oblivion Syndrome
1 |MP3| – Approx. 27 Minutes [AUDIO DRAMA] Robert is, or was, a long-range government cartographer, used to long periods of isolation… but this is different. His ship is dead in space, with no hope of rescue, the food supply’s diminishing, life support’s failing, etc., etc.; the odd thing is, Robert doesn’t really care. He’s slipped beyond the edge of the sane world… leaving Victoria, the shipboard computer, alone in the fight to bring him back. Cast:
Paul Singleton
Seeing Ear Theatre – The Monkey’s Paw
Based on the story by W.W. Jacobs; Performed by a full cast
1 |MP3| – Approx. 24 Minutes [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: Seeing Ear Theatre
Published: 1998? Ever heard the irritating “Be careful what you wish for–?” Of course you have, but have you ever truly grasped its meaning or felt its bone-chilling power? You will, after spending a little time with the White family in W.W. Jacob’s “The Monkey’s Paw.”
Seeing Ear Theatre – The Tell-Tale Heart
Based on the story by Edgar Allan Poe; Adapted by Brian Smith; Performed by a full cast
1 |MP3| – Approx. 16 Minutes [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: Seeing Ear Theatre
Published: 1997 Come into the dark and listen to the freakish thoughts and deeds of a madman (though he’ll tell you he’s not mad) as you scan the bizarre surface dialogue between him and his helpless victim, an old man–“with an evil eye!” Cast: James Urbaniak
Tripping Astral
By Brian Smith?; Performed by a full cast 7 Zipped MP3 Files – Approx. 1 Hour 37 Minutes [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: Seeing Ear Theatre
Published: 1997
Provider: Archive.org “An illustrated audio adventure, about Jack Torn, a research scientist on the moon, a possible–or probable?–alien invasion, and a stunning new invention that might just save the world, or end it… So kick back, but bring a bit of your mind, welcome to the theater of the imagination… PLEASE NOTE:Tripping Astral was originally an illustrated audio production (with “synchronized, streaming pictures and animations”) they are not available at this time.
Seeing Ear Theatre – Into The Sun
By Brian Smith; Performed by a full cast
1 |MP3| – Approx. 20 Minutes [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: Seeing Ear Theatre
Published: 1997 Mark Hamill stars in this audio thriller about Julian Freed, a medical doctor on board a spaceship en route to the nearby, but still quite distant star, Wolf 389. Freed wakes from suspended sleep to find the crew gone, and the ship heading into a sun…One strange morning, after a night of fitful sleep, Dr Freed wakes to find the ship deserted, the crew gone; in shock, Freed searches the cabins, corridors and offices, but finds nothing… not a trace… He makes his way to the bridge, there’s no one there… but he discovers that the ship is on automatic pilot, and is heading straight into a nearby sun! Crew:
Written & Produced by Phillip B. Smith
Sound Design by John Colucci
Illustration by Jeff Rigby Cast:
Mark Hamill as Dr Julian Freed
Alissa Hunnicutt as the singing alarm clock and Marie
Leo Marks as Frank
James Urbaniak as the announcer and Tim
Seeing Ear Theatre – THREE ODD COMEDIES:They’re Made Out Of Meat, The Toxic Donut and Next
By Terry Bisson; Performed by a full cast
RealAudio – Approx. 6 Minutes [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: Seeing Ear Theatre
Published: 1998?
A Hugo-winning SF dramatist takes you to the far side of the Universe, where humankind is but an unlikely rumor (“They’re Made out of Meat“)… to rehearsals for the ultimate environmental awards show (“The Toxic Donut” featuring film star Peter Coyote)… and to the City Hall of the near future where racism takes on a romantic new twist (“Next“)… Starring:
Raquel Starace as Pompous Alien
George Zarr as Bewildered Alien The Toxic Donut Next A young black couple in a Dystopian future aren’t allowed to marry because of an ozone emergency. Only interracial couples that produce interracial babies that could survive the scorching effects of today’s unprotected sun are permitted wedlock. Both are expected to do their patriotic duty.
Derelict
By Matt Costello and F.Paul Wilson; Performed by a full cast
RealAudio – Playing time variable [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: Seeing Ear Theatre
Published: 1998? A mining crew found it floating on the outer reaches of the asteroid belt. When they saw what it was, they called the marines. Now an exploration team has entered the floating hulk of a ship… abandoned, lifeless. Or so they think. But as soon as they enter the open hatch, its locks close behind them. Now they’re racing the clock to figure out what’s going on and how to get out alive. And they look to you for help. Because you’re on the outside, you’re their captain… They’ll all die inside this deserted ship if you don’t act fast. Three people entered this strange craft, this derelict. How many will get out? That’s up to you… Experimental, a “choose your own adventure” style audio drama. Directed by:
Phillip B. Smith Starring:
James Urbaniak as Lt. Carlos Ramirez
Steve Rattazzi as Sgt. Wynn Newell
Tricia Sullivan as Cpl. Robyn Hunter
Seeing Ear Theatre – Come Hammering
By Brian Smith; Performed by a full cast
RealAudio – Approx. 23 Minutes [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: Seeing Ear Theatre
Published: 1997 A bone-chilling ghost story about a reclusive author, John Mcrae, living in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains who’s tortured by the demons and ghosts of his childhood, demons and ghosts that hold a terrible secret, come back to haunt him on Halloween night… John Mcrae wants to be left alone, wants some peace and quiet in order to complete the latest installment in his formulaic series of “Nikki Stone” detective stories, but the local kids are out, intent on trick or treating, and the dog’s barking, and the wind’s whistling–when the past becomes present, and John Mcrae struggles to hold on to his mind… Performed in front of a live audience at The Museum of TV and Radio in New York City on Halloween night, 1997. Crew:
Directed by Brian Smith
Sound Design by John Colucci, Sue Zizza and Butch D’Ambrosio
Sound Engineering by Tom Curley Starring:
Jef Betz as John Mcrae
Laura Sheridan as Nikki Mcrae
Barbara Halas as Miss Stein
Cheryl Blake
David Grunner
Rebecca Nice
Timmy Reifsnyder
Paul Singleton
Tales From The Crypt: Carrion Death
By James Patrick Kelly; Performed by a Full Cast
RealAudio – 41 Minutes 16 Seconds [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: Seeing Ear Theater
Published: 2000 Former high school English teacher and current convict for armed robbery “Professor” Wall has a clear goal — never to return to the confines of the institutions (scholarly and otherwise) that have made his life a hell of banality and mediocrity. But sometimes a simple walk to a distinct destination isn’t so uncomplicated after all — especially when the path leads through mirages, deadly illusions, and a merciless desert wasteland of greed and desperation.
This series was intended to run 13 episodes. Only eight were completed. |TORRENT|
And so something new begins…
In the Spring of 1998 I recieved a phone call from Kathryn Drennan, author and wife of J. Michael Straczynski; she told me that Joe had heard Seeing Ear Theatre, and was a big fan of the art of radio drama, and if there were anything he could do to help support our cause, to let him know. Wow. Not only had I been a fan of Babylon 5, I credited Joe’s writing with helping to lay the groundwork for Seeing Ear Theatre‘s inception.
You see, long before I ever worked at SCI FI Channel, I read Joe’s expert book on scriptwriting, aptly titled The Complete Book Of Scriptwriting; in it is a 50 page chapter on writing radio drama. That chapter was an integral part of my own development as a radio writer, directer and producer. Without it, who knows where I’d be…?
On my next trip to Los Angeles I visited the Babylon 5 studio; Kathryn gave me a tour of the sets, and then I sat in Joe’s office and we talked radio drama. I had come to ask Joe if he’d be interested in writing something for Seeing Ear Theatre. He was, but we couldn’t quite hit upon the nature of it at first. We thought of doing a Babylon 5 spin-off series, but finally decided upon something completely new, designed specifically for the ear.
Joe had written for the 1980s revival of The Twilight Zone and had long wanted to launch a new anthology radio drama series in a similar spirit to Rod Serling’s TV classic. Joe would write all 13 half-hour episodes, with total creative freedom to go wherever he dreamed, and I would produce and direct them. Joe would also serve as the co-executive producer along with myself, helping to cast, schedule, etc. So here it is, J. Michael Straczynski’s CIty Of Dreams. A world of stories about madmen, dreamers, and fanatics, designed for the imagination, the theatre of the mind. Let us know what you think!
—Brian Smith, July 2000
Episode 1: The Damned Are Playing At Godzilla’s Tonight
By J. Michael Straczynski; Performed by a full cast
A racist club owner is haunted by an all-black band he would rather see dead than hear live.
“For our first story, I wanted something with teeth, something that took one of the more common supernatural tropes and used it in a way that dealt with contemporary themes. It has kind of a Lovecraftian feel, starting at the end, then finding out how we got here, and why. Where else can you get all that *and* a commentary on the state of the music industry?” -JMS
Crew:
Produced and Directed by Brian Smith
Original Music Composed and Performed by Jeff Nostrand
Sound Design by John Colucci
Executive Producers Brian Smith and J. Michael Straczynski Cast:
Steve Buscemi as Mr. Beresford Mackey
Christopher Burns as Jimmy
Kevin Daniels as Derek B.
Beth Glover as Women
J.R. Horne as Franklin Chase
Ezra Knight as Quint
Kevin Conway as the Narrator Original Music Composed and Performed by Jeff Nostrand
By J. Michael Straczynski; Performed by a full cast
Also Featuring:
Christopher Burns as Jimmy
Kevin Daniels as Derek B.
Beth Glover as Women
J.R. Horne as Franklin Chase
Ezra Knight as Quint
Kevin Conway as the Narrator Original Music Composed and Performed by Jeff Nostrand
Sound Design by John Colucci
Executive Producers Brian Smith and J. Michael Straczynski
Episode 02: Rolling Thunder
By J. Michael Straczynski; Performed by a full cast A father offers to give up anything to regain his lost child…and a certain Someone takes him up on it.
“We all make mistakes. Big ones, small ones, mistakes that change our lives forever. There’s our life before IT, and after IT, whatever your IT happens to be. This is the story of an IT: the loss of a child’s life, and what one person will endure in an attempt to correct that mistake. I wanted to ask one simple question: what is one person’s life really worth?” -JMS
Crew:
Produced and Directed by Brian Smith
Sound Design by John Colucci
Executive Producers Brian Smith and J. Michael Straczynski Cast:
Andre Braugher as Martin Anders
Ashley Albert as Secretary
Ami Brabson as Jennifer Anders
Jacqueline Cuscuna as the Bank Clerk
Peter Francis James as Carlyle
Ramon de Ocampo as Gang Leader and Guy
Kevin Conway as the Stranger
Episode 3: The Friends of Jackie Clay
By J. Michael Straczynski; Performed by a full cast Jackie Clay is the caretaker of a small cemetery in the City of Dreams who speaks to the dead and, when a crisis occurs, learns that he has friends he never knew he had.
“Having done two strong, serious, intense stories, I kinda wanted to write something a bit lighter, more redemptive, with a touch of humor. A guy who works at a cemetery and talks to the residents brings in response a logical question: do they talk back, and if so, what do they say? It’s a story about friends, polite behavior, and the anger of the dead.”-JMS
Crew:
Produced and Directed by Brian Smith
Sound Design by John Colucci
Executive Producers Brian Smith and J. Michael Straczynski Cast:
Merwin Goldsmith as Jackie Clay
Jayce Bartock as Casey Geller
Mather Zickel as Randy
Chris Burns as Candle
Ross Stoner as Ajay
Ean Sheehy as Zack
Anne Bobby as Elizabeth Castay
Todd Cummings as Policeman and Hamilton Castay
Dick Rodstein as Civil War Soldier
Episode 4: The Tolling Of The Hour
By J. Michael Straczynski; Performed by a full cast The clock shows no mercy. Neither does the board of directors or the CEO, who demands more than life can give, and finds himself on the business end of the clock he worships.
“We have become a society answerable to the tick of the clock, the Board of Directors, the CEO…with your average corporate employee daily crushed under the wheels of downsizing, working harder for less money so the stockholders get a ten percent per share boost. I felt there needed to be a cautionary tale about the inevitable result of grinding down people’s souls, because sooner or later, the universe downsizes those who downsize unto others.”-JMS
Crew:
Produced and Directed by Brian Smith
Sound Design by John Colucci
Executive Producers Brian Smith and J. Michael Straczynski
Associate Producer, Laurissa James
Assistant Director, Tony Daniel
Voice Editing by David Shinn Cast:
Campbell Scott as Gregory Ferguson
Anne Bobby as Liz Alworthy
Christopher Burns as Intercom and Staffer #2
Todd Cummings as John the Bartender
Jane Gennaro as Secretary
Merwin Goldsmith as Chester Alworthy
Dick Rodstein as the Doctor
Mather Zickel as Staffer #1
Kevin Conway as the Narrator
Episode 5: Night Calls
By J. Michael Straczynski; Performed by a full cast Something unusual is waiting for you in the intersection of a conversation between god and a man asked to build a *second* ark…what it will carry, and where it all goes, is not what you may be expecting.
“I told Brian that I wanted to divide CITY into three parts: 1-4 being fairly straightforward stories, and 5-8 being more experimental stories that play with the form of radio drama. Get everybody lulled into a false sense of security, and then start pulling the rug out. This is the first of the experimental episodes. Be sure to listen carefully, because not everything here is what it seems.”-JMS
Crew:
Produced and Directed by Brian Smith
Sound Design by John Colucci
Executive Producers Brian Smith and J. Michael Straczynski
Voice Editing by David Shinn
Associate Producer Laurissa James
Assistant Director Tony Daniel Cast:
Tim Curry as Ben Joseph and God
Alissa Hunnicutt as Real Audio Voice
Dan Seckel as Mark
Ean Sheehy as John
Kevin Townley as Richie
Kevin Conway as the Narrator
Episode 6: MCSD 00121J
By J. Michael Straczynski; Performed by a full cast From: Manasee County
Sheriff’s Department
Manasee County, New Jersey
The original audiotape of which this (enclosed) tape is a copy was found near the site of the Clarefield community residence 23 August 2000 by Sgt. Emile Jackson and the original copy was forwarded to the MCSD forensics lab for analysis. A second copy has been forwarded to the FBI Crime Lab in Roanoake VA for more detailed audio study.
In light of the recent tragic events of Clarefield, we appreciate any assistance your office and listeners can provide in establishing any of the identities of the persons recorded on this tape. Needless to say any information emerging from this investigation will be held in the strictest confidence. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any further questions.
Sincerely,
Captain J. J. Durham
Manasee County Sheriff’s Department Crew:
Produced and Directed by Brian Smith
Sound Design by John Colucci
Executive Producers Brian Smith and J. Michael Straczynskii Cast:
Henry Leyva as Mark
Ashley Albert as Waitress and Child
Guy Blumberg as Doc
Jim Carroll as Jacobson
Thom Christopher as Jeremiah
Alissa Hunnicutt as Child
Andrew Joffe as Frank
John Kolvenbach as Geoff
Tara Sands as Betsy and Child
Episode 07: Samuel Beckett, Your Ride Is Here
By J. Michael Straczynski; Performed by a full cast Surrealism. Existentialism. Minimalism. Stream of Consciousness. Spaceships. What, you expected something ordinary in the City Of Dreams?
“When you experiment in audio, you can do only so many things with tricks. At some point you have to dive into the form of the narrative itself. So I wanted to try something that played with stream of consciousness, surrealism, minimalism and existentialism, but without losing some SF touchstones. Hence, this week’s episode. One long and very weird conversation. And no tricks.”-JMS
Crew:
Produced and Directed by Brian Smith
Sound Design by John Colucci
Executive Producers Brian Smith and J. Michael Straczynskii
Associate Producer Laurissa James
Assistant Director Tony Daniel Cast:
John Turturro as Benjamin
Bill Irwin as Carlyle
Episode 08: The Alpha And Omega Of David Wells
By J. Michael Straczynski; Performed by a full cast A man in search of the Truth undergoes a past-life regression that takes him further than anyone has ever gone before. Crew:
Produced and Directed by Brian Smith
Associate Producer Laurissa James
Assistant Director Tony Daniel
“People with no tact, noting my sometimes intemperate nature, have tended to tell me, ‘Y’know, you REALLY should have a past-life regression sometime to see where all this anger is coming from.’ Which finally (after smiting them, that is) got me to thinking about what I would do in a story with this device…if there was a way to go FORWARD just as well as BACKWARD through various incarnations. When I figured that one out, The Alpha and Omega of David Wells kind of wrote itself.” -JMS
Cast:
Peter Gallagher as David Wells
Peter Francis James
Alice Barden
Jacqueline Cuscuna
Martin Carey
Tony Daniel
Laurissa James
Commercial Releases:
Seeing Ear Theatre: Volume 1
By various; Performed by a full cast with introductions by Harlan Ellison
2 Cassettes – Approx. 3 Hours [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: Dove Audio
Published: November 1998
ISBN: 0787118133 Stories Included: THREE ODD COMEDIES by Terry Bisson
“They’re Made Out of Meat”
“The Toxic Donut”
“Next” Into The Sun by Brian Smith Think Like a Dinosaur by James Patrick Kelly The Death of Captain Future by Allen Steele A Clean Escape by John Kessel The Bigger One by Gregory Benford
Seeing Ear Theatre: Volume 2
By various; Performed by a full cast with introductions by Harlan Ellison
2 Cassettes – Approx. 3 Hours [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: Dove Audio
Published: 1999
ISBN: 1787118754 Stories Included: George And The Red Giant by Stephen Baxter and Eric Brown The Oblivion Syndrome by Benjamin Wachs Wanted In Surgery by Harlan Ellison and Brian Smith The Flat Edge Of The Earth by Brian Smith and Terry Bisson Too Late: An Experiment In Sound Theater by Brian Smith
Seeing Ear Theater: Volume 3
By various; Performed by a full cast
2 Cassettes – Approx. 3 Hours [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: Dove Audio
Published: 1999
ISBN: 0787118788 Stories Included: Orson The Alien! The Untold Story Behind The War Of the Worlds by Terry Bisson, Brian Smith and George Zarr Daughter Earth by James Morrow The First (And Last) Musical On Mars by George Zarr
Seeing Ear Theatre: Clive Barker’s “The History of the Devil”
Based on a play by Clive Barker; Performed by a full cast
2 Cassettes – Approx. 3 Hours 8 Minutes [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: Seeing Ear Theatre / Dove Audio
Published: May 1999
ISBN: 0787118869, 0787118133 In Clive Barker’s The History Of The Devil, a deprived and lovelorn Satan is sick and tired of living in Hell. He bemoans the loss of his angel-wings, his freedom of flight, his elegance and grace. And he misses God. So he calls a trial, his appeal, to seek re-admittance into Heaven. As the trial moves through space and time, we revisit scenes of humanity’s great failures — or are they the work of the Devil, his own wicked crimes? If Satan wins his day in court, he’ll be reunited with his Father in Heaven. And if he loses? He’ll end eternity here with us — on Earth.
Two Plays For Voices
By Neil Gaiman; Performed by a full cast
2 CDs – Approx. 1.5 Hours [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: Harper Audio
Published: 2002
ISBN: 0060012560 (cd),
Includes Snow Glass Apples and Murder Mysteries.
|READ OUR REVIEW|
2000X Tales Of The Next Millennia
Produced by Yuri Rasovsky and Stefan Rudnicki
FULL CAST PRODUCTIONS with introductions by Harlan Ellison
6 Cassettes – Approx. 7 Hours [UNABRIDGED DRAMATIZATIONS]
Publisher: Fantastic Audio
Published: 2002
ISBN: 1574535307 Includes: Knock based on the story by Fredric Brown
|READ OUR REVIEW|
Seeing Ear Theatre – Tales From The Crypt
Performed by Tim Curry, Gina Gershon, Luke Perry, Oliver Platt, John Ritter, Campbell Scott and others
4 CDs – Approx. 3 Hours [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: Highbridge Audio
Published: 2002
ISBN: 1565116747
|READ OUR REVIEW|
This Trick’ll Kill You
By George Zarr;
Publisher: Seeing Ear Theatre
Published:
Tales from the Crypt “This Trick’ll Kill You” was written by George Zarr,
adapted from the story in the EC Comic book “Tales from the Crypt”
originally published by William M. Gaines.
“This Trick’ll Kill You” featured Rebecca Nice as Inez Markini, Todd
Cummings as Herb Markini, Simon Jones as Jeffrey Mudgely, Andrew Joffe as
Otto Der Clown, and Francesca Rizzo as Wahdi. Also heard were Alissa
Hunnicutt as series announcer, and John Kassir and the Crypt Keeper.
“This Trick’ll Kill You” was directed by George Zarr. Produced by George
Zarr and Brian Smith. Associate Producer, Laurissa James. Overall sound
design and live effects by John Colucci. Live Foley by Sue Zizza and David
Shinn. Sound Engineers Jane Pipik and Miles B. Smith. Original music
composed and conducted by George Zarr, with Ed Iglewski on bass, Rick
Knutson on keyboards and Billy Masters on guitar. Additional Crypt Keeper
material by Jack Wohl. “Tales from the Crypt” series theme composed by Danny
Elfman with lyrics by Jack Wohl; theme arranged and performed by Ohad
Talmor. Series story editor, Tony Daniel. Executive producers Jack Wohl,
Brian Smith, Richard Donner, David Giler, Walter Hill, Joel Silver and
Robert Zemeckis.
Author Readings:
Pat Cadigan Reads From Tea From An Empty Cup
1 |MP3| – Approx. 14 Minutes [EXCERPT]
Publisher: Seeing Ear Theatre
Published: 1999
Provider: Archive.org
William Gibson Reads From All Tomorrow’s Parties
1 |MP3| – Approx. 13 Minutes [EXCERPT]
Publisher: Seeing Ear Theatre
Published: 1999
Provider: Archive.org
Maureen F. McHugh reads from China Mountain Zhang
1 |MP3| – Approx. 19 Minutes [EXCERPT]
Publisher: Seeing Ear Theatre
Published: 1998
Provider: Archive.org
Skidoo and Bat Boy
By Patrick O’Leary; Read by Patrick O’Leary
1 |MP3| – Approx. 39 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Seeing Ear Theatre
Published: 1998
Provider: Archive.org Recorded at ReaderCon 10.
Paul Levinson reads an extract from The Silk Code
1 |MP3| – Approx. 15 Minutes [EXCERPT]
Publisher: Seeing Ear Theatre
Published: 1999
Provider: Archive.org
Nalo Hopkinson reads an extract from Brown Girl In The Ring
1 |MP3| – Approx. 27 Minutes [EXCERPT]
Publisher: Seeing Ear Theatre
Published: 1999
Provider: Archive.org
Richard Belzer reads an excerpt from UFOs, JFK, And Elvis
1 |MP3| – Approx. 18 Minutes [EXCERPT]
Publisher: Seeing Ear Theatre
Published: 1999
Provider: Archive.org
Get A Grip
By Paul Park; Read by Paul Park
1 |MP3| – Approx. 26 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Seeing Ear Theatre
Published: 1998
Provider: Archive.org
K.W. Jeter reads the first chapter of Noir
1 |MP3| – Approx. 22 Minutes [EXCERPT]
Publisher: Seeing Ear Theatre
Published: 1999
Provider: Archive.org
Bruce Sterling reads from Distraction
By Bruce Sterling; Read by Bruce Sterling
1 |MP3| – Approx. 31 Minutes [EXCERPT]
Publisher: Seeing Ear Theatre
Published: 1998
Provider: Archive.org
Fruitcake Theory
By James Patrick Kelly; Read by James Patrick Kelly
1 |MP3| – Approx. 34 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Seeing Ear Theatre
Published: 1998
Provider: Archive.org
Samuel R. Delany reads from The Einstein Intersection
By Samuel R. Delany; Read by Samuel R. Delany
1 |MP3| – Approx. 24 Minutes [EXCERPT]
Publisher: Seeing Ear Theatre
Published: 1999
Provider: Archive.org
Unto The Daughters and Margin Of Error
By Nancy Kress; Read by Nancy Kress
1 |MP3| – Approx. 30 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Seeing Ear Theatre
Published: 1999
Provider: Archive.org
Recorded at the 1998 Baltimore WorldCon.
The Goblin King and The Dead Boy At Your Window
By Bruce Holland Rogers; Read by Bruce Holland Rogers
1 |MP3| – Approx. 11 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Seeing Ear Theatre
Published: 1999
Provider: Archive.org
Other:
Treks Not Taken
By Steven R. Boyett; Performed by a full cast
1 |MP3| – Approx. 12 Minutes [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: Seeing Ear Theatre
Published: 1998
Provider: Archive.org
A parody cross between Star Trek: The Next Generation and Moby Dick.
Seeing Ear Theatre – Kindred
Seeing Ear Theatre – History Of The Devil
Seeing Ear Theatre – Snow Glass Apples
Seeing Ear Theatre – The Martian Crown Jewels
Seeing Ear Theatre – The Time Machine
Seeing Ear Theatre – Black Canoes
Seeing Ear Theatre – Titanic Dreams
Seeing Ear Theatre – The Moon Moth
Seeing Ear Theater- The Lucky Strike
Seeing Ear Theater – The Jaguar Hunter
Seeing Ear Theater – Firewatch
Seeing Ear Theater – Facade
Seeing Ear Theater – Sleepy Hollow: The Legend
Seeing Ear Theater – A Dry Quiet War
Seeing Ear Theater – Diary Of A Mad Diety
Seeing Ear Theater – Child’s Play
Seeing Ear Theater – The Shade Of The Slowboat Man
Seeing Ear Theater – Greedy Choke Puppy
Seeing Ear Theater – The Nostalgianauts
Seeing Ear Theater – Knock
Seeing Ear Theater – The Man Who Could Work Miracles
Seeing Ear Theatre – The Propagation of Light in a Vacuum
Seeing Ear Theatre – Breakaway, Backdown
Seeing Ear Theatre – Emily 501
Seeing Ear Theatre – Marilyn Or The Monster
Seeing Ear Theatre – Sorry, Wrong Number
Seeing Ear Theatre – Jumping Niagara Falls
Seeing Ear Theatre – Feel The Zaz
Seeing Ear Theatre – Meet The Neighbor
Seeing Ear Theatre – Orson The Alien! The Untold Story Behind The War Of The Worlds
Seeing Ear Theatre – The Wheel
Seeing Ear Theatre – Daughter Earth
Seeing Ear Theatre – Other Worlds
Seeing Ear Theatre – Time’s Arrow Time’s Spiral
Seeing Ear Theatre – Alice In Wonderland
Seeing Ear Theatre – The Flat Edge Of The Earth
Seeing Ear Theatre – The Country Doctor
Seeing Ear Theatre – The First And Last Musical On Mars
Seeing Ear Theatre – George And The Red Giant
Seeing Ear Theatre – The Bigger One
Seeing Ear Theatre – Too Late An Experiment In Sound
Seeing Ear Theatre – The Signal Man
Seeing Ear Theatre – A Clean Escape
Tripping Astral
Seeing Ear Theatre – Into The Sun
Seeing Ear Theatre – THREE ODD COMEDIES: They’re Made Out Of Meat, The Toxic Donut and Next
Derelict
Tales From The Crypt: Carrion Death
2000X Tales Of The Next Millennia
Pat Cadigan Reads From 
