If you enjoy audio dramas (especially well-made ones) and have not yet checked out the Audio Theatre Central podcast, you need to do so ASAP. These guys have the latest news concerning all things audio drama. Not only that, they are very knowledgeable about their subject matter and have insider information. What I particularly appreciate is their continual clarion call to excellent standards within the industry. And we’re talking FAMILY FRIENDLY stuff here, folks (what a relief)! No gore, no filth– just good quality auditory imagination. Yes, it exits. *Make sure to check out Episode 124 in particular, where yours truly gets a shout out! 😉
Tag Archives: audio/radio-dramas
Audio Theatre Central, please and thank-you!
Sonic-Con 2020 on My Radar!
When I first heard of Sonic-Con 2020, I didn’t know what ‘sonic’ meant. I had to look it up. The exploration led to this result: “of or relating to sound”. I’d heard of Comic-Con, but what was Sonic-Con? I was intrigued to follow the link to the website and was excited to see names such as Katie Leigh and Phil Lollar (if you grew up with Adventures in Odyssey, you’ll know why). Later, I got the chance to listen to Audio Theatre Central’s podcast featuring an interview with Sonic-Con’s initiator, Chris Nelson, and was able to learn more exciting details. It’ll be a three day convention of all things audio drama with very reasonable prices, depending on how soon you book in advance. (Please listen to ATC’s episode 123 as they ask practical questions and provide all the necessary information.) I’ve pretty much set my heart on going to this first-ever audio drama forgathering in Lynchburg, VA in March 2020! And the best part is it will be all family friendly!
2018 Audio Theatre Central Seneca Awards Night
The Audio Theatre Central Seneca Awards were held last night, and by my good fortune I just happened to stumble across it and stayed up late listening to it live. (You can view my post about the nominations here.) Although I missed more quality productions from Focus on the Family Radio Theatre in recent years, and am missing Aaron Fuller’s influence on the G.A. Henty Heirloom Audio Production, the new show The Adventum (which won Best Long Form Audio Drama) sounds very interesting. I also loved the emphasis put on the connection between old-time radio dramas and today’s auditory adventures. You can click here to listen to the awards, and to find out more about family-friendly God-honoring drama!
2018 ATC Seneca Awards
Like audio dramas? Audio Theatre Central has announced the nominees for the 2018 Seneca Awards, which recognizes the best in the audio drama production industry. Winners will be announced in July. As a plus, these are all family friendly stories, so they can be enjoyed on those long summer vacation road trips! There are so many exciting things happening in the audio world. I’m really looking forward to The Adventum! Posts to as many trailers as I can find are below:
Operation Mosul (The Brinkman Adventures)
The Treasure of the Secret Cove (Lamplighter Theatre)
Black Rock (The Shadow Remake)
Escape from the Eagle’s Nest (Lamplighter Theatre)
Heirloom Audio Productions have also come out with St. Bartholomew’s Eve and For the Temple, but unfortunately I could not find trailers for those. And Lamplighter Theatre’s quality seems to be improving every year!
More Audio Dramas- Last of the Mohicans!
There’s more free audio drama immersion to be had right now on BBC Radio 4 with James Fenimoore Cooper’s “The Last of the Mohicans”! I’m looking forward to hitting play on this one. Reading the book can be a struggle, and the movie is very much changed from the book. But the story is such an evocative tale set in the early days of American history and an exciting one to boot!. Plan to enjoy listening soon because this is only available for a limited time.
Father Brown stories – BBC Audio Drama
In the mood for some cozy mysteries? I discovered Father Brown is playing on BBC Radio 4 and wanted to post a notice. I haven’t listened to them yet, but I am hoping they are much more intellectually stimulating and truer to the books than the recent BBC tv series (I was disappointed with those). These only play for a limited time, so make sure you act on it soon! Ta-ta!
BBC AudioDrama: “The Club of Queer Trades”
There isn’t much time left to listen to these; I only just discovered them on BBC Radio 4. The drama is G.K. Chesterton’s “The Club of Queer Trades” and stars Martin Freeman. I’ve found the two episodes I’ve listened to so far to be entertaining and very much like the book. My favorite story out of the bunch is the first one, “The Tremendous Adventures of Major Brown.” If you have some time, give them a try. I’ve been listening while working on making valentines.
Radio Drama (BBC): Titus Groan
I recently published my book review of “Titus Groan,” by Mervyn Peake (read it here) and suddenly the BBC is airing it’s audio dramatized version of the story! I am preparing to start reading the second book in the series soon (“Gormenghast”), so I thought I’d better prepare by brushing up my memory on the details of the first.
I found this to be a very faithful and rather good adaptation. The best part about it is that it does not lose the flavor of the book’s descriptions and vocabulary. It seemed to be well cast, though the parts of Lady Gertrude and Irma Prunsquallor seemed be more ’emphasis’ rather than ‘acting.’ You can tell by the tedious melodramatic deliverances of lines instead of actually owning them.
You can click to listen to it for free for a limited time.
Book Review: “Titus Groan,” by Mervyn Peake
Genre: classic; literary
Plot Summary: Once upon a time there was an infant son and heir born to the Groan family of Gormenghast Castle. His name was Titus and being so young he was yet unaware of the long line of history and tradition of which he stood in line to inherit. But things were turned on their head (quite literally) on the day of his christening, and strange events began to unfold that are even stranger than the world into which he was born.
My Book Review: The Gormenghast series by Mervyn Peake has been on my reading list from very early on. I believe it was a discovery made while perusing the Dover catalog. I really had no idea what it was about, which sometimes leads to interesting discoveries. In this case, it was a very interesting discovery indeed, and has become one of my top reads for this year so far.
This isn’t normally a book I would have picked out for myself, so it’s probably a good thing I didn’t know what it was about. I’m proud of myself for completing such a thick book. I’m also usually more action-oriented, whereas this is more character driven. There is not a lot of action and when there is there is always a slow buildup to it, making those scenes stand out more. I tend to quickly forget details and character names of a lot of the books I read, but not this one. The scenes in this book stand out clear and defined in my mind, in large part due to great detailed descriptions. With names like ‘Prunesquallor’, ‘Nannie Slagg’, and ‘Countess Gertrude Groan’, they’re hard to forget. And the author’s own illustrations of many of them are wild and memorable as well.
Even better than just the names and pictures are the full-bodied characters themselves. You really have to read the book for yourself to make them come alive, and once you do I can almost guarantee they will live forever in your mind. The insane Lord Sepulchrave, the 76th Earl of Gormenghast, who thinks he’s an owl; his epileptic twin sisters Cora and Clarice who are stupid and vacant-minded; the vain, middle aged Irma Prunesquallor in love with a teenager; and the sociopathic Steerpike, the young puppet master behind the inhabitants of the castle. These aren’t all the colorful people of the story; there are many more besides. It’s ironic that the title character really doesn’t play a major role in this first of the series. In fact it really only covers the first year or two of his life, but all the important things that occurred during it.
It’s hard to put a finger on why I liked this novel so much. At times it seemed rather dark, and longwinded, yet the wonderful descriptions and the weirdness of it all lured me on. The author had a way of making even peeling paint sound interesting. I think one of my favorite scenes was the description of Fuchsia’s attic hideaway. Who wouldn’t want a great hidey-hole retreat like that all to oneself?
Is this book fantasy? I would not call it that, although it is set in a fantasy world. If you go into it expecting fantasy, you might be bored. It is not set in a particular time era, though the closest one might get is the 1880’s-1910 era with a fantastical twist.
Some say this book reads of despair and futility. It is dark and the people of Gormeghast do live futile lives of pointless ritual, but the unusual turn of things as Titus grows gives a glimpse that things may change with Titus as heir… ?
One caution: there is one chapter in which a character, Keda, has a one-night stand with a lover.
I’ve read that there is more than one audio drama of this series, and also a movie, but I don’t see how any of them can be as good as the novel. If I ever come across them, I’ll surely review it and post if worth it.
Titus Groan won’t be for everyone. But I’ve certainly learned that character-driven books can be just as interesting (or even more so) than the plotted ones. I’m not sure what the other books in the series will be like, but I can’t wait to see what will happen in the next installment of Titus Groan’s life. The entire series are as follows:
- Titus Groan
- Gormenghast
- Boy in Darkness
- Titus Alone
- Titus Awakes
…
I also recommend…
More Barchester… Doctor Thorne on BBC
How ironic! I am just finishing up the Anthony Trollope novel, “Doctor Thorne” and BBC is airing their dramatized version of it! To listen to it free for a limited time, you can click here. “Doctor Thorne” is #3 in the Barchester Chronicles series, but I found that it stands on its own pretty well.
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