It makes perfect sense that a culture whose most powerful public mass medium was radio should value the spoken word highly. Poets themselves were well aware of this quality of radio. It would take awhile, however, before poets began to write especially for the medium itself.
Category Archives: Drama
The Obstacle of Technique
Two great obstacles to a wider appreciation of audio drama face new listeners at every turn. The first is the lack of a real critical history. The greater obstacle, however, is not what has not been written but rather what has.
Bardolatry and Its Discontents
Shakespeare is treated with a true idolatry–Bardolatry. Producing groups do not help when they treat audience members like sheep and imply that they need not understand Shakespeare. Theaters are there to pass down the Law. They expect that the barbarians simply arrive at the Church of Theater, convert to the cause of Bardolatry and receive William’s Holy Word like a communion wafer. Whether or not the barbarians understand transubstantiation is immaterial to the purposes of the Church.
The Minister of Chance: Serial Telling
Those who know me also know I crusade regularly against bad science fiction in popular culture. They also know that I am not a Doctor Who fan by any stretch of the imagination. Probably, then, there will be some surprise in the ranks that I have only glowing things to say about the new audio drama, The Minister of Chance.
Project Top Hat
Courtesy of the lovely Julie Hoverson, we present to you an original script from her audio drama series, 19 Nocturne Boulevard . This episode, “Project Top Hat,” was originally podcast on January 2, 2012. For more information on the series, check out Julie’s own website at www.19nocturneboulevard.net.
Stuck: the Right to Atrophy
Is the pursuit of the right to atrophy a dramatically compelling one? This is the question that continues to occur to me as I reflect on playwright Jessica Hatlo’s Stuck, up now at Washington Ensemble Theatre.
Cocktails at the Centre of the Earth at Annex Theatre: Rollicking, Yet Empty, Times
John Allis takes in Annex’s Cocktails at the Centre of the Earth, and while it is every bit the zany, madcap, pun-filled steampunk romp it promises to be, there’s not much else there.
Macha Monkey’s Thebes at ToJ
Change is afoot in the very small town of Thebes as it approaches its mayoral election. There Mary Johnston, a Christian woman emanating down-home manners of social and moral pragmatism and poise, is seeking office against Joe, the incumbent candidate with whom she shares both an affection and some personal history.
Under the Table: A short play by Kelleen Conway Blanchard
A short play by the fabulous Kelleen Conway Blanchard. There is no “I” in team…
