Fresh from Ireland, a cool new video from a new show, ‘THE BEE-LOUD GLADE: A Living Anthology of Contemporary Irish Poetry,’ with music by Roger Gregg & Crazy Dog Audio Theatre.

Meanwhile, I solicited some pretty candid comments from Roger about the news regarding BBC radio drama:

Behind all this is the well-entrenched paradigm which has been embraced since the year dot over here.

Namely that ‘Radio Drama’ is Theatre on the radio and that ‘theatre’ must always come in the form of ‘plays’.

‘Plays’ are presented in long formats, 90 minutes, an hour, 45 minutes.

Half hour things are ‘Light Entertainment’ or half-hour or less slot ‘Serials’ such as the Archers [which I think is around the 15 minute mark]. … The Radio Networks do the research and time and time again it comes back to them that relatively NO ONE listens to the long-form ‘drama’ – go over half an hour and the numbers go down…down…after 45 minutes down…down…over that .. down …down… gone.

But since ‘Theatre’ and ‘Drama’ MUST always in their paradigm be about presenting ‘Plays’ they are stuck.

I don’t know how many times I’ve banged the drum for SHORT slots citing the wonderful success Dirk Maggs achieved with
so much of his BBC Radio 2 adventure series. Daily in short segments, an omnibus on the weekends and if and when a CD is released or it’s put up on the internet, then you can connect all the daily segments together with discrete track i.d.s between each segment for easy cueing. I have said this in writing to RTE and Radio 2 as well as suggested in writing to a couple of the independent stations,
but NO ONE is interested.

The emprical marketing and listening pattern research is there. Time and time again the statistics and conclusions therefrom are plain to see. Station Programmers meticulously study this data and have adapted old and created new highly successful programming and
styles and modes of presentation.

YET the bastion of ‘Radio Drama’ remains impervious to this. This is one reason why they do themselves no favours and are often regarded as the hindbound nuisance in stations compelled to produce drama.

Youch! Hard truths but worth meditating on. I know that plenty of people listen to long-form drama – on demand – but on broadcast radio it’s a whole different beast.

Roger’s comments bring Tom Lopez’s work on 2 Minute Film Noir, indeed, his work with Ruby and Jack Flanders being released as ongoing serialized shorts. In an environment where attention spans are short and time is precious, less is more.

Radio Drama Revival wants to offer huge congratulations to Yuri Rasovsky and Roger Gregg for achieving nominations for two separate, yet equally big awards.

Yuri Rasovsky’s The Maltese Falcon was nominated for a Grammy for Best Spoken Word Album, an enormous accomplishment for an audio drama.

And jeez, if you haven’t listened to The Maltese Falcon yet, do! I raved about it in a review I did a few months ago because it deserved it, and much more. It’s one of the best audio mysteries you’ll hear.

While the actual award went to Michael J. Fox’s, Always Looking Up, let’s congratulate Yuri again for bringing audio drama to a major awards night.

Our compatriot across the sea, Roger Gregg, has been nominted for his country’s Irish Times Theatre Award for Best Sound Design for his work in Barrabbas Theatre’s Johnny Patterson: The Singing Irish Clown.

While this doesn’t honor his radio drama work directly, his sound design is, of course, a direct byproduct of his excellent work in audio drama and the nomination is a huge honor.

Not being from Ireland, I asked Roger what these awards were about. He simply put, “in Ireland these are THE Awards. The only ones that matter when it comes to professional theatre.”

Congratulations again Roger and Yuri, it’s a great day for audio drama when two of our own get the recognition they deserve!

Ahh, ancient Greece. Hot nymphs, raging orgies, much wine, song, and occasional transformations into a goat. All well and good, right?

Well things are more wacky than ever in the sizzling and scandalous interpretation of the myth of Orpheus done by Roger Gregg, The Stuff of Myth.

This great production won a Gold Ogle in 2007 and has gotten rave reviews as a stage play. Now hear what the buzz is all about in the first bonus episode… and stay tuned the rest of the month for more!

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Radio Drama Revival Bonus Episode – Stuff of Myth 1 of 4

This week we feature Roger Gregg’s smokin’ adaptation of the Greek myth of Marsyas. Marsyas was just an average satyr, drinkin’, screwin’, sleepin’ and generally carrying on with the band of Dionysus… until he fights a magical horn which changes his life (and attitude) forever.

Off the Audio Gothic collection, which just about finishes this excellent series that I’ve trickled out on Radio Drama Revival for about a year now… The festival of Dionysus continues next week with “The Stuff of Myth!”

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Radio Drama Revival Episode 120 – Marsyas, the Hippest Satyr

Congratulations to Eric Benson, a listener in Canada who wins our “Name the Theme” contest. He gets a copy of Crazy Dog Live on CD!

Gadzooks! This week we speak to the one-and-only, inimitable, incredible, fiendishly creative Roger Gregg of Crazy Dog Audio Theater.

From deep in his secret lair of audio drama mystique in Dublin, Ireland I picked his brain about his career, his legacy with the RTE, and the future of the arts in a changing world. With a special shout out to Gerry Murphy Poetry.

An interview not to be missed!

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Radio Drama Revival Episode 117 – A Chat with Roger Gregg

This week on the show we welcome back the work of Roger Gregg with a piece created in cooperation with the Gaiety School of Acting in Dublin, Ireland.

Morgan O’Brien hangs in limbo between life and death, and finds the afterlife a much wilder place than he imagined. Confused, frustrated, and alone, he is forced to confront the reality of his actions made while alive. But is there still time to go back and change things?

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Radio Drama Revival Episode 116 – The Heart of Morphine

Credits

Written, Directed & Produced by Roger Gregg – © 2009.

Performed by the Gaiety School of Acting’s Graduating Class of 2009

The production was recorded at various indoor and outdoor locations in Dublin with sound engineer Lorraine McCarthy. Post-production, mixing etc. at Crazy Dog studios.

The script was written especially to suit the talents of the cast after a short devising workshop process as part of the Gaiety School?s Radio Drama / Acting-in-Audio course.

Music by Roger Gregg with cast members singing, playing guitar, fiddle and harmonica.