Linda Pastan once wrote that “Finding a new poet is like finding a new wildflower out in the woods,” and while discovering a great podcast isn’t quite as romantic, I’m still pretty happy when I stumble across more audio theater.

For the record, I’m a great fan of the Sonic Society, Decoder Ring Theater, Darker Project’s work and many, many others, and I hope to count Adventure Hear in that number.

Adventure Hear is a relatively new podcast (well, it’s been going since March), and while the look is a little sparse, the episodes are tied together nicely with some stories I haven’t found anywhere else.  The production quality is pretty good, with a fair amount of hostiness from the narrator and a good sense of pacing throughout the episodes.

While my MP3 player of choice is certainly not starving for content, I’m going to make a place on it for the work of Adventure Hear.

Well, this isn’t exactly radio drama, but a fun project by someone affiliated with WMPG and of possible interest to Portland, Maine listeners and maybe those from elsewhere, too.  Last month, former WMPG Office Manager “DJ Mindwrecker” launched PortlandMaine.TV, a so-called “YouTube for Maine.”  This month, he has created another new community site for the Maine Music Community and beyond. PortlandMaine.TV now has its first “sub-channel site”, MaineMusic.TV, which is a messageboard for musicians and bands to post shows and discuss Maine Music, in all genre’s.

Like PortlandMaine.TV, MaineMusic.TV is designed to give Mainer’s a media outlet to disuss all the music that Maine has to offer. From bands, DJ’s, producers, and artists, all musicians and Maine music fans are invited to join and contribute to the discussion. It is free to join, and post your ideas and show dates/services.

I haven’t had too much time to bomb around on the sites, but it looks like there is some amount of community activity, which is going to be essential to gaining any sort of critical mass.  Obviously the numbers aren’t going to be crazy (this is, after all, a small market), but a fair amount of the right kind of targeted traffic will make or break this really interesting start-up.  All the best of luck to PortlandMaine.tv and MaineMusic.tv, from Portland’s foremost radio drama blog!

Blood, knives, intrigue and betrayal are on the way for those tuning in to tomorrow’s broadcast of The Tragedy of Julius Caesar and those lucky enough to be in New York in the next ten days to see director/writer Jay Stern’s new film, The Changeling (playing at the Pioneer Theater). In common with the work he’s done with Quicksilver, Stern’s adaptation of this Elizabethan tragedy makes an old story rich, vital, and deliciously dangerous.

Changeling tells the tale of Beatrice-Johanna, a rather unlucky woman who finds herself betrothed to a man she doesn’t love while lusting for another, while another man who repulses her passionately adores her and will do anything to gain her fancy. And by anything, we mean, anything…

In the familiar tragic turn of events, one sin leads to another, innocent people are caught in the way of sinister intentions and evil deeds must be atoned for. All the while, we are delighted with intimate cinematography, surprising performances, and a story that lulls you along its deadly path.

The Tragedy of Julius Caesar is a familiar tale to many, who will adore this vivid audio adaptation of the bard’s play. All of the lust for power, troubling self-examination, and brutal violence is here and amplified with excellent casting, effects, and music. Many of the lively Romans make an appearance in Changeling, including Craig Wichman, James Prendergast, and Clyde Baldo. We’ll enjoy a trip to old glorious Rome, full of its mystery and melancholy, with the first half airing this week and the conclusion next. Let slip the dogs of war!

Well, we’ve crossed about all the genres so far on the show, and this month we kick off with a stellar piece of contemporary science fiction by Dreamseed. In a not-too-distant future, workers of the world are saved by a pill that makes you forget your dayjob. It’s just one perpetual paid vacation in this sweet dream life, which one man soon finds slipping away… In the spirit of Philip K. Dick, with crisp professional production and a brilliant score, I’m very excited to be sharing Buried in Falling Sand this Thursday, May 3.

For the week of May 10th, we’ll be talking with Dreamseed’s Alexander Davis, one of audio drama’s most innovative new producers. Edgy scripts, excellent production and fresh sound and music are just the beginning of his ambitions to bring audio drama to the entertainment limelight. We’ll talk about the technology and stories that drive him.

Then put on your toga as we slip back to ancient Rome for Quicksilver Radio Theater’s performance of The Tragedy of Julius Caesar. This contemporary interpretation of the 1599 play features all of the intrigue, betrayal, and passion even for those of us who had trouble finishing it in high school. The broadcast on the 17th and 24th is in tandem with a new film by writer/director Jay Stern, The Changeling — a story of desire, deceit and murder.

Finally, we close the month with an original by FinalRune Productions — the genre-bending fantasy story Fall of the Hero. Sir Grace was a lofty knight, revered throughout the land with a record of dragon-slaying on par with none. Yet, a confrontation with an infamous wizard forces him to face his greatest enemy yet: himself.

Join us every week for a trek through audio adventure and discussion about the forces driving this under-appreciated artform back to the ears of America. Live at Thursdays 1PM EST on WMPG or via podcast before the sun sets on Friday.

As if I didn’t have enough to keep me busy already, this morning I found myself tooling around with an old site of mine and freshening it up with some of my short stories and poems.  Long before FinalRune, I used this site as a clearinghouse of pretty much every word I churned out and photo I took.  After I actually started instituting quality controls, this site started collecting digital dust and only attracting a few stray visitors from “girls kissing girls” after an awkward name for a photo album I shot in college.

Anyhow, I still don’t expect it’ll become a massively unforgettable site, but I am putting up some of my back-catalogue of stories and poems that won’t go much further than they have already, even reading a couple for a nice un-dramatized audio experience.  Check out Some Road Through the Desert, the short story that may ultimately become the sequel to Day of the Dead as well as some other stuff on Cenophobia.com.

It was pretty cool to stumble across this article in the Guardian Arts Blog which talks about the future of the audio theater, and features some of my opinions on the sad yet hopeful state of affairs (yes, me, quoted in a real newspaper!). I think one of the toughest things radio drama is facing right now is people not realizing its existence. So articles like this that raise awareness are incredibly appreciated!

There’s also an interesting discussion of devices to put “visual’ in the radio… which while they sound interesting, I can’t help but wonder, isn’t the joy of radio is that the only visuals are the ones in your mind?

Anyways, a really great article overall and worth a read, and maybe a comment?

Taking off the radio drama hat for a second, this morning I was writing an article for my company’s Internet Marketing Blog on Building Community for your Blog (yeah, it’s the job that actually pays).  A couple of interesting things crossed my mind while writing on this subject and especially about building up liberal linking habits.

The importance of linking to other authors first hit me while working on the supporting materials for Day of the Dead.  One of my essays — the New Orleans one, I think — received a whole slew of red ink from my instructors after they read probably three to four pages of scholarship with limited citations.  Having spent five years in university, you’d think I’d have taken care of this poor habit (in my defense, it was a draft), but the tricky part with this essay is that I was writing from common knowledge.  Or, at least what I thought was common knowledge (based on chatting with any number of locals in French Quarter dive bars for the past couple years).

While most of what I wrote turned out to be close to true, it was still important to be able to validate my assertions beyond just “I told you so.”  This probably induces a “Well duh” from you, but the point is that linking to other websites is the equivalent technique in Internet terms.  Besides providing evidence that you’ve read about the subject (or at least spent a few minutes Googling it), links make it easier for people to sniff out your trail and follow it to distant reaches of the Internet.  And since a lot of these radio drama sites aren’t terribly, er, optimized for maximum search engine performance, linking is ever so much more important for us to keep interested listeners tuned in to the great diversity of producers that are actually out there.

So, inasmuch as I can, I hope to link here to all of the dramatists whose work I find inspiring, and words I find insightful.

In case you haven’t gotten wind of it already, the National Audio Theater Festival is coming up, June 23-30 in balmy West Plains, MO.  I, for one, will be there, and look forward to a variety of interesting workshops and especially the opportunity to network with other audio drama enthusiasts.

Especially exciting, if you happen to be theatrically inclined, is a narrator’s workshop aimed at teaching the rigors of professional narration both for dramatized works and traditional audiobooks.  Targeted for only twenty fine applicants, this workshop is lead by audiobook producer/director Paul Ruben and award-winning narrators Bill Dufris and Barbara Caruso.  In addition to teaching the actual performance work of narrating, the workshop will touch on the business of narration, building a demo CD and auditioning short performances.

I really have no idea which workshops interest me yet — I could certainly use a little coaching with sound effects and wouldn’t mind some critiques on my scriptwriting, but truth is it all sounds pretty good and the best part is always the after-parties.  I’m certainly looking forward to June, and hope to see you in Missouri!

Hey, you know that contest I told you about a couple weeks, whereby various public radio stations are looking for their next top host? Well, the contest is a’rollin and I have an entry up, the prospective show — you guessed it.  All about radio drama.

Here’s to a Foolproof cure for ennui, boredom, and general malaise

And it’s okay, you can be honest, too.

If my updates lately have been more intermittent, I can only account for my work re-developing the FinalRune Productions audio stories site to be completely managed using Wordpress as a CMS system.  While the existing website was pretty solidly coded in lean PHP, I wanted a lot of cool whizmos and whazzits which come with Wordpress as well as the great ease of use when adding content.  Plus the ability to add comments!  I have some great ideas for semi-controversial radio drama articles in the near future, and wanted the ability to engage my readers in a dialogue.

I think it looks pretty sharp, and now that (hopefully) I have the tech side squared away, I’ll be able to focus on my true passion, and that is telling stories.  And writing great stories about the stories.