The SFFaudio Podcast #701 – AUDIOBOOK/READALONG: The Hill Of Dreams by Arthur Machen

Podcast

The SFFaudio PodcastThe SFFaudio Podcast #701 – The Hill Of Dreams by Arthur Machen; read by Mark Nelson

This unabridged reading of the story (7 hours 3 minutes) is followed by a discussion of it.

Participants in the discussion include Jesse and Connor Kaye.

Talked about on today’s show:
1907, semi-autobiographical novel, he kills himself at the end, the Lord Dunsany introduction from 1954, narrating audiobooks, a writer of note himself, surprisingly lucky in a way that Machen was not (not just being born a lord), Machen made his money as a journalist, editor, a job here and there, inheriting money from relatives, that allowed him to write, how else do you get the time to write, Lovecraft’s struggles, walking, The Silver Key, ancient Greeks and Romans, The Watcher By The Threshold, the veil, the secret world behind the veil, the colour of that world (is red), the furnace and the fire, light and colour and emotion, a very odd book, this book is a real trip, maybe Machen’s masterpiece, bigger in scope but also very intimate, take out all the parts about the struggle of writing, if condensed down, what makes it into a novel, bounced off this book, what is going on in this book, no clear plot at the start, not having anybody support that, Mark Nelson: fantastic, Mark Nelson has good taste and picks good stuff to narrate, Machen is a tough writer, he’s dense, floating on a river and sensations happen, Mrs. Gibbon and Annie were more important than we thought, the faun on the hill, by the end you understand, the first reading through, the focus is strange, Ambrose Bierce is perverse, Mark Twain, the least understandable way is the best way, this book has its own reading list, Dream-Land by Edgar Allan Poe, this is my guy, Poe and me are best buds, making gold out of letters on pages, even Lovecraft is easier, Lovecraft doesn’t throw us red herrings, a series of red herrings (the troubles of life), significant as a life trauma (not a plot point), incidents from Lucians life, The Cosy Room, a lot of rooms, he really knows place, exhausting your body walking and coming to a space, he can’t look at certain things in the room, the level distance from the harsh realities, I’m an alien, I’m much higher above looking down, a nice coping mechanism, boys torturing insects, they don’t feel pain anyways, the puppy torture scene, kids are like that, Out Of The Earth, bloodlust of children causing WWI, strange connections, put on the button that says “current thing”, Russians are evil now, very interesting but very difficult, get your trigger warning out, how disassociated Lucian is, I wanted to shake him, he didn’t do anything, talking about it, he has to be aloof from these things, so disconnected from what was happening around him, considering the rest of this story, he is the puppy, he feels, he is a victim, the owner of the puppy, she is the one who comforts him, the girl that becomes his religion, the puppy scene is incredible,

The leader saw the moment for his master-stroke. He slowly drew a piece of rope from his pocket.

“What do you say to that, mun? Now, Thomas Trevor! We’ll hang him over that there bough. Will that suit you, Bobby Williams?”

There was a great shriek of approval and delight. All was again bustle and animation. “I’ll tie it round his neck?” “Get out, mun, you don’t know how it be done.” “Is, I do, Charley.” “Now, let me, gwaes, now do let me.” “You be sure he won’t bite?” “He bain’t mad, be he?” “Suppose we were to tie up his mouth first?”

The puppy still fawned and curried favor, and wagged that sorry tail, and lay down crouching on one side on the ground, sad and sorry in his heart, but still with a little gleam of hope; for now and again he tried to play, and put up his face, praying with those fond, friendly eyes. And then at last his gambols and poor efforts for mercy ceased, and he lifted up his wretched voice in one long dismal whine of despair. But he licked the hand of the boy that tied the noose.

the core problem for all of us, we are the ones who inflict pain, monsters and boys, trying to be kind to everyone, in the city, that quality of generosity, the most beautiful, Annie, a servant girl, Master Lucian, when he meets her in the lane, reverse double leg cling, she caresses his head, the published book with stuff stolen from his book, once something is published, no one wants any of that, something we both do and something that we do to others, it’s amazing, here read my book, they cant see the garbage that they’ve written, they can only see , why would I bother that something isn’t published?, the worst baseball player ever, keep going johnny you can do it!, the cultural movement, late 90s, the rise of self-help, you can do anything, every person can be the best at something they are capable of being, liking to run, long legs and pain inside that can only be healed by having a gold medal around your neck, a horrible reality of the world, a coming of age story, realization of your own limitations is coming of age, a painful aspect, the pain of sexuality, the horniest boy ever, his fellow kids, him alone spinning up his own theories, lusting after almost ethereal objects, highly romantic sense of the world, working class people who don’t give a shit, let’s get trashed, the 12 year old and the 15 year old, going for long walks, idealizing women, under the surface, we don’t know him that well except where his actions bubble up against reality, there is feeling there, when he tries to share his book with people, do pretty flowers, some people are trying to help him, unwillingness to deviate, he’s gifted, he knows he’s gifted, a lot of alchemy symbolism, words are magical, the ability to provoke and control emotions, making people more subject to what they are, mostly used for evil, when he first sees that book with his stuff published in it, validated, apathetic, he’s proud of it, making it all about money, he needed the validation, a stage that a lot of authors get stuck in, the ideas are going to be stolen, Armageddon (1998) and Deep Impact (1998), you gotta sue, a Guy De Maupassant story was totally ripped-off, sold to weird tales, The Tortoise Shell Comb, An Apparition, a cavalry officer, comb my hair for me, if you were Guy De Maupassant, Banksy?, give your mom a book you wrote, a dishonesty of the known relationship, do the esoteric stuff not the commercial stuff, the anti-Edgar Rice Burroughs, kind of suceeds, it’s a victory?, a lot of Lovecraft in this character, the young writer, the particular personality type, unbending, committing to a vision, not compromising, he got that book, a funny line they always say about Lovecraft, so many beans, accentuates the victory, we can’t even read the fucking thing, and yet it’s a victory, who is it a victory for?, a victory for Lucian, overdosing on morphine, Confessions Of An English Opium-Eater, ladies of sorrow, horror movies, Suspiria (1977), a bestseller, How I Smoked Crack And Lived To Tell About It, that French guy who loved Poe, Les Fleurs Du Mal, Suspiria De Profundis, Charles Baudelaire, insight into his mind, an unreliable narrator?, he’s hiding something from us, he has the shakes, smoking a ton of tobacco, overdosed, an addict, emotionless, he probably doesn’t want to masturbate, doesn’t have the materials, burying thoughts in physical weariness, piercing his own body with burrs, a recognized mental illness symptom, cutting, hare shirts, impure thoughts, the fetish, unhealthy, complex organisms in a complex society, get a real job, follow my advice, very real, who’s to say they’re not right?, the middle road, Lucian chose complete dedication art, bending like a reed in the wind, no goals, getting you killed, going along with the current, part of the problem for individuals, living in a society with mass hysteria, why do we have to have that war on another continent, an alliance treaty with France and Russia, white chicken feathers, the current thing, almost a statement, Trevor Towers, Celephais?, sleepwalks off a cliff, a triumph but only from his point of view, capitalism’s threat: knuckle under or become homeless, peruse artistic endeavors, Machen survived where Lucian didn’t, another way he could have gone, this is what could have happened to me, idealistic, circumstances were slightly different, early 2000, Richard K. Morgan, conflict investment, Market Forces, caught up in Netflix deals, ultimately the opposite of the Stephen King/Lovecraft route, success can be something that can hurt you as well, The Bowmen, jotted off in five minutes, the Ghost of Kyiv, the Angel Of The Mons, attestations, Bryan Alexander, Colonel Tomb laughs at this from his grave, just has to be true stories, Vietnamese fighter pilot, Colonel Toon, WWII, Panfilov’s 28 Men (2016), War Thunder, how dare you say that, it’s important!, bullshit made of wholecloth, the rolling thunder of this truth being needed, if Machen had any kind of cultural impact, debunking it, it’s true that it would be good for morale, Rape Of Belgium, these brave Belgian boys, we need them to be hard done by, raped by the pre-Nazis, ginning up anger, encouraging recruitment, a fundamental lie at base, there’s a veil between reality and how we see reality, the veil is real, willful blinders, the noble lie, telling truths, from genuine situations, confabulating slightly, Philip K. Dick’s characters are autobiographical, Horselover Fat, A Scanner Darkly, putting himself on the list, sometimes we slip through, a very odd book, John Steinbeck, East Of Eden, magnum opus, frustrating and meandering, not page turners, ethereal feeling, the veil between reality, The White People, The Great God Pan, monologue about what is reality, investing the time and energy, it feels pretty long, Charles Dickens is very engaging, floating down a river, Machen loves his descriptions of nature, at the fort on the hill, descriptions of the trees and nature, crafted, did this actually happen to Machen as a boy?, ecstatic experience, on drugs, what makes you go back there, how small you are, connection, he tried it with a novel, alcohol, the invention of gin, counter-reaction, massive social impacts, China’s reaction to computer games, a three hour limit, internet games, solo game disconnected from the internet, single player games now require an internet connection, Civilization 2, Roblox, Minecraft, set in its period (late 19th century), love of literature and great texts, 18th century authors knew what was going on, Kublai Khan by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, La Belle Dame Sans Merci by John Keats, knight vs. wight, Tolkien leftovers, because it’s archaic, a horny young man and an idealized woman, a femme fatale story, it destroys him, dissociates, his ideal woman, Annie as a person, as a part of his imagination, the Roman fort, being a Roman senator, the Roman temples of D.C., we are just as great (corrupt) as they were, a false reality, I’m wearing a business suit, folk horror, how women are depicted in folk horror, pagan motifs, witchcraft, blindsided, when Miss Gibbons died, a very fairy tale scene, he’s the wolf, Annie was a witch, unholy wedding, explicitly magical aspects, seduction, the magic is in the men, brain chemicals, the shapely waist, her skin, the Platonic ideal, in the air in the period, Mr. Skelmersdale In Fairyland by H.G. Wells, I’m ruined now, transformed him, it isn’t played for laughs, The New Accelerator, The Invisible Man, comic possibilities everywhere, bittersweet, a triumph as a tragedy, a silk purse of a sow’s ear, lemonade from lemons, the slippery idea of the ideal world or woman, when we read Lovecraft that’s the absent part, Edgar Allan Poe, the ideal woman is the dead woman, she can never be limited by reality (growing old, not being smart enough, fighting), the Baudelaire way, beautiful cruelty, life is cruel, damaged people managing their trauma (in ways other than alcohol), a moment later, joy and happiness, drunk on love, bronze hair, come for a walk with me, a statue, very Greek, his visions, there was death in the woman’s face, she had indeed, the brink of utter desolation, a sex scene too, the carpet matches the drapes, a very sexual novel for a guy who’s so chaste, he falls asleep on the hill, none of them are real and all of them are, is this kid mentally ill?, the end of Dagon, he’s seeing the thing he’s fearful of in himself and not recognizing it, a troubled kid, maybe it’s like he has down syndrome or he’s autistic, kindness, the world is retarded and not him, he’s so extreme in his uncompromisingness, expressed as greatness, isolation, pushes him to the brink, again he was astray in the mist, splendid as Rome, terrible as Babylon, the place of eternal gloom, ring within ring, circle within circle, high writing, the sanctuary of the infernal right, wresting, muscles that could throw down mountains, a flaring street, naphtha fires, pure poetry, dusky figures, a noise like a chant of the lost, orgy, bronze hair, a gulf of darkness, all symbolism, precious robes, the room!, a vapour of the grave, horrible caresses, the matted thicket, the desire rose up like a black smoke, amazing, she lures him, he forces himself upon her, she turns into a very bad trip, exaltation to pain and torture, the elm tree was riven, Lucian is a good name, the tumult and the shock came as a sudden murmur, he overdosed, is he chasing the dragon?, are all of these dreams on the hill?, his dependence on tobacco, a symbol for a later addiction, walking to get rid of his energy, thick black tobacco to cloud his mind, he chases her across a landscape that is not a city, a difficult triumph, no one else is wealthier for it, a vast silence overwhelmed him, Ex Oblivione, dissolving into the Realm of the Forms, a temporary escape from reincarnation, The Novel Of The White Powder, going to seed or dissolution, a continuous issue, Lovecraft was a teetotaler, the other way you can go, morphine?, The Green Meadow, ecstatic states, walking to exhaustion, a difficult topic, there’s truth everywhere in it, sloppy racism, the primitives being in touch with sensations and sense, barbarian hating civilization, Robert E. Howard, nine times, barbarians, pleasantly, prigs perfected, joyous manly young fellows, raped?, devious backstreets, the respectable inhabitants are barbarians, The Lost Club, a Weird Tales reprint, The Lost Room by Fitz James O’Brien, places that go missing, The Music Of Erich Zann, The Lost Street [by ], a strange experience, experiencing weirdness, N, a more definite divide between fantasy and reality, a magical world intruding upon London, The Wonderful Window by Lord Dunsany, does he go through it?, Golden Dragon City, Game Of Thrones, the only guy with HBO in 1902, Dunsany had it much easier, a crazy man confronts Dunsany in a restaurant, I just make them up you see, the story that is described is one Dunsany wrote, as extreme as Dunsany gets, not quite on the level of Guy de Maupassant, rigid principles, flowery words and a suit, a lifestyle that could so endanger them, is N unfinished?, a warning story, prurient interest in seeing how far one can descend, reality TV shows, I’m not that depraved, morbid curiosity, not edifying curiosity, The Cosy Room And Others, Hippocampus Press, The Ancient Track: The Complete Poetical Works of H. P. Lovecraft, nothing of Lovecraft is copyrighted, you don’t know how many letters he wrote where he put a poem in for a newborn baby’s birthday, so nested and so rich with vocabulary, a werewolf story, Psychopompos, exhausting a sonnet, more time invested in reading Clark Ashton Smith is a good thing, if this is Machen’s worst I want to read more, difficult, The Shining Pyramid, tiny details that fly by, The Unknown World, May 15 – June 15, 1895, Robert E. Howard wrote way more than H.P. Lovecraft did, the vastness of his other work, popular for his supernatural stories, Robert W. Chambers flips a switch, the opposite of what Lucian does, The Secret Glory, The Three Impostors, a fix-up, chasin a dragon out of the window, spent it all on insane asylums, The Horla, Maupassant rented a hot air balloon to promote a book, before airplanes, The Troop by Nick Cutter, trained up and fought a poet to promote his book, Uwe Boll, Ed Wood, completely talentless, maybe he just got past it, self-awareness is a stumbling block, Ed Wood (1994), found family, he has an eye and no talent, as innocent as a war veteran could be, a go getter, $5, Golan Globus Theatre podcast, the Tijuana Bible, historical records we need to have preserved, what Julian needed (was printed pornography), Conquering Goddess, it needs to be fully illustrated, BDSM, Robert E. Howard, nudy pulps before Playboy, the first Playboy with Marilyn Monroe, weird repression, Penthouse, happening but hidden away, human nature never changes, more evidence that this is how we have always been, embarrassing, left out in the woods, pre-WWII, this is somebody’s great grandma, challenged one of his critics to a boxing match, if he won the boxing match, you won the fight therefore, dueling, humour was our way of escaping bullies, laughter is disarming, intellectual overpowering, more than halfway through (life), a very thinly veiled autobiography, drawing on his own experience, a lot of philosophy, writerly philosophy, more about writing than it is about mysticism, why Maupassant wrote weird fiction, Maupassant’s career, A Piece Of String, A Ball Of Fat, a Star Trek episode [The Galileo Seven], hypocrisy, my servants are stealing from me, I am my servant, these terrible experiences he must relate, very healthily not on Twitter, No Man’s Land by John Buchan, Esteban Maroto, Australian youtube audiobook narrator, Steve Parker audiobooks, simple guy: likes audiobooks, iPads, Randall’s Round, you should always record, The Wind In The Portico, The Temple Of Death by A.C. Benson, 23 temples, spread out the Buchan, doing the same authors but not back to back, The Horror Horn by E.F. Benson, a yeti story in Switzerland, The Inn by Guy De Maupassant, the horror of being alone, afraid of a lot of stuff, The Terror, Who Knows?, the little shop dwarf, his homunculus, “oh monsieur, all your furniture is gone”, this is alarming, the furniture is the faculties of his mind, all metaphorical, symbolist, a good discussion of a complex book.

The Hill Of Dreams by Arthur Machen

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The SFFaudio Podcast #265 – READALONG: Deus Irae by Philip K. Dick and Roger Zelazny

Podcast

The SFFaudio PodcastThe SFFaudio Podcast #265 – Jesse, Tam, and Paul Weimer discuss Deus Irae by Philip K. Dick and Roger Zelazny

Talked about in this episode:
1976, “hey it’s Zelazny”, Tibor and whatnot, “The Great C.“, waking from a gnostic dream of oblivion, “the book is opaque to say the least”, “on the pilg”, recommended for super Dick-fans who like religion, New Wave (basically shitty), Christianity, Ted White, the Sector General novels, mythology and religion, 80-85% Dick, post-apocalyptic story, the local A.I., the sacrifice of the Athenians to the Minotaur, like a Jeopardy game, heliocentricity vs. geocentricity, “Benford, Bear, and Brin’s new Foundation trilogy”, Hari Seldon in a chimpanzee body, The Best Of Gregory Benford, it’s a paycheck, “If you wanna read this piece of shit that’s fine … I’m getting paid.”, cynicism, looking for the truth behind things, Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?, Tibor’s conversations, there’s no fixed ground, Dr. Bloodmoney, Or How We Got Along After The Bomb, the fallout from nuclear fallout, Utah, Denver, “where are they getting this coffee?”, the socio-economic underpinnings of this book are fantasy, The Man In The High Castle, is he really worried about his bottle?, Autofac, the consequences of automated production, an economic weapon a weapon of war, Gresham’s law, The Crawlers, incs = incompletes, the thalidomide baby phenomenon, Arthur C. Clarke, Of Withered Apples (and our podcast about it), the apple tree scene doesn’t pay-off, the dog, episodic feel, the parallel pilgrimage of Peter Sands, the guy with the face problem, devil from the sky, Lufteufel (from the German words “Luft,” meaning “air,” and “Teufel,” meaning “Devil”), the class of people who engage with believers but don’t believe themselves, if you go into churches…, if there is a point to this story, representation, no photos of Jesus, does it matter if we worship a false image?, drawing a symbol, “the novel is extremely gnostic”, Zelazny’s Amber series, Islam goes the opposite way, depictions of Muhammad, believers tend not to worry about such details, the Klingons, the gnostic gloss, “it works as what it is”, the miracle of the arms and legs, a vision of the Deus Irae, what’s going on with the cow?, she’s a holy cow, the authors say?, “the cow slept and dreamed – Tibor ruminated.”, mechanical arms only (no legs), the crucifixion in reverse, the endings, Lufteufel and his daughter, dissolution, he does partake in divinity, Dr. Abernathy, Luke Daniels, the ozone in the air, an Arthurian motif, the healing of the wound, The Last Defender Of Camelot, dedicated Stanley G. Weinbaum and The Martian Odyssey, connecting the books, The Martian Odyssey is important and interesting but not great, “a classic of the field”, the first Science Fiction to come out of the 1920s, mostly junk, aliens that are just alien, where it fits in the history of Science Fiction, PKD’s favourite author was A.E. van Vogt, changing things up every thousand words, a formative influence on both Dick and Zelazny?, Eric S. Rabkin, maybe they had coffee together, A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller, Jr., dung beetles, the lizards (Lizzies), the talking bird, “the little black boys”, I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream by Harlan Ellison, transformed by Am, another name for God or Popeye, evil turns into good, it’s all for the best, the philosophy behind Voltaire’s Candide, “it was good that we had a nuclear war”, the story of Noah, the ultimate Spring cleaning, religious people don’t tend to get stuck at that point, “maybe I’m wrong”, somebody is going to enjoy that sermon by Dr. Abernathy, the passing of good out of evil, internal arguments, “good” is not as strong as “evil”, a very clever sophistic argument that kind of works, a lot of German, allusions to other literature, and “the stars threw down their spears”, William Blake’s Tyger Tyger, a gnostic poem, the currency of half-forgotten poems, funerals and weddings call for the imagery and vocabulary of poetry, cultural tools for sealing social relationships, The Stars My Destination, what is gnosticism?, going out into a cave…, a vision quest, revelations, Jesus’ marriage, canonized gnosticism, religion as Jesus fan fiction, fan service, Galactic Pot Healer, a crisis of faith, a god needs help, a lack of editing, the meditation/drug thing, pastors can be grumpy without coffee and cigarettes, Abernathy is an asshole.

Deus Irae by Philip K. Dick DELL SF

Daw Books - DEUS IRAE by Philip K. Dick and Roger Zelazny

DEUS IRAE by Philip K. Dick and Roger Zelazny - Illustration by Corben

The Great C. by Philip K. Dick

Tyger Tyger by William Blake

Posted by Jesse Willis

Review of Last Call by Tim Powers

SFFaudio Review

Last Call by Tim PowersLast Call
By Tim Powers; Read by Bronson Pinchot
16 CDs – Approx. 19.1 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: December 2010
ISBN: 9781441757364
Themes: / Fantasy / Gambling / Immortality / Las Vegas / Poetry / Arthurian Legend / Greek Mythology / Egyptian Mythology

Scott Crane abandoned his career as a professional poker player twenty years ago and hasn’t returned to Las Vegas, or held a hand of cards, in ten years. But troubling nightmares about a strange poker game he once attended on a houseboat on Lake Mead are drawing him back to the magical city. For the mythic game he believed he won did not end that night in 1969—and the price of his winnings was his soul. Now, a pot far more strange and perilous than he ever could imagine depends on the turning of a card. Enchantingly dark and compellingly real, this World Fantasy Award–winning novel is a masterpiece of magic realism set in the gritty, dazzling underworld known as Las Vegas.

Tim Powers’ Last Call (1992 William Morrow and Co.; 2010 Blackstone Audio, Inc.) is studded with references to old myths, snatches of T.S. Eliot’s “The Wasteland,” the art of poker playing, and the unique culture and atmosphere of old and new Las Vegas. It contains numerous major and minor characters, overarching themes and subplots, and digressions into probability theory. In other words, it demands close reading and attention to detail. Listening to it in half-hour chunks as I did while driving to work was probably not the best idea, and may have affected my review of the book, but what follows is an honest appraisal.

There’s a lot to like in Last Call, and I lot I liked. At its heart it’s really about the vast, mysterious forces driving the universe and the ways in which they manifest in our lives. Why does tragedy pass over a criminal and take a good person instead? Why does a disease like cancer randomly strike a family man with a wife and children to support? Although life appears chaotic and meaningless, perhaps there are active, purposeful forces of fate at work as well, old gods that exist outside our typical suburban lives but can be sought out and appealed to, and even manipulated. In Last Call Powers breathes new life into ancient myths like the Arthurian Fisher King, the Greek god Dionysus, and the Egyptian goddess Isis, incorporating themes of resurrection and physical health tied to spiritual health. These ancient demigods reappear in the forms of unlikely modern-day characters, including broken-down ex-gambler Scott Crane and his estranged foster-sister Diana. Last Call also includes a cast of memorable bad guys, including a bloated fat hit man Trumbull who is convinced that eternal life can be had through the consumption of raw flesh, and the chief baddie Georges Leon, a mystic who achieves immortality through stealing and possessing the bodies of the living. Crane is the central figure in the story, a man who in 1969 played a portentous game of Assumption with a powerful set of tarot cards. Twenty years later Crane returns for a second game against Leon with nothing less than his soul on the line.

Last Call is ultimately a hopeful book, as it implies that there may be a purpose to our lives and a way to control one’s destiny, if you can read the cards and master the archetypes of the Tarot. In Powers’ hands playing cards are a metaphor for the mysteries of life and the skill and luck required to navigate its uncertain waters.

Neil Gaiman’s American Gods employs a similar conceit of old gods reincarnated in the modern world but I must say I enjoyed Gaiman’s take better. Powers is a talented writer and I enjoyed his descriptions of the seedy soul of Las Vegas, as well as some memorable set-pieces he creates, including an encounter with the ghost of the infamous gangster Bugsy Siegel beneath the waters of Lake Mead. But the slow pace of the narrative, the meandering plotline, the too-numerous characters and plotlines that drop in and out of the story without sufficient explanation and resolution (Crane’s wife Susan, for example), and tedious descriptions of card game after card game make Last Call a difficult listen and at times an outright chore, despite the fine narration by Bronson Pinchot.

Perhaps my lukewarm reaction to Last Call has something to do with the fact that I I’m not a fan of card playing; Vegas is a cool place to visit and I’ve tried my hand at a few slot machines, but sitting down at a table in the company of hardcore gamblers has zero appeal for me. If you read Last Call watch closely for the signs, the subtle flush of cheek or restless eyes that the best card players know how to detect and interpret. As for casual readers: Beware.

Posted by Brian Murphy

Review of Discord’s Apple by Carrie Vaughn

SFFaudio Review

BRILLIANCE AUDIO - Discord's Apple by Carrie VaughnDiscord’s Apple
By Carrie Vaughn; Read by Angela Dawe and Luke Daniels
8 CDs – Approx. 9 Hours 12 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Brilliance Audio
Published: July 6, 2010
ISBN: 9781441876003
Sample |MP3|
Themes: / Fantasy / Magic / Gods / Family / Romance / Greek Mythology / Colorado / Terrorism / Arthurian Legend / Russia / Los Angeles / Immortality /

When Evie Walker goes home to spend time with her dying father, she discovers that his creaky old house in Hope’s Fort, Colorado, is not the only legacy she will inherit. Hidden behind the basement door is a secret and magical storeroom, a place where wondrous treasures from myth and legend are kept safe until they are needed again. Of course, this legacy is not without its costs: There are those who will give anything to find a way in. With the help of her father, a mysterious stranger named Alex, and some unexpected heroes, Evie must guard the storeroom against ancient and malicious forces, and protect both the past and the future even as the present unravels. Old heroes and notorious villains alike rise to fight on her side or to do their best to bring about her defeat. At stake is the fate of the world and the prevention of nothing less than the apocalypse.

Novels with alternating storylines, like Discord’s Apple, are probably easier to write than regular single plot novels. I’ve never come across one that defeated the main problem of such novels. It’s the problem of comparison. The present (alternate present) storyline in Discord’s Apple is far less compelling than those parts which are set during, and in the immediate years following, the Trojan War. By disc three it had become abundantly clear that the two storylines would meet up – and that the more interesting part of the book would be subsumed by the lesser. But, as the novel progressed MORE storylines were added and none of them were very promising. First there was The Eagle Eye Commandos story, the story of a set of G.I. Joe knock-offs that are, we are told, ‘the most popular comic book series in the USA.’ That storyline is told in a third person ominscient POV, as if were’ reading over Evie’s shoulder while she writes it on her laptop. That’s a big problem. I’ve seen scripts for comic books. They look nothing like what Evie writes for her artist collaborator – she’s writing standard prose, not a comics script, the artist would have to adapt what Evie wrote and dumping most of it. Then, just to confuse things just a little more, we get an out of nowhere historical Walker family storyline. It goes nowhere. Then, another short lived storyline will pop up for a chapter, then disappear, never to be heard from again. By disc five, these trends, along with many other warning signs, had cast a dread pall over my hopes for the novel’s conclusion.

It is never good when an author shows contempt for her story or for her readers. Carrie Vaughn is guilty of both of these authorial sins. As was pointed out in detail on Charlie Stross’ blog even the opening scene of Discord’s Apple is a mess. It is, of course, described (not shown) and features the destruction of “The Kremlin” by an Cessna full of kerosene:

He made a noise like a deflating balloon. “The Kremlin’s been bombed. Obliterated. A Cessna filled with drums of kerosene rammed it. They’re thinking it’s Mongolian rebels.”

She took a moment to register that he was talking about current events and not a plot point in their comic book. “Then our May storyline is out the window.”

The Eagle Eye Commandos couldn’t raid the building complex if it wasn’t there. She should have seen this one coming.

“Yeah. Unless we can put some kind of ‘how things might have been’ spin on it.”

Uh …. no. How could she have seen this coming? That whole passage should stop you in your tracks. Let me lay it out for you:

1. The biggest Cessna ever built carries no more than a dozen passengers and crew, the Cessna brand, moreover, is widely known to be a small aircraft manufacturer, with pretty much every single model ever built measuring far less than the 16 meters of their very largest passenger jet.

2. The Kremlin, meanwhile, is a massive fortress without one central structure. It measures a vast 68 acres and yet this plane full of drums of kerosene “obliterated” it. I would be very much surprised to learn that even the worlds biggest aircraft could completely destroy the Kremlin with any number of drums of Kerosene stuffed into it. Consider this, even with a maximum capacity of 27,276 liters the largest water bomber in the world, the Martin Mars, world only be able to drench four acres in a single pass. At that rate it would require no less than sixteen passes to completely cover the Kremlin with Kerosene – and that would assume that every pass had no overlaps.

3. Worse, why would “Mongolian rebels”, of all rebels, attack the Kremlin? That makes absolutely no sense at all. Russia and Mongolia have essentially been staunch allies for the last five hundred years. Russia never annexed Mongloia, doesn’t claim any part of it as a part of Russia, and didn’t even incorporate it into the Soviet Union. This is an absolutely monumental gaff – as backward as expecting the Palacio Nacional in Mexico City to be attacked by Quebec separatists.

And she should have ‘seen it coming’?

Other signs of contempt for the reader litter the novel. At one point the main character, a comic book writer, notes that the events that have just happened to her seemed unbelievably “overwrought” – after which she makes a point of filing them away for future use as a plot twist in her comic book series. She wants to add an unbelievable and overworked event to her own writing … what is a reader supposed to takeaway from that other than Vaughn is pissing on our shoes? Is she thumbing her nose at comics?

More stumbling blocks – as the “terrorism” in Russia continues we’re told that trainyards and shipyards are the targets. Yeah …. no …. that doesn’t sound like terrorism – it sounds like war. Terrorism is violence intended to foster terror. Blowing up a shipyard, attacking a citadel, derailing a train – that all is far more targeted than than strategic bombing of Europe in WWII. Carrie Vaughn seems blissfully ignorant of the meaning and import of the word “terrorism.”

But it doesn’t stop there! Vaughn has her central character, a rough analogue for herself, say that the Trojan Horse was the “car bomb” of its day. After hearing that I was figuratively shaking my head for about an hour.

That character, Evie Walker, then does some stunt driving while being chased by a herd of coyotes. In so doing she executes something she calls a “Hollywood turn.” … What I assume that Vaughn was actually referring to is, in fact, called either a Rockford or Moonshiner’s or J-Turn (and never a “Hollywood turn”).

Evie Walker also casually mentions that a drive through Los Angeles requires multiple stops and searches – adding hours to a commute. But it doesn’t end there, even the small town in Colorado, as depicted in Discord’s Apple, exist under a draconian police state. A drive through the city center means a warrant-less search of your vehicle and a questioning by police. There’s also food rationing. It isn’t explained, none of it. That’s shocking and interesting stuff and yet it has absolutely no follow up in the book whatsoever. Evie Walker doesn’t seem alarmed by it, finds it mildly annoying (and maybe even comforting), but she doesn’t mention it as being particularly shocking or even attempt to explain why it isn’t. What the fuck?

At first I thought maybe that my problems with Discord’s Apple were the same kinds of problems I had with Catherine Asaro’s Sunrise Alley |READ OUR REVIEW|. I thought that maybe Carrie Vaughn’s focus and interest just wasn’t on the stuff I care about: ideas, attention to detail, and the surprising (but logical) consequences to those ideas and details. But upon further consideration I don’t think that’s true. Vaughn’s writing technique for Discord’s Apple consisted of remixing her Sinon fan-fiction with events in her own life, filtered through a magical grab bag of other mythology and politics that she is only very dimly interested in. A few aspects of this novel could have worked had they been more focused and perhaps less slap-dashed together. Was she writing on a tight deadline? Couldn’t she do some revision? I don’t know.

The return of King Arthur (and Merlin) – ok why not? Sadly, this epic pair seem to be merely active mannequins in Discord’s Apple – their presence may have initially been to offer a possible rival love interest for the protagonist, but that doesn’t even come close to ripening. What about that artist penciler/inker partner on the comic book Evie Walker is writing? Oh him? Apparently he’s there solely to give Walker someone to talk to, setup the novel’s unpaid off premise. He just dries up and blows away.

What about that mysterious new dog, Queen Mab, that Evie’s father has? You know, the one with more emotion, knowledge and expression than all the rest of the characters in the novel? Oh that? It’s just what Vaughn would call her “Wash” techniques – something designed to manipulate the audience’s expectations. Consider me manipulated.

It is terrible.

The best part of the novel, the part that is actually alright – good even – the part that Vaughn wrote with passion and attention: That’s Sinon’s story. The rest, set in Evie’s time (or whenever else Vaughn went with the roving POV) is full of characters that are only minimally purposeful. Their goals are only strong enough to push them onto the stage, not strong enough to explain what they’re doing there or explain why they skulk-offstage when someone else is talking.

Or to put it another way – if this novel was a piece of clothing it would be a sweater. But unfortunately it’d be the kind of sweater that started out as a smart-looking and comfortable scarf and has now has been inexplicably knit-into an unwieldy sweater/dress/hat garment with a dozen fist sized holes in it. This sweater may be somewhat fashionable in some parts of the book store sweater store. Maybe it’ll be popular with the talented readers who don’t have time to think about what they’re reading. But for a Science Fiction reader, like me, who tries on a book sweater thinking it will be a garment with a particular purpose in mind, well he may find that every string of that sweater’s yarn wants to unravel. Or to put it in Carrie Vaughn style terms:

It’d be like the arrival of the president of the radical monarchist league (driving an Austin-Healey Bug Eyed Sprite with 17 liters of re-fried beans in the glove compartment) to an Outer Limits cast reunion party in Ruritania. Yep. It’s going to mess-up President Al Franken’s America in many magically unproductive ways! I should have seen it coming.

The shame of it is that Vaughn’s probably could write a lot better than Discord’s Apple. What works in the novel works well. Over on John Scalzi’s blog Vaughn wrote:

I have more ideas than I will ever be able to write in my lifetime. One of my solutions to this dilemma is to put as many ideas in a book as I can manage. The more disparate the better, because finding connections between seemingly unrelated ideas can make for great stories.

In a grad school Latin course, I translated bits of the Aeneid and fell in love with Sinon. He’s the Greek spy left behind to talk the Trojans into bringing the horse into the city. He’s brash, clever, and really awesome. So I committed a very long piece of fanfic telling what happened to Sinon after the war — he was kidnapped by a very pissed-off Apollo, made a slave, granted immortality so he’d be a slave forever, and. . .well. You’ll just have to read about it, because his story is the second part of Discord’s Apple, in which we learn that the Trojan War never really ended. (It all fits together, honest.)

At first, I didn’t know quite what to do with this very long piece of fanfic. I got to thinking about the nature of epic literature in general, and I decided that Sinon’s story needed to be part of Evie’s story. You see, “Evie returns home to discover an amazing heritage” is just an idea. But Evie and Sinon meeting each other, the chaotic events surrounding that meeting, and the fact that the goddess Hera still wants to get her hands on that apple – that’s a story.

Throw in King Arthur and my deep and irrational fondness for 1980′s GI Joe comics and what I ended up with was a novel about family, storytelling, history, and war and how they get tangled together.

This right here is the whole problem. Ideas are what stories should be about. But what Vaughn doesn’t realize is that not all ideas are gold. Not all ideas should include everything you think to include, not all of them fit together. A book about a comic book writer living in a Alternate Present USA police state? That sounds really cool. A book about King Arthur returning? That could be cool. A book about a woman who returns home to take care of her dying father only to discover that every magical artifact from history is in the basement? COOL! All together it is a mess.

Vaughn’s not short of ideas, not even short of good ideas. She’s short of a filter, an editor. Vaughn needs to have someone really critiquing the shit out of her ideas, really making the novel focused. Vaughn is a huge Sinon of Ithaca fan, and with the parts of this book set during and after the Trojan War she has made me one too. The market may not be clamoring for fiction rooted wholly in Greek Mythology, or for a book about a comic book writer living in an alternate USA, but I am. What I’m not clamoring for is a novel about all of those things in one.

The audio production itself is faultless. Discord’s Apple is a two narrator production with the vast majority of the reading is by Angela Dawe. Dawe performs everything except for the Bronze Age storyline which is delivered by Luke Daniels. Both Dawe’s and Daniels pronunciation and delivery are flawless.

Posted by Jesse Willis

New Releases: iambik audio’s Science Fiction & Fantasy Collection

New Releases

Iambik AudiobooksIambik Audiobooks has just released its first Science Fiction & Fantasy Collection! Individual books are $6.99, and you can get the whole collection of nine titles for $43.99.

Use the code “sff-audio-25” and get a 25% discount on your order.

Number one on my to listen list is this classic David Gerrold novel…

IAMBIK AUDIO - The Man Who Folded Himself by David GerroldThe Man Who Folded Himself
By David Gerrold; Read by Charles Bice
MP3 or M4B Download – Approx. 4 Hours 28 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: iambik audio
Published: May 2011
ISBN: 9781926673400
The Man Who Folded Himself, written in 1973 (and reissued by BenBella in 2003) is a classic science fiction novel by award-winning author David Gerrold. This work was nominated for both Hugo and Nebula awards and is considered by some critics to be the finest time travel novel ever written.

IAMBIK AUDIO - An Occupation Of Angels by Lavie TidharAn Occupation Of Angels
By Lavie Tidhar; Read by Elizabeth Klett
MP3 or M4B Download – Approx. 3 Hours 23 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: iambik audio
Published: May 2011
After Archangels materialise over the bloodbaths of WWII, they take up residence in most of the world’s major cities. But what would happen if, more than quarter of a century later, something somehow managed to kill these supreme beings? Killarney knows and, as an agent working for the Bureau, a British agency that’s so secret it doesn’t officially exist, she finds herself embroiled in the consequences as, one by one, the Archangels die. Assigned to trace a missing cryptographer thought to have information on the murders, she travels from England, through France, heading for the frozen wastes of the USSR. But there’s an unknown third party intent on stopping her, and there’s God, who also has an agenda. Not knowing who is friend and who is foe, and with only a brief glimpse of a swastika on angel wings as solid information, Killarney struggles to remain alive long enough to glean sufficient information to put together the pieces of the puzzle and complete what is, without them, an impossible mission.

IAMBIK AUDIO - Ben And The Book Of Prophecies by Kristy RiddifordBen And The Book Of Prophesies
By Kirsty Riddiford; Read by Ruth Golding
MP3 or M4B Download – Approx. 9 Hours 25 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: iambik audio
Published: May 2011
ISBN: 9781926673431
Ben and the Book of Prophecies is the first book of the Prophecies of Ballitor. Ben is the youngest and most successful thief in the royal city of Quadrivium, but an unexpected encounter with Bella, the queen’s mother, changes his life forever. In return for a substantial reward Ben agrees to track down the Book of Prophecies which disappeared from the palace library many years before. It is believed that the Book contains a prophecy which will save the kingdom from an impending war with the rebels. Yet Bella also has an ulterior motive, to find her son who went missing whilst searching for the same book. Ben finds himself catapulted into an unfamiliar world of magic and intrigue where talking eagles and mythical creatures help him on his quest. During his travels he unearths dark secrets as lives are put in peril and an unforeseen reunion surfaces. But not everyone wants the book to be found

IAMBIK AUDIO - Open Your Eyes by Paul JessupOpen Your Eyes
By Paul Jessup; Read by Tadgh Hynes
MP3 or M4B Download – Approx. 3 Hours 23 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: iambik audio
Published: May 2011
ISBN: 9781926673196
Her lover was a supernova who took worlds with him when he died, and as a new world grows within Ekhi, savage lives rage and love on a small ship in the outer reaches of space. A ship with an agenda of its own. Critically acclaimed author of weird fiction Paul Jessup sends puppets to speak and fight for their masters while a linguistic virus eats through the minds of a group of scavengers in Open Your Eyes, a surrealist space opera of haunting beauty and infinite darkness.

IAMBIK AUDIO - Fall From Earth by Matthew JohnsonFall From Earth
By Matthew Johnson; Read by Emma Newman
MP3 or M4B Download – Approx. 9 Hours 3 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: iambik audio
Published: May 2011
ISBN: 9781926673332
Shi Jin is a rebel, the latest in a long line of those who have challenged the Borderless Empire and failed. Dropped with a crew of convicts on an uninhabited planet, Shi Jin – and mankind- encounter alien life forms for the first time. She discovers that she is part of a much bigger game…one that will force her to decide between her desire to defeat the Empire and the future of humanity.

IAMBIK AUDIO - In The Shadow Of Swords by Val GunnIn The Shadow Of Swords
By Val Gunn; Read by Clive Catterall
MP3 or M4B Download – Approx. 10 Hours 15 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: iambik audio
Published: May 2011
ISBN: 9781926673424
When the assassin Ciris Sarn, murders Hiril Altaïr, he unwittingly leaves behind the legendary Books of Promise. They come into the hands of Hiril’s vengeful widow, Marin, and she becomes a target even as she hunts for her husband’s murderer. Meanwhile, Fajeer Dassai, a brutal kingmaker, plots to retrieve the fabled treasure to make himself wealthy beyond imagination. His only obstacle is Pavanan Munif, a capable, but drug-addicted tracker. Soon assassins, sheikhs, spies, and viziers are all embroiled in a potentially world-shattering conspiracy racing to an inevitable showdown where violence and murder is the only path to true redemption.

IAMBIK AUDIO - Space Captain Smith by Toby FrostSpace Captain Smith
By Toby Frost; Read by Clive Catterall (Myrmidon)
MP3 or M4B Download – Approx. 7 Hours 6 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: iambik audio
Published: May 2011
ISBN: 9781926673417
Space Captain Smith is the first book of the Chronicles of Isambard Smith. It’s the 25th Century and the British Space Empire faces the gathering menace of the evil ant-soldiers of the Ghast hive, hell bent on galactic domination and the extermination of all humanoid life forms. Captain Isambard Smith is the square-jawed, courageous and somewhat asinine new commander of the clapped out freighter John Pym, destined to take on the alien threat because nobody else is available. Together with his bold crew- a skull-collecting alien lunatic, an android pilot who is actually a fugitive sex toy and a hamster called Gerald- he must collect new-age herbalist Rhianna Mitchell from the New Francisco orbiter and bring her back to the Empire in safety. Straightforward enough – except the Ghasts want her too and, in addition to a whole fleet of Ghast warships, Smith has to confront void sharks, a universe-weary android assassin and John Gilead, psychopathic naval officer from the fanatically religious Republic of Eden before facing his greatest enemy: a ruthless alien warlord with a very large behind…

IAMBIK AUDIO - The Golden Casket And The Spectres Of Light by Katie PatersonThe Golden Casket And The Specters Of Light
By Katie Paterson; Read by Karen Savage
MP3 or M4B Download – Approx. 8 Hours 44 Minutes Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: iambik audio
Published: May 2011
ISBN: 9781926673448
The Golden Casket And The Specters Of Light is the second book of the Chronicles of Valonia. Three years after Rachel and Gareth’s lives had returned to normal, they are forced to revisit Valonia, after receiving an unsettling phone call. The Golden Casket And The Specters Of Light pursue them back into the heart of danger, this time to face an even greater threat, as they attempt to unravel a mysterious disappearance. The twins find themselves in a race against time beside a trio of evil sorcery.

IAMBIK AUDIO - The Jewels Of Valonia by Katie PatersonThe Jewels Of Valonia
By Katie Paterson; Read by Karen Savage
MP3 or M4B Download – Approx. 7 Hours 43 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: iambik audio
Published: May 2011
ISBN: 9781926673394
The Jewels Of Valonia is the first book of the Chronicles of Valonia. It follows 12-year-old twins, Gareth and Rachel, as they embark on a mystical adventure after travelling to the remote village of Valonia, where everything is far from what it seems. An encounter with a stranger leads them into a world of sorcery and danger. As they pass through the realms of time, the twins realise that their destiny lies within powers that they have yet to understand and control.

IAMBIK AUDIO - Science Fiction And Fantasy Collection No. 1Complete Science-Fiction & Fantasy Collection 1
By various; Read by various
MP3 or M4B Download – Approx. 62 Hours 53 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: iambik audio
Published: May 2011
This collection includes all the titles in Iambik’s first release of Science-Fiction and Fantasy books.

Titles in the collection:
Ben And The Book Of Prophecies by Kirsty Riddiford
Fall From Earth by Matthew Johnson
In The Shadow Of Swords by Val Gunn
The Man Who Folded Himself by David Gerrold
An Occupation Of Angels by Lavie Tidhar
Open Your Eyes by Paul Jessup
Space Captain Smith by Craig Smith
The Jewels of Valonia by Katie Paterson
The Golden Casket And The Spectres Of Light by Katie Paterson

Posted by Jesse Willis

Seeing Ear Theatre

SFFaudio Online Audio

Seeing Ear TheatreSeeing Ear Theatre - Neil Dickson And Marina Sirtis recording THE DEATH OF CAPTAIN FUTURE

Back in 2003, for our features page, I wrote the following about Seeing Ear Theatre:

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 - The History Of The DevilSeeing 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 - The History Of The DevilSeeing 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 ApplesSeeing 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 PoleSeeing 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 JewelsSeeing 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 MachineSeeing 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 CanoesSeeing 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 DreamsSeeing 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 MothSeeing 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 THEATRE - The Lucky StrikeSeeing 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 THEATRE - A Good Knight's WorkSeeing 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 THEATRE - The Jaguar HunterSeeing 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 THEATRE - FirewatchSeeing 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 THEATRE - FacadeSeeing 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 THEATRE - Sleepy Hollow: The LegendSeeing 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 THEATRE - A Dry Quiet WarSeeing 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 THEATRE - Diary Of A Mad DietySeeing 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 THEATRE - Child's PlaySeeing 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 THEATRE - In The Shade Of The Slowboat ManSeeing 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 THEATRE - Greedy Choke PuppySeeing 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 THEATRE - The NostalgianautsSeeing 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 THEATRE - KnockSeeing 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 THEATRE - The Man Who Could Work MiraclesSeeing 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 VacuumSeeing 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 BackdownSeeing 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 501Seeing 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 MonsterSeeing 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 NumberSeeing 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 THEATRESeeing 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 ZazSeeing 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 MysteriesSeeing 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?
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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 NeighborSeeing 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 AlienSeeing 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 WheelSeeing 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 EarthSeeing 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 WorldsSeeing 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 SpiralSeeing 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 WonderlandSeeing 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 EarthSeeing 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 DoctorSeeing 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 MarsSeeing 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 GiantSeeing 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 OneSeeing 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 SoundSeeing 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 ManSeeing 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 EscapeSeeing 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 THEATRESeeing 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 THEATRESeeing 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 THEATRESeeing 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 THEATRESeeing 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 THEATRESeeing 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 THEATRESeeing 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 THEATRESeeing 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








SEEING EAR THEATRE - Tripping AstralTripping 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.

Episode 1 “Pilot” |MP3|
Episode 2 “Oh Holy Night” |MP3|
Episode 3 “Cavescapes” |MP3|
Episode 4 “Hello Again” |MP3|
Episode 5 “Wanting Wings” |MP3|
Episode 6 “The Fall” |MP3|
Episode 7 “Brooklyn Bridges” |MP3|




SEEING EAR THEATRE - Into The SunSeeing 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 - They're Made Out Of MeatSeeing 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.

SEEING EAR THEATRE - DerelictDerelict
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 THEATRESeeing 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

Seeing Ear Theatre - Tales From The Crypt

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.

SEEING EAR THEATRE - J. Michael Straczynski's City Of Dreams

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:



DOVE AUDIO - Seeing Ear Theatre - Volume 1Seeing 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

DOVE AUDIO -Seeing Ear Theatre: Volume 2Seeing 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

DOVE AUDIO - Seeing Ear Theatre: Volume 3Seeing 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

DOVE AUDIO - Seeing Ear Theatre Clive Barker's The History Of The DevilSeeing 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.

Fantasy Audio Drama - Neil GaimanTwo 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|

Science Fiction Audio Drama - 2000X2000X 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|

Tales from the CryptSeeing 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:

Seeing Ear Theatre - ReadingsPat Cadigan Reads From Tea From An Empty Cup
1 |MP3| – Approx. 14 Minutes [EXCERPT]
Publisher: Seeing Ear Theatre
Published: 1999
Provider: Archive.org


Seeing Ear Theatre - ReadingsWilliam Gibson Reads From All Tomorrow’s Parties
1 |MP3| – Approx. 13 Minutes [EXCERPT]
Publisher: Seeing Ear Theatre
Published: 1999
Provider: Archive.org

Seeing Ear Theatre - ReadingsMaureen F. McHugh reads from China Mountain Zhang
1 |MP3| – Approx. 19 Minutes [EXCERPT]
Publisher: Seeing Ear Theatre
Published: 1998
Provider: Archive.org


Seeing Ear Theatre - ReadingsConnie Willis reads from Bellwether
1 |MP3| – Approx. 20 Minutes [EXCERPT]
Publisher: Seeing Ear Theatre
Published: 1998
Provider: Archive.org


Seeing Ear Theatre - ReadingsKit Reed reads from The Bride Of Bigfoot
1 |MP3| – Approx. 18 Minutes [EXCERPT]
Publisher: Seeing Ear Theatre
Published: 1998
Provider: Archive.org


Seeing Ear Theatre - ReadingsJames Morrow reads from Blameless In Abaddon
1 |MP3| – Approx. 26 Minutes [EXCERPT]
Publisher: Seeing Ear Theatre
Published: 1998
Provider: Archive.org


Seeing Ear Theatre - ReadingsGreg Bear reads from Dinosaur Summer
1 |MP3| – Approx. 16 Minutes [EXCERPT]
Publisher: Seeing Ear Theatre
Published: 1998
Provider: Archive.org


Seeing Ear Theatre - ReadingsWalter Koenig reads from Warped Factors
1 |MP3| – Approx. 23 Minutes [EXCERPT]
Publisher: Seeing Ear Theatre
Published: 1998
Provider: Archive.org


Seeing Ear Theatre - ReadingsSkidoo 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.

Seeing Ear Theatre - ReadingsPaul Levinson reads an extract from The Silk Code
1 |MP3| – Approx. 15 Minutes [EXCERPT]
Publisher: Seeing Ear Theatre
Published: 1999
Provider: Archive.org


Seeing Ear Theatre - ReadingsNalo 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


Seeing Ear Theatre - ReadingsRichard Belzer reads an excerpt from UFOs, JFK, And Elvis
1 |MP3| – Approx. 18 Minutes [EXCERPT]
Publisher: Seeing Ear Theatre
Published: 1999
Provider: Archive.org


Seeing Ear Theatre - ReadingsKristine Kathryn Rusch reads from The Fey: Sacrifice
1 |MP3| – Approx. 24 Minutes [EXCERPT]
Publisher: Seeing Ear Theatre
Published: 1999
Provider: Archive.org


Seeing Ear Theatre - ReadingsNeil Gaiman reads Chapter 3 of Stardust
1 |MP3| – Approx. 22 Minutes [EXCERPT]
Publisher: Seeing Ear Theatre
Published: 1999
Provider: Archive.org

Seeing Ear Theatre - ReadingsGet A Grip
By Paul Park; Read by Paul Park
1 |MP3| – Approx. 26 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Seeing Ear Theatre
Published: 1998
Provider: Archive.org


Seeing Ear Theatre - ReadingsK.W. Jeter reads the first chapter of Noir
1 |MP3| – Approx. 22 Minutes [EXCERPT]
Publisher: Seeing Ear Theatre
Published: 1999
Provider: Archive.org


Seeing Ear Theatre - ReadingsBruce 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


Seeing Ear Theatre - ReadingsFruitcake 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


Seeing Ear Theatre - ReadingsSamuel 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


Seeing Ear Theatre - ReadingsUnto 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.


Seeing Ear Theatre - ReadingsThe 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 TakenTreks 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.

[via Calfkiller Old Time Radio, OctaviaButler.net and Archive.org and Roy!]

Posted by Jesse Willis