Great Northern Audio Theatre: an essay on the intersection of audiobooks and audio drama

SFFaudio News

Great Northern Audio TheatreBrian Price, of the radio drama collective Great Northern Audio Theatre, has posted an interesting essay on the state of dramatized audiobooks over on the new Great Northern blog. Here’s a snippet:

So far, audiobook publishers have been going to their usual sources to produce audio theater: Commercial voice-over studios, Industrial/educational studios or the publishers themselves. Frankly, the results are really mixed. These people aren’t audio theater people. They haven’t been listening and producing audio theater for years.

My prediction is that at some point pretty soon the audiobook publishers are going to get feedback from their listeners that there’s a whole ‘nother world of audio theater out there. It’s on community radio. It’s podcast. It’s handed back and forth on the Internet. It’s sounding better and better all the time.

Posted by Jesse Willis

The SFFaudio Podcast #056 – READALONG: The Status Civilization by Robert Sheckley

Podcast

The SFFaudio PodcastThe SFFaudio Podcast #056 – Jesse and Scott talk with Rick Jackson, Gregg Margarite, Jerry Stearns and Julie Davis about Robert Sheckley’s The Status Civilization!

Talked about on today’s show:
Wonder Publishing Group (Wonder Audio and Wonder Ebooks), LibriVox.org, Acoustic Pulp, Sound Affects, Great Northern Audio Theatre, Doctor Who, The Prisoner, Riverworld by Philip Jose Farmer, deep Science Fiction, Deathworld by Harry Harrison, The Space Merchants (aka Gravy Planet) by Frederik Pohl and Cyril M. Kornbluth, Preferred Risk by Frederik Pohl and Lester del Rey, Gladiator At Law by Frederik Pohl and Cyril M. Kornbluth, Anarchaos by Donald E. Westlake, a religion based on evil, satire, Friedrich Nietzsche‘s “master-slave morality,” good and evil, David Hume‘, the naturalistic fallacy, cognitive dissonance, original sin (aka atavistic guilt), Skulking Permit by Robert Sheckley, Breaking Point by James Gunn |READ OUR REVIEW|, psychology, society, robots, This Perfect Day by Ira Levin, utopia, dystopia, libertarianism, rebellion, “a benign evil,” narrating audiobooks, Mark Douglas Nelson, This Crowded Earth by Robert Bloch, Deathworld 2 by Harry Harrison, Watchbird by Robert Sheckley, Second Variety by Philip K. Dick, Tunnel Under The World by Frederik Pohl, Bellona Times, X-Minus One, Mark Time , Yuri Rasovsky, Raymond Z. Gallun, Bing, Seeing Ear Theatre, Orson And The Alien, The SFFaudio Challenge, turning modern public domain books into audio drama, Night Of The Cooters by Howard Waldrop, Jack J. Ward, The Sonic Society, Brian Price, Alfred Bester‘s review of The Status Civilization (from The Magazine Of Fantasy And Science Fiction, December 1960), the naming of “Tetrahyde”, a readalong on The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester, the “amazing” audio drama version from BBC Tiger Tiger, The Count Of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas, Frederik Pohl’s review of The Status Civilization (from January 1961 issue of Worlds Of If), the competition between the LibriVox and the commercial versions of audiobooks, Plato’s Cave, precognition, John W. Campbell, skrenning, scrying, Icelandic cook books!

The Status Civilzation (Planet Of The Criminals) GERMAN INTERIOR
The Status Civilzation (Planet Of The Criminals) GERMAN INTERIOR
The Status Civilzation (Planet Of The Criminals) GERMAN INTERIOR
The Status Civilization (Planet Of The Criminals) GERMAN INTERIOR
The Status Civilization (Planet Of The Criminals) GERMAN INTERIOR
The Status Civilization by Robert Sheckley
Signet - The Status Civilization by Robert Sheckley

Posted by Jesse Willis

KFAI Sound Affects: A Radio Playground schedule

SFFaudio Online Audio

Sound Affects: A Radio PlaygroundJerry Stearns of Great Northern Audio Theatre and the long running radio drama showcase Sound Affects: A Radio Playground, has planned out an compelling Science Fiction and Fantasy audio drama plan for the coming quarter.

Here’s the schedule:

Aug. 16 – Jokes In Space – this year’s Mark Time Radio Show. “Sci-fi sketch comedy from Great Northern Audio Theatre.”

Aug. 23 – Ruby: Tired of the Green Menace – the FIRST Ruby show from ZBS (she’s still called Ruby Tuesday).

Aug. 30 – Earth Abides based on the novel by George Stewart. From the “Escape” series in 1950. “One of the best post-holocaust stories ever.”

Sept. 6, 13, 20 – Anne Manx and the Empress Blair Project – the latest from Radio Repertory Company of America, with Claudia Christian.

Oct. 8 & 11 – The Radio Arcade – an “obscure 4-part series from the 80’s about the special games in the arcade’s back room.”

Sound Affects: A Radio Playground airs Sundays in at 9:30 PM on KFAI, 90.3 FM and 106.7 FM, Minneapolis and St. Paul. Online streaming is available at KFAI.org.

The first episode on the schedule is the 2009 Mark Time Awards show, titled Jokes In Space, it was recorded at Convergence 2009. It is available as an |MP3|. Am I the only one who’d kill for a regular Sound Affects podcast feed?

Posted by Jesse Willis

From our friends at Great Northern Audio Theatre…

From our friends at Great Northern Audio Theatre!:

Dear Friends and Listeners:

The rogue comet, Skippy, is headed right for Big City. Who are you going to call? Ok, you called them and they weren’t home–who else are you going to call? That’s right SuperPal. “SuperPal: The Saving of the World” is the story of the plucking of Big City from total disaster told through press conferences and in-depth interviews with the people who say they knew SuperPal best: His agent, his girlfriend, and some other people.

SuperPal was recorded in July, 2005 live at CONVergence 2005 Science Fiction Convention in Bloomington, MN. We didn’t even know we were making fun of FEMA in this 28-minute audio satire, but sometimes you get lucky and get ahead of the curve.

At the last Great Northern Audio Theatre Board of Directors meeting Brian said, “We couldn’t even give away this show, if we tried.”

“Sure we could,” said Jerry. “We’ll just let them download it.”

“For free?”

“What the hay,” reflected Jerry.

“You’re killing me here, Jerry, you’re killing me,” said Brian.

So, for a limited time only (from now until Christmas) Click here and download our SuperPal MP3 files and enjoy. Be sure to download the credits PDF, so you’ll know who did what.

Prove Brian wrong.
Prove Jerry right (he usually is).
And download SuperPal: The Saving of the World” today.

A very Merry Christmas.
For Free.

Thanks,
Great Northern Audio Theatre