Audio Drama is Alive and Well

Those are not potatoes, they're cows

Some time ago, I attended the Independent Audio Theater Producers Conference in Minneapolis. This conference was a gathering of some of the USA’s leading lights (mics?) in radio/audio drama production and some others like me with an interest in the field.

I attended because I have a script that for one reason or another refuses to get up on the stage so I thought that audio might be the answer. Not only is it the answer, it is the answer to a lot of other ideas I have (or have had) that never got past the first hurdle to the stage. The possibilities within audio theater are limitless. You can go from a quiet dining room scene to the engine-room of a sinking ship in one second and from there back 200 years to the storming of the Bastille.

I have placed some links on this site if you are interested in learning more from and about the experts.

I could summarize the discussions and presentations from the stage playwright’s perspective as follows:

The amount of drama broadcast on radio in the USA has been on the decline for a number of years. This Old-Time Radio (OTR) had it’s heyday in the 1940s and 1950’s. Few, if any, main stream radio stations broadcast radio drama in 2004. Public radio does some (although I can’t say I’ve heard any). The main outlet for broadcast radio drama is local community radio and the amount and quality of the material broadcast varies greatly across the community radio spectrum. The BBC also broadcasts a considerable amount of audio drama and it is accessible on the Internet.
The main distribution mechanism for audio drama is pre-recorded CDs and tape and these are mainly available over the Internet or by catalog from a number of national suppliers.
Audio plays are recorded in a studio environment, live in front of an audience, or anywhere you can get the recording equipment to. Sound effects are added live (at the same time as the voice tracks are recorded) or mixed in later. The audio medium allows for the use of prerecorded sounds but also the live use of some ordinary and some extraordinary objects to make sounds that, when heard in the context of the finished play, sound like something else. For example, crumpling tissue paper sounds like fire. Potatoes in a flour bag being rolled along a table top sound like a stampeding herd of bovines.
During the conference Tony Palermo lead the group in a fun learning exercise in the production of a 20 minute play and did the whole thing in about 2.5 hours from auditioning voices and sound effects, some training in both, rehearsal, coordination and finally a one run-through live recording. Compare this to how long it takes to get a stage production in front of an audience. Compare the costs!
Like the live stage, the need for quality scripts is variable. Some producers have drawers full of great scripts but few resources to produce and, probably worse, an underdeveloped distribution and marketing environment to deal with. However, it was clear to me that when the audio drama contains the basics of all drama (dramatic question, character, obstacle, crisis, climax etc.) and is well produced, the entertainment and enjoyment value of audio is equal to the best live stage (and there is no parking!). In addition, the producers' level of energy and obvious determination to produce quality product left no doubt in my mind that audio drama is poised to overcome any remaining doubts in the public perception. The public has to hear it and, when they do, it is on its way back (if it ever was away).

So, playwrights, start looking at developing skills for writing for sound or, to quote Tony Palermo, creating “stories in sound.”