So, what the heck is audio theater, anyway?

A Message from Michael

During this institute, I've told quite a few people about my involvement in audio theater. I've even mentioned my dubious distinction of being "well-known" in the audio theater community. And the inevitable question emerges: what is audio theater?

The answer is pretty simple. Audio theater is theater written "for the ear" (I was gratified to learn this week that it was common for people in Elizabeth's day to say, "let's go hear a play"). This art form was once referred to as "radio drama," but since most productions are now created for the CD/MP3/ipod market, it's now called audio theater. Think of it as "Old Time Radio" with cutting-edge production values.

I thought some links to web sites might be more illuminating than any detailed explanation I might try to give.

The National Audio Theater Festivals, Inc. will give you lots of information about the national association and its members.

AudioTheater.com has lots of information about the art of audio theater, and about many of the companies that are producing audio theater today.

EYE Hear Voices Audio Theater is a little web-based storefront for my audio theater company.

Seeing Ear Theater is an archive space at the Sci-Fi Channel's website that features amazing audio theater performances from the Sci-Fi, Horror, and Fantasy genres. You can listen on-line for free. Browse through the list of plays, and you'll find performances by folks like Steve Buscemi, Andre Braugher, Bebe Neuwirth, Brian Dennehy, and many other easy-to-misspell names!

That's probably enough to get you started. If you want to know any more about audio theater, please let me know.

And in case this post seems a bit "off-topic," let me just say these two things:

The voice work we do each day is of critical importance to voice actors, because the voice becomes a character's entire presence in audio theater, and;

NATF is seriously considering doing an All-Shakespeare theme for next year's National Workshop!

Joy to you all!

Michael