And now Audio Theater Central. Hello, and welcome to Audio Theater Central.
This is the show that explores family friendly audio drama through news, reviews and
interviews. I'm your host, JD. Setter, and this is episode one
hundred and ninety nine. Well, I've got my cup of coffee here and
I've got a bunch of audio drama goodness to get to and so I'm excited
to bring this episode to you where we'll be reviewing Robin Hood Rising to Honor
season one from LRT Media and Eternal Future Productions. I've got a few really
exciting audio drama updates coming up, as well as a monologue where I'm going
to share some thoughts on micro audio drama. But before we get into that,
a couple of quick announcements. This is your last chance to send in
a voicemail for episode two hundred. I would love to have you involved in
this episode, because you know this show is for you, the listener.
It's going to be an amazing episode with guests from all over the industry,
including composers, directors, actors, and it's going to be a lot of
fun and I would love to have you involved as well. So head over
to the contact page on our website and our phone number is there for the
feedback line, or you can use one of the widgets there to send in
a message. Again, would love to have you involved in this milestone episode.
And the last quick announcement is that I'm still seeing stats from Google Podcasts
that there are some of you still listening on that app, and as I
announced a few episodes back, it will be shutting down. Google is closing
that app, so you'll want to switch before it just stops working completely,
which is going to be very very soon. So the one I use personally
is called pocket Casts and it is a great app, very feature rich,
and I highly recommend it. But in the show notes, it's a link
to a list of options for listening to podcasts on Android if if you want
to check out what's available out there, So be sure to switch from Google
Podcasts as soon as possible. We interrupt this program to bring you a special
report and in other news tonight, a brief look at the headlines. Now
they want exciting, fast piece news that's relevant and entertaining like this. Well,
just a reminder that if you have any news about upcoming productions or anything
related to the family friendly audio drama industry. You can send those to us
so we can get them here in the updates segment. Head over to PFM
dot link slash ATC news and fill out that form, or as always,
there is a link right on the homepage of our website and Audiotheatercentral dot com.
Well, first up is a really really exciting bit of news, and
that is that mac Meet's History, which originally launched several years ago with just
two episodes, is coming back. I've got an exclusive sneak peek on the
relaunch of this show. It's going to have a new format and this is
really really exciting. So I got some updates here from John Fornoff and Mark
Rashie, and so we're gonna share a little bit about what's coming in this
reboot of Macamet's History. So John Campbell composed the music for this new version
of the show. Oscar Corral did the sound design. Brad Abrel is the
announcer for this show, and John Fornoff directed and produced, and he's also
writing as well as Robert Lipparulo. So they're writing this new series. And
John said he had a really great cast to work with, and so I've
been really excited to tell you about what's going on here. This new version
of the show will be out very soon. Mark said that they're essentially doing
the same release schedule as Jonathan Park. So these episodes will be hitting their
unlimited streaming service that they have, So one sixty minute part will be released
per month, and then it will be released on CD and digital downloads sometime
around July of this year, twenty twenty four. So what's this first show,
Well, it's called Voyage of the Sea Dragon, and the summary is
caught in a fierce storm in the North Atlantic Ocean, Mac Merkel and his
crew try to ride it out. They're aboard a replica of the Viking canar
that Leif Erickson used to sail from Norway to Vinland, becoming the first European
to step foot on North America five hundred years before Columbus. It's the first
mission on Mac's quest to authentically reenact the adventures and discoveries of the heroes who
built the United States and show how God encouraged and guided them Along the way.
Mack learns about the seemingly insurmountable challenges these heroes faced, how the times
in which they lived, shaped who they were and the goals they strived to
accomplish, and their dependence on their sovereign and loving Creator. To succeed,
Mac must also grow as a person and deepen his faith in ways he never
imagined. Come with him on this first adventure on the high seas. Meet
Leif Erickson as he encounters dangers lurking beyond every wave and finds salvation in Christ
through the unlikeliest of people. Welcome aboard the Sea Dragon, where survival depends
on skill and stamina, faith and friendship, and the ability to outwit a
saboteur determines to stop Mac's quest at any cost. Wow, this sounds amazing.
And speaking of sounding amazing, I've got an exclusive little promo here that
I can't wait to share with you. So give a listen to this.
Doctor Miles Merkell, compassionate, wealthy entrepreneur, his son Mac, intelligent,
enthusiastic adventurer. Together, father and son plan to recreate the adventurers that define
the United States. To experience what it was like when Leif Ericksson discovered America.
Hold that Man, when Lewis and Clark explored the uncharted, Why when
Charles Lindbergh flew solo across the Atlantic. After doctor Merkle is killed in a
car accident, it's up to Mac to continue the quest. Driven by his
faith in God and love for his dad, mack leads a world class team
to experience the thrill of discovery, history and adventure. Along the way,
Mac encounters in unexpected evil resolved to stop him, but this may expact more
determined than ever. You'll never know what adventures await when Mac meets History or
oh, my goodness, that sounds absolutely amazing. I'm really excited for this.
So as you heard in that little teaser, some of the upcoming points
in history that they'll be covering, our Christopher Columbus historic journey from Europe to
the American continent, Lewis and Clark's expedition through America's wild and more so,
lots of cool stuff coming up from Mac meets History. So you might be
asking, well, where can we find this, And the answer is they're
still working out some branding nuances, Mark says, but the site should be
up soon, so we will let you know as soon as that is out,
and most likely in June or July, that website will be ready,
and then the entire leaf Ericson's series will be coming available sometime this summer,
and so lots to look forward to there. This sounds like it's going to
be an absolutely amazing series, and I'm so glad to hear that they're bringing
back this concept because I think it's a really, really fun one and so
really excited about this project. So let me know what you think about this
show. Are you looking forward to this new reboot of Macameat's history, Love
to hear from you. Well. Speaking of upcoming audio drama, Greenhorn Tales
season two is in the works, and I recently sat down with writers Christopher
Green and Michael Schrader and we recorded a little update for Greenhorn Tales and we
shared a little bit about what's coming up, shared some titles and some synopsies
of some upcoming episodes. So link is in the show notes if you want
to check out that short update. We're excited about what's coming in this season
and we would love for you to check that out if you haven't listened to
Greenhorn Tales yet. There are twelve episodes out there. There's a pilot episode,
ten season one episodes, and a Christmas Special all available at Greenhorntales dot
com and we recently redesigned the website made it easier to find the episodes,
So if you haven't checked that out yet, would love for you to go
give that a listen and let us know what you think of that show.
And our final bit of news is from Witnesses Now. We just recently released
our review of the last album from them, called The Lamb and now Tracy
Vandolder is working on another collection of episodes called The Inner Circle. The tagline
for this new album is Encounter Jesus through the eyes of his closest followers.
So this was originally announced in January, but the first episode just recently dropped.
So the summary for this new album is Join the the Inner Circle of
twelve men from all walks of life and their controversial rabbi and see familiar stories
from the life of Christ through the eyes of the disciples. He chose warm
yourself by the fire while Jesus recounts his time of testing in the desert.
Stand on the shore with Simon Peter as he fishes at Jesus command. Mourn
with the eleven as they come to terms with their teacher's death and more in
this brand new album from Witnesses. So, as I said, episode one
of this album, called eight Days, has just released. It is nineteen
minutes and a summary for this episode is in the dark days following Jesus' death,
the disciples fight their doubts and each other as they come to terms with
what happened to their rabbi. But Thomas is left especially confused when, after
his brief absence from the house where they are staying, the others claim to
have seen Jesus. Is it true or just a cruel joke? And if
Jesus really is alive, why did he not appear to Thomas as well?
So great content from Witnesses. I'm not exactly sure at this point how many
episodes will be in this new collection, but again it's called the Inner Circle
and the first episode, eight Days, is out now. You can stream
it at the website Witnesses audio dot com and of course there is a link
in the show notes testing one, two, three testing. That was just
me talking. I do that a lot. Where's my speech? Now?
Long you've been to bar up with it? That's what I want to talk
about. So here's what I've been thinking about micro audio drama. What is
micro audio drama? You ask, Well, micro audio drama is an audio
drama that is five minutes long. You say, five minutes. How can
you tell a story in five minutes? Well, it can be a little
bit tough, but it is definitely possible. So why have I been thinking
about this? Well, before we get into all of that, let's go
ahead and define things a little bit further. If you've been around ATC for
any length of time and you know about the Seneca Awards, you know that
we have had a short form audio drama category in a long form audio drama
category, and from the very beginning we defined that as forty five minutes and
up is long form. Anything below that is short form. So we had
to sort of decide where that line was because we knew it wasn't fair to
compare a single episode of a show to a feature length production, and so
we needed to be able to recognize both formats, and so that's sort of
the line where we landed. And so you may have seen sometimes when Odyssey
would release a multi parter that's a self contained story, it's just across multiple
episodes, and so those were considered together if it was a two or a
three parter, those were considered together as a long form audio drama. A
little behind the scenes there, But in recent months I've been thinking a lot
about short form and what is possible with that, and so in conversations with
members of the Audio Drama Alliance and in particular Christopher Green, we've sort of
defined terms a little bit more. And so he wrote, he wrote up
a post and I said, hey, if you're okay with it, I
would like to share this on ATC because I'm going to be talking about micro
audio drama. And so he consented, and so here's how he broke it
down. So he says, zero to five minutes is micro audio drama,
five to fifteen minutes is short form, fifteen to forty five is mid length
or average, and forty five minutes plus is long form. Now, again,
this is breaking it down even further from what I was what had said
earlier about the Seneca Awards, and so I would still consider anything under forty
five minutes to be short form, but then you have these multiple levels of
short form, I guess. But he said, the ideal audiences, as
he sees it is for micro that would be like a brand new listener.
They've never heard of audio drama and this is a good sort of starting place
for them. So for the short form, which he has has five to
fifteen minutes, he says, the audience for that would be like the busy
mainstream audience, somebody who may have grown up with Adventures in Odyssey only and
mostly listens on their commute. Mid level is mainstream audio drama fans who mostly
only listen to Adventures of Odyssey. That's the fifteen to forty five minute range.
And then for the long form, he says those would be like the
hardcore fans. Their main form of entertainment is audio drama, and they actually
sit down and listen to audio drama on a regular basis. And these are
the kind of people who are listening to Audio Theater Central, who know the
names of the actors and all of that kind of stuff. So it's an
interesting breakdown in terms of the audiences there. I think that's mostly correct.
So what are some examples of these different levels? So with long form,
of course, you have things like Lamplader Theater, The Extraordinary Adventures of g
A hint focus on the Family Radio theater, all of those long feature length
type of productions. For the mid length, of course, the most recognizable
brand would be Adventures in Odyssey, but there's also things like base Camp Adventures
and Discovery Mountain. All of those shows are targeting that thirty minute range.
Of course, there are many others Your Story Hour and all of these others
that have that thirty minute episodic sort of format. The shorter form stuff would
be things perhaps like Pirateers and others that are sort of that in between range,
and I would also include Greenhorn Tales in that because the majority of episodes
are between five and ten minutes. Now that we've defined all of these terms,
let's go back to micro audio drama. Now, again, these are
productions that are entirely self contained in five minutes. So why have I been
thinking about this? Well, this area of short form audio drama has been
interesting to me for years now. In fact, Greenhorn Tales was created specifically
for this sort of space, to try to test what could be done in
short form. The original goal of that show was to be under ten minutes
every single episode. Now, we did have a couple that went a little
bit over, and that was okay. We knew that the pilot episode was
going to be longer, but the regular season episodes we aimed for five to
ten minutes. And the reason for that was because I had done some research
into what was the general average length of a YouTube video at that time.
Now things have changed since then, but back then the average was somewhere around
ten minutes, and that was the duration that was most successful and would keep
people's attention. And so I wanted to see if we can make something in
the audio drama world that would appeal to the attention span of the for lack
of a better term, the YouTube generation, and I wanted to make a
short audio drama that you could just jump in at any point. You didn't
have to be following a long story arc. You could just hop in on
episode six and not need to have any context for what had happened prior,
and you could still have an enjoyable experience in under ten minutes. And so
that was one of the main goals with that show. Now I think we
were successful with that. I think each one of the episodes definitely stands alone.
Now, as you get later in the season, there might be little
references that if you had heard the prior episodes, will have a little bit
more context, but it's not required, and I think they definitely stand on
their own as just fun short stories. And so, of course, that
was years and years ago when we first started developing that show, and then
in more recent years, I started experimenting with just doing some of my own
little personal projects starting I think it's been over a year ago now, if
I remember correctly, when I first started playing around with his idea, and
it was sort of spawned by a book called The Art of Brevity by Grant
Faulkner, and I heard about this on a podcast for writers, and so
I was interested in this idea of short fiction, and in in writing it's
called flash fiction, and there's this thing called one hundred word stories, and
these are very very short, obviously, and you can tell an entire story
in a very very short space. So I begin to think about how we
could explore even shorter than Greenhorn tails in audio and targeting that under five minutes.
And so as I started playing around with us ideas, I've been posting
things on my own website, and then I had an idea for something for
the Audio Drama Alliance members as a way to help the group to hone their
skills and challenge themselves to make some cool audio. And so that had been
rolling around in my mind for a while. And then right around that same
time, Craig Hart from LRT Media produced a very short audio drama and it
was an experimental piece and it's for a range that he's calling Nuggets, and
it was an entire audio drama without any dialogue, and it was so interesting.
And I've always been intrigued by the idea of pushing the boundaries of what
you can do with audio, different methods of telling a story through audio,
and so when he posted that, it really really got me going again about
this idea of short form because it was such an interesting idea and I think
it was a successful one. Now you can hear that audio drama. It
is linked in the show notes if you want to check that out, and
I recommend you do. If you're a big fan of audio drama and different
ways of telling a story with the audio medium, then you should check it
out. So all of these different things that I've been talking about sort of
converged at that point and I said, Okay, we're going to start this
challenge. And so it's the ADA Member Audio challenge, and the members are
given a prompt and they have to create an entire audio production that is under
five minutes based around that prompt. And so some really interesting cool things have
come out of that. Now, again, why why am I so intrigued
by this micro audio drama format? And it's because I am a big proponent
of the idea that certain constraints or restraints or parameters, or however you want
to phrase it around creative projects can force you to be more creative and push
you outside of what is normally expected and you can make some really interesting things.
Orson Wells, who has been referenced numerous times on this podcast over the
years as a big fan of old time radio. He is an actor that
I have listened to a lot in my lifetime, and he had a line
that he said at one point, he said, the enemy of art is
the absence of limitations. And so this is one of the concepts that has
spurred this idea of a five minute audio drama. And Eric Schmidt, the
former CEO of Google said, creativity loves constraints. So again, all of
these sort of things have been spinning around in my mind for a while,
and as I begin to experiment with short audio myself. I thought, well,
let's try to spread this out a little bit more, get more people
involved, because I think this is going to be beneficial to creatives and to
the fan community because it's more content for them. Right. So I've just
been really intrigued by this. And another reason is because short form allows for
more experimental storytelling approaches. As I mentioned with craig'spiece, an entire story told
with no dialogue. You would think that that's not possible in audio, but
it is. And if we compare this short form audio with short form writing
again, another podcast that I was listening to called Writing Excuses, was talking
about short stories and novelettes and novellas versus novels, the differences in those approaches
to writing. They're different disciplines. The structure of the story looks different in
these various ways of writing a story, and the same is true for audio
drama. The way you would write a feature length script is different from what
the way you would write a script for a micro audio drama. And so
because it's only five minutes, you can experiment a little bit more. You
can do interesting things like having a story with no dialogue. I don't think
somebody's gonna sit for ninety minutes listen to an audio drama without dialogue. Somebody
might not be willing to sit down for a feature length production and listen to
something that's very different from what they're used to. But five minutes, okay,
three minutes, sure, I can do that. I'll check that out.
The other thing is, as Christopher pointed out, this is a good
on ramp for people who are unfamiliar with audio drama. Right. This is
one of the goals of Audio Theater Central, expand the listener base, let
more people know about great audio drama. Well, what better way to introduce
them to this medium than to share a free five minute audio drama with them.
It's much easier to get somebody to commit to three or five minutes than
it is for ninety minutes. And generally speaking, most of the mid range
to feature link stuff you're gonna have to pay for anyway, at least the
good ones. And so to be able to share a good five minute audio
drama that somebody can listen to for free, I think it's a fantastic way
to introduce more people. The other thing is it sort of acts as a
modern business card or poster for producers, even if they have audio dramas that
are paid projects, and they can release teasers and things for that, but
to actually post short form stuff that people can listen to for free and have
a self contained story and not just a little tease for something that they then
have to pay for. I think that's a great idea to market what you
are capable of as a producer and the level of quality that people can expect
from your paid for projects. Now, I know that I've been primarily speaking
to people who are making audio drama, but this does apply to listeners as
well. And so to give you an example of what can be accomplished with
just five minutes, I want to share with you a short that was produced
by Alicia Hansen of Eternal Future Productions for the recent audio challenge in the Audio
Drama Alliance Group. Now, it's called the Eyes of Spring, and I'm
gonna warn you up front that you're gonna want to have some tissues ready.
Now, this might not be audio drama in the strictest sense, because it
is again a short form medium where you can experiment a little bit. And
so I asked Alicia if she would mind if I shared her piece, because
I think it's a great example of what you can do with just a couple
of minutes. You can tell an entire story, and you can still move
people with just five minutes. So give a listen to this. It's called
the Eyes of Spring. Hi Rose, my name is Spring, spring Walker.
My goodness, if you could see how beautiful it is today. I've
always loved the spring, so did my mother. When she found out she
was pregnant with me, she was overjoyed. You see, she thought she
couldn't have any children, but if she ever did, she knew it would
be a girl, and then I'd be born in spring. And she was
right. I was her only one, but she told me that's all she
ever needed. Look, I know I shouldn't be here. You don't even
know me, but I'm here to tell you that, even though we never
met a day in your life, you have changed my life because I was
the one who took yours. Oh this is so hard, I don't even
know how to explain, but I'll try. About four years ago I married
the man of my dreams, my best friend, and we got pregnant with
a girl of her own. You can imagine my excitement having when is the
joy my mother experienced growing up with me. I knew, without a shadow
of a doubt, what I wanted to be. I wanted to be a
mother. The pregnancy went as well as it could. Of course, I
was tired and felt sick for most of it, it seemed, but none
of that mattered. I just couldn't wait to meet her. But one day
I made a terrible decision that made all that change. I was driving home.
I wasn't feeling too well, but I felt her kick and my heart
leapt and with this happiness I couldn't contain. I pulled out my phone and
started to text my husband to tell him. Oh, I had to tell
him, even when I heard a voice say wait, just wait, but
I ignored it. It was a decision that would change everything. Not more
than a couple seconds later, I hear this horn and it terrified me.
It was so loud. I looked up only in time to see a car
heading right towards me, and without even thinking, I jerked the wheel.
A second later, I hit a tree and everything went black. I woke
up in a hospital. Everything hurt so bad I could barely move, but
that didn't matter. The first thought that came to me was her. I
felt my stomach. Every inch I moved, my fingers hurt so much.
I cried out. But I had to feel her. I needed to know
she was safe. But I felt nothing. The doctor told me she was
gone, that the accident had caused me to go into premature labor and there
were complications. My daughter was gone and it was my fault. I've gone
through some very dark days, days where I could barely get out of bed.
I keep having this dream where I relive the accident. It's horrible,
I know, except it's different. After I black out, I'm not in
the hospital. No. Instead, I see this man in white linen.
He doesn't look like he's from here, and I think he's going to be
angry with me. But he's so gentle, compassionate. Even he gives me
the strength to stand up each time I take his hand, and he keeps
telling me to follow him. He's the one who gives me strength to speak
to you today. Rose. I wish more than anything I could have met
you. Why didn't I wait? Why didn't I listen? I'm so sorry,
baby, I can have done better. Wake up Spring, wake up,
it's you rise and follow me. Wow, it's so good, so
good. That's just an example of what you can do in four minutes and
fifty nine seconds. It's powerful. You can tell an entire story, and
notice how it starts off. We have some ambient sound effects there to help
set the scene, and then as things progress and the music comes in,
those sound effects fade out and we can focus on the vocal performance. And
what a performance there by Alisia Hansen. Fantastic, Just an amazing, heartrending
performance there. And then at the end we hear the voice of Jonathan Cook
coming in there portraying Jesus. So I wanted to share that with you as
just one example. And I think this micro audio drama space is largely ignored
by most producers, and I want to see that change. I really do,
because I think this is a fantastic way to expand the audience base of
clean, family friendly audio drama, and short stories like this can be shared
very easily. There are different platforms out there that make it very easy to
get this out there and quickly share a link with somebody or even just send
them an MP three file. It's very very easy to share and I want
to see more people get on board. Now. I have actually heard from
a few people since I've been starting to talk about this in recent months who
have been inspired by and I don't think it's just solely me, but have
told me that they've seen what I'm doing and it inspired them. They haven't
given me permission to share who they are, but so I'm not going to
name them. But other producers have been looking at this format and that makes
me very excited because I think it is an untapped market and I want to
see this grow. Now again, I've been talking a lot to producers,
but for listeners, I think if you've been used to listening to that twenty
five minute Adventures Odyssey episode, maybe it's time to be open to expanding your
horizon a little bit and trying different formats and then share these pieces from producers
that you really enjoy and let's grow the fandom or that's probably not the right
word, but the community of audio drama listeners in any way that we can
and use this as an on ramp to introduce audio drama to people who are
unfamiliar with it. And so, as I said, I've been working on
several projects they are all posted at my personal website jdsutter dot me. I
would love for you to go over there and check those out. There is
a place where you can sign up to get notified whenever I post new ones.
I am going all in on this. I'm really excited about the possibilities
here and I want to see more, more crazy, cool stuff done in
this space, and I plan to keep working in it as well. So
you can sign up, drop your email address in there, and whenever I
post new stuff, you'll get notified right away. I would love for you
join me over there. Jdsutter dot me. Link is in the show notes
as well. I have done two full fledged audio dramas, as well as
multiple other short pieces, audio essays, some narration of short fiction that I've
written, and so I want to see this space grow, and if you
could join me as we try to grow this, I would really really appreciate
that. The two audio dramas I've done is a contemporary piece about a young
man who has recently lost his father and he's trying to figure out what he
wants to do with his life after this loss, and it's called Another Year
Older, Another Year Wiser, and then just recently I wrote a short fantasy
piece called Loomy and the Daffodils, and it's really really fun at least I
think so. And so that is also available, and all of this content
is available to listen to for free, so you can check it out again
jdsutter dot me. And there's also a link to some of the content from
the Audio Drama Allion. There is a sort of round up post of some
of their recent productions on the Idiodrama Alliance website, which I've also linked in
the show notes so you can hear what other people are doing as well.
Now the homework part. I don't usually do this, but I would love
to hear from you. What do you think about this idea of micro audio
drama or micro audio in general, and what would you like to hear somebody
do as a listener and as a producer. Has this sort of peaked your
interest? Are you interested at all in exploring this idea of micro audio drama.
I would love to hear from you. It's a murder mystery sort of
cross between William Shakespeare and Agada Christie. No, it's not that I didn't
like it, it's that it wasn't a good play. This will be one
of the best shows we have ever done. Such an amusing show. What
was that line you coined? I never knew acting could be so much fun.
Well, I am excited to talk about robin Hood Rising to Honor Season
one. Now, this is a joint production from LRT Media and Eternal Future
Productions. If you're new around here. LRT Media is known for other projects
such as their Sherlock Holmes, Chapelin, Squeak and The Titanic Waif and Eternal
Feature Productions is the producer of Pirateeers, and these two producers teamed up for
robin Hood Rising to Honor. So this one is actually released in a similar
way to Pirateeers in that they tell a single story across an entire season,
and this first season has seven episodes. So it's interesting because it is an
entire story in one season, So that makes it feel a little bit more
like a feature length production when you look at the total run time. But
since it is released in smaller chunks, I guess it could fit technically into
that format of short form that we were talking about earlier. But each episode
is around ten minutes, I mean, give or take a minute or two
here and there, so it's if you're looking at individual episodes, then yeah,
it does fit into that short form category. But episode one was released
just at the tail end of last year on December twenty eighth, and then
the remaining six episodes have been released across January and February, with episode seven
releasing on February twenty sixth. Now, this entire season is out, of
course, and you can go and listen to them all, or you can
purchase them on CD from Eternal Future or LRT Media. They both have these
available, so both of them are linked up in the show notes, so
you can choose whichever one you want to use. But you can listen to
these episodes on the Eternal Future website or through a podcast feed. But I
highly recommend go and purchase the full season cut and support these producers because they're
making some really great stuff and so of course that option is available if you
want to go just test the waters for yourself see if it's something you're interested
in, then this is a good way to do it. But there now
you may notice a difference in the duration of the CD version versus the total
runtime of the individual episodes, and that is because I'm assuming that on the
CD version or the full season cut, they have removed the credits from the
end of every single episode, so we're looking at about seventy to seventy eight
minutes runtime total, depending on which version you are listening to. So that
is a good chunk of content here for this first season of robin Hood Rising
to Honor, And you know at spoiler alert, it's just a really fun
show. It's a really fun show. So let's jump into the summary and
know the pain. That's say, your life, your strength is wearing things
and you're tire, feeling ant Denis and you want to give him live have
a gift to reveal mersin you. Every time your heart, every time your
dreams break, every time you'll wear it will be there. A kingdom burdened
by war, taxes and a tyrannical monarch. As England struggles to carry on
in the absence of the good King Richard, other forces begin gathering to grab
power. Meanwhile, those who suffer most are the common folk, crushed under
the weight of excessive taxation and lawlessness. Rich soundscapes, original music, and
compelling voice acting bring the medieval world of robin Hood to life, immersing listeners
in an epic tale of bravery and justice in a way you've never heard before.
I would one hundred percent agree with that it is very, very different,
and just to shoot straight with you. When I first heard about this
robin Hood project way back in the early days when LRT Media first was launching,
they had posted a little graphic about projects that they had in the early
stages, and I saw robin Hood as one of them, and I thought,
you know, there's been a lot of Robin Hood audio drama. We've
had an absolutely amazing, world class production with the Legends of Robin Hood from
Air Theater, and I wonder, what else can we do with this story
now. I've always found the character of Robin Hood fascinating and interesting, and
I've seen stage presentations on the character, and I know that the lore around
this character is very big. I mean it's I think that Robin Hood is
probably one of the most recognized characters from legend and lore or however you want
to describe it. And I mean, the whole concept of robbing the rich
to feed the poor, even that phrase is sort of ingrained in the English
language. And so this is an epic story. And after hearing what LRT
Media was able to produce, and knowing what Eternal Future was producing, I
was confident that they were going to put out a high quality product and they
delivered. I think it is a really interesting take on this legend, this
character that most everybody is familiar with, but not in the way that they
do it. It's very different. So let's run through the crew on this
show before we get into the particulars of the episodes. The voice track editing
was done by Craig Hart, Writing, directing and production by Alicia Hanson,
Jonathan Cook and Craig Hart. Again, these two production houses teamed up for
this. The music was composed by Dominic Trice. Now you may have heard
of him before as an actor. He was in lamp Ladder Theater and is
the producer of Saint Benedict Radio Theater. He's a great actor. He's done
some stuff in the audio drama Alliance as well. But he's also a very
talented composer, as you heard in this show if you've listened to it already,
and if you haven't, you will hear, and he did some amazing
music. The LRT Media theme was composed by John Campbell, and again these
three creatives sort of split up the sound design duties on this production. Jonathan
Cook handled sound design for episode one and four, Craig Hart on episodes two,
four, and five, and Alicia Hanson on episodes three, six,
and seven, So really splitting up the duties here, and I think it
worked. Now, this is a very unique approach. I don't off the
top of my head, I don't recall any other show that was created like
this where the writing, directing, and producing and sound design are all split
up like this. Well, I guess Pirateeers is an example. Between Jonathan
and Alicia, they do co direct and co write those a lot of times,
but this is a really interesting way to approach production, and they were
able to crank out an entire season in fairly short order, so it's quite
impressive. Now, in terms of the cast, we've got a lot of
familiar names and some perhaps that you may not be familiar with, but the
producer sort of split up the main character roles as well, and we have
Jonathan Cook as Robin Hood, Craig Hart as Prince John, and Alicia Hansen
as Maid Marian, and I think their voices work really well for these characters.
And now this is not a spoiler, because we find this out in
the very first episode, and Craig did reveal this in our interview with him
not long ago where we talked about Robin Hood. But their take on the
character again is very different, and so in this story, in this version,
Little John is the same person as Prince John or King as he wants
to be called, and Robin Hood is also the Sheriff of Nottingham. So
what in the world that is such a I mean, it blew my mind
when I heard that that's what they were going to do. I'm like,
that is such an interesting, unique take on this and it totally lends itself
to some really interesting conflict and you know, having to choose allegiances here,
and it makes for some interesting storytelling. So again, really really interesting and
I mean, like I would have never thought to do something like that,
and so it's really really interesting. Now some of the other main characters are
Friar Tuck, which is another character that we're all familiar with from the Legends,
and he was played by Andy Harvey and he did a fantastic job,
just nailed it. So we'll get to some of the other characters as we
go through I guess now would be a good time to mention Cyril, the
steward, who is introduced in the first episode as sort of the right hand
of Prince John, and he's played by Duffy Webber, who if you have
heard Pirateers then you know him from that show as well. So let's dive
into these episodes a little bit. And I don't want to give any major
plot point spoilers, you know, like I said, the discovery that those
characters are the same Little John and Prince John, and Robin Hood also is
the sheriff at this time in this story, those are not really spoilers because
again it's given out right there at the beginning of the season. But there
are things that happen throughout that I don't want to spoil because if you haven't
heard it, it's really cool to experience them. So we're going to go
through them as spoiler free as we can. But I did want to talk
about these because I do think what they're pulling off here with this show is
really cool, and you know, another example of a high quality show that
is being produced entirely remotely, and it's really really cool stuff. So as
I moved through the season. I felt like the pacing was really nice,
allowing the moments to not feel rushed. This is a big thing for me,
and a lot of times newer producers overlook this and it just can make
the audio drama feel a little bit tense or overly edited maybe is the right
word. And they don't do that here. There are several moments where there's
just pauses between dialogue as we hear somebody moving through the scene the setting of
that moment, and they're just allowing the sounds to tell the story there.
Especially in that first episode, there were a couple of moments like that,
but that does happen throughout the season. And speaking of the sound design again,
in this first episode, the sound design was done in such a way
that it allows you to feel the spaciousness of the palace or whatever the I
don't know if palace is the right word, the castle, wherever the setting
is happening there with John and Robin. But it's done in such a neat
way, because again, these are little details that a lot of times get
overlooked, and I really appreciated the sound of it. It works really well.
And then we're introduced to this idea that both Robin and John are interested
in Maid Marion, and so we know we're setting up some things for some
conflict later on in the season, and of course that does come into play.
But another big focus is, as we heard from the summary, it's
just on the people and how much they are struggling under all of these extra
regulations and taxes and things, and just Prince John being a jerk, you
know, and enforcing these laws on them. And so I know that's why
I chose the song I did here to open up this segment. It just
felt right considering the focus in this story on the struggles of the people and
the hard times and the hardships and lost that they're facing, and it just
feels very genuine and real. And speaking of that, also introduced in the
first episode is a character called John Plowman, which I don't know if this
is intentional, I'm assuming it was, but Plowman a great surname, but
also it's one of those ones that sort of hearkens to an occupation. And
John Plowman is played by Daniel Cross and he does a fantastic job of playing
I guess you could call him a peasant farmer and who is really struggling under
all of this taxation and just the state of the land. During this time,
Richard is away fighting in the Crusades and he's left John in charge,
and John's letting the power go to his head, you know, and so
the people are suffering, and so that does come through, and you know,
the summary also talks about bravery and justice, and those themes do come
through very nicely as we move through these seven episodes in some really interesting ways,
some really interesting ways. Now, anybody who is familiar with the Legends
of robin Hood knows about the legendary split arrow scene, Well, it plays
out in this story as well in this version, but a little bit differently,
and it was really cool. I really liked that. And we also
learn in episode two a little bit about what is motivating John and why he
is acting the way he is, and that's one thing that might be missing
in some other versions of this story. Because of the unique setup of these
characters, you get the feeling that they've known each other for a long time
as friends, they grew up with each other, and so it does allow
for some interesting ways to play with the motivations for Prince John. All three
of them Robin, John and Marion were friends as children, and so this
is really really interesting. Now, there were some humorous moments throughout the season
which I really enjoyed. There is a running joke about an archer's finger slipping
on the bow string, and that was really interesting the way they worked that.
In Earlier I mentioned Andy Harvey as Friar Tuck. He delivers a standout
performance I think probably the best performance in this audio drama in this first season.
Extremely well done. Daniel Cross as John Plowman was also fantastic. Really
really enjoyed his performance. Now, in episode three, we have a really
cool scene, a very intense conversation between Robin Hood and Tuck in the church,
some really really great moments there. You can feel the tenseness as Friar
Tuck is sort of trying to nudge Robin to do what's right and what Robin
knows in his heart is the right thing, but he's not sure how to
go about it. And it's got some really really great moments. And in
this particular episode, episode three, there is just an amazing music cue that
leads out of this last scene here. Really great work there by Dominic Trice
really enjoyed that. It really jumped out at me as just a perfect feel
there to that moment and accompanied the scene extremely well. And speaking of humorous
moments, Cyril is sort of a comic relief throughout the series on his own.
But then in episode four we are introduced to his wife, and boy,
oh boy, does she bring along some funny moments, not necessarily in
a great way, but I won't spoil exactly why or how, but she's
played by Kara O'Brien, and Kara's just fantastic. She does a really really
great job, and Duffy s Cyril just does an amazing job as well.
And then we also get in episode four some really deep moving motivations for Marion
that are revealed. That was a really neat moment there as well. So
again we have the producers here who are doing the writing, the directing,
and all the behind the scenes post production as well and playing the main characters,
and Alicia Hansen here as made Marion did a really great job as well.
Now in episode five we have a scene where Prince John is drunk and
there are some quite funny moments, even though it's not funny what he's doing
or saying, but the way it's portrayed here, a really great job by
Craig Hart playing that character. And you know, we're we're closing in on
the back half of the season and tension is really building. And then at
around this point we have some more intrigue that sort of enters the picture,
which really ratchets up the tension. And I'm really liking where this thing is
going at this point. Well, while we're talking about funny moments, Craig
Heart was kind enough to give us a little sneak peek into the studio,
so to speak of when they were recording for robin Hood, and since Craig
and Jonathan and Alicia were all playing the main characters, they would record together
remotely, and so Craig sent over this little reel of clips from their recording
session and their outtakes of Jonathan Cook as he's recording for robin Hood. So
let's give this a listen. Is there a problem here? Is harder to
get back to my snacks? No, I'm in shape and I can take
all this shit if anytime I want. Would you stand still please? I'm
trying to have a conversation here. I belong to No one. I'm my
own person. Little it'sy bitsy, tain't sea wing? See you were going
down, mister pluming. I'm coming for you and your family and your dog.
Was my take that bad? What was I supposed to do with this
one again? Oh? Please? Here it goes? Married again? Marry
in wait? Even the people hearing? The people people are worth this blue
heart well than anything that. All they do is sniver, learn wide all
day about that I can't pay their taxes. How are you doing? Do
you arch here often at the archer return? I really dig the way you
draw that bog. You know what I'm saying? Woit dead? Bulls iright
through my head? My lady? What's up? Then? I'm sorry I
couldn't hear you of the out screaming my name. I think it's gonna slip
across your throat in this second. Shut up. We all know you're a
good art. Yeah. I think Craig enjoys playing Mary and so got your
bully another poor widow who's trying to feed hop pole will children. But man,
my fingers slipped. I got away with it that time. Is there
anything you can do to maken not marry? I want it for myself need
depinny, I'll wait the passion of you? Is it too me? It'll
be a funny file. Indeed it was. Oh goodness, well, thank
you Craig for letting us share that, and thank you Jonathan for letting us
pope fun at you. No no, no, we're laughing along with you,
not at you. We're really laughing at you. Oh all right,
well let's move into some more serious stuff again. So this version of the
Robin Hood Legends, there are similarities. Of course, we've talked about some
of the differences, but some of the similarities is that made Marian is pretty
much the same. She's the caring, sweet woman who is concerned for the
people. She does want to do what's right, and as I mentioned a
little while ago that some of her motivations start to be revealed in episode four.
When we get to episode six, she actually gets to sit down and
have a real heart to heart talk with Robin, and there's some really really
nice moments there, and one of the standout lines there was quoting the scripture,
you've done it unto the least of these, You've done it unto me,
And that was a really neat way to work that concept into this legend
and just to show the compassion that Marian has. Now I've mentioned some of
the humorous moments and humorous characters, but there is one particular line here in
episode six where somebody makes a reference to the sheriff, who is Robinhood having
a look that was kind of scary or menacing or something like that, and
Cyril says, he looks at everyone that way. That's why he's the sheriff.
And I thought that was a really funny line, great way to bring
in a little bit of humor and show the witty side of this character of
Cyril. And in this episode, episode six is where we really get to
hear some amazing acting from Daniel Cross as John Plowman, and it was just
an excellent performance here. And that brings us to the season finale of episode
seven, which sort of brings things all to a head and there is a
little bit of resolution, but the entire thing is not resolved. We know
that there is more story to tell, and I'm happy to say that they
are working on more episodes and I can't wait to hear where they go with
this. But there is a really really neat moment there again, it's between
Robin Hood and Friar Tuck and they're talking about maybe feeling a little hopeless about
the way certain things have played out, and Robin says something along the lines
of ah, that doesn't help us in this moment, and Friar Tuck says,
and yet this moment is all that we have. And I thought that
was a really poignant thing. And it's like, you know, you can
apply that to your own life. You can't always dwell on what has happened,
what is going on around you. You can't change certain things. You
don't have control over certain situations. And maybe there are things in the past
that you have done, you have contributed to the way things are now.
But this is the moment that you have at this point. This is where
you can make a change. This is where you can alter your course.
And the way that that was framed in this final episode was really really cool.
Final note on the music, the last music cue as we come out
of episode seven, another really really great piece of music there from Dominic Trice.
I was just really impressed with his work on this project overall, and
the music, the sound design, the acting all came together really nicely.
Now, if you are familiar with productions like radio theater or lamplider theater.
The soundscapes in this show are not quite as immersive. They're not quite to
the depth and level of something like that, but they cover all of the
bases that you need to set the scene and to pull the listener in.
There's no confusion about where the scenes are taking place, where things are going.
I think it works really well and that they've been able to create these
great shows in such a short time. It's fantastic. And this is what
I'm excited about with this new era. I'm calling it the new Era.
I think somebody I think it was Bethany Baldwin and called it a renaiscence of
audio drama recently, and this is a great time. It's a great time
to be an audio drama fan, and it's a great time for clean,
family friendly audio drama. This is a great example of what you can do
with a small cast. I mean, it's not a massive cast with a
small production team, and you can just make some really interesting stuff. Now,
I want to call out a couple of the other cast members because,
as I said, there isn't a massive cast in this production, but the
actors who were involved really brought it. And so we have aw Miller as
Reeves, the Treasurer. If you're not familiar with him, he is a
voice talent who's been around for a long time. Has worked on other LRT
media projects. If you've listened to the Sherlock Holmes productions, you've heard him
there. And he's also an audiobook narrator. He is narrated several audiobooks from
an author that I enjoy quite a bit ted Decker. So he does a
really great job with the character of Reeves. And then we have Darby Kern
who does a couple of small parts a guard and a herald, and Stephanie
Nimitt Parker who plays a woman in the church and Dominic Trice, the composer
for the show, steps in and plays a servant in a scene. And
then we have Stacey Bradshaw as Elizabeth, who is an assistant or a maid
to Marion. And so again a small cast, but they were able to
pull this together and make a fairly immersive world set in the medieval era,
and it sounds really, really good. And again I'm excited about what they've
got coming in this series. I think it's definitely worth checking out. Of
course, all the links to get your copy or to listen in are in
the show notes. As always, go support what these creators are working on
these days, because it's only by the by supporting that they're able to make
more. If you're able to purchase copies, please do that. If not,
share it with somebody else, tell somebody else about the show if you
enjoy it, and let's get the word out about these great shows. So
kudos to Craigheart, Alisiha Hansen, and Jonathan Cook of LRT Media and Eternal
Future Productions for an amazing first season of Robinhood Rising to Honor. I'm a
fan. I've got to say, I'm a fan. I really enjoy it
and can't wait to hear more. Well, if you'd like to get in
touch with us here, head over to Audio Theatercentral dot com slash contact.
All the ways to get in touch with us are listed there. Of course,
email feedback at audio theatercentral dot com or send a text message or leave
a voicemail at six two three six eight eight two seven seven zero. Would
love to hear from you to include you in episode two, which is next
episode, so please get in touch and let us know what you think about
anything that we addressed in this episode. The song at the top of the
review segment is called Wounded by Jamie Slocum from his nineteen ninety nine release titled
Grace Changes Everything. If you'd like to be notified about anything we've got going
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Click the link on our website at Audiotheatercentral dot com and we will be
in touch. And as always, the show notes with links to everything that
we've talked about in this episode are at audio Theatercentral dot com. Slash one
ninety nine. We'll see you next time. Thank you so much for listening.
Audio Theater Central is a production of Fortunite Family Media. Our theme music
was composed by Sam Avandanio. The show is produced and edited by yours truly,
JD. Sutter, and our website is Audiotheatercentral dot com. So why
did Robinhood steal from the rich because the poor didn't have anything worth stealing?
Why couldn't Robin Hood hit the target because his arrows were all in a quiver.
What did Robin say when he nearly got hit at the archery contest?
That was an arrow escape? How did Robin hood tie his shoelaces with a
long bow? You know, Friar Tuck was a monk, so why did
he get involved in a life of crime because it was his habit? Porch
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