And now Audio Theater Central. Hello, 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. Sutter, and this is episode one hundred
and ninety five. Welcome to twenty twenty four. It's looking to be an
amazing year for family friendly audio drama, and that's what this episode is going
to be all about. So for the here's what I'm thinking monologue segment this
time, rather than a particular subtopic or issue within the community, I'm just
going to be discussing what's coming up in twenty twenty four, looking at some
of the independent productions and sharing what I'm most looking forward to. We'll also
have some feedback from Christian as well as an Apple podcast review without a Name,
so we'll get to that and some audio drama updates here. So this
might be a bit of a shorter episode to kick off the year. But
if this topic that we're going to get into here shortly is any indication,
it's going to be a jam packed year, So let's get into it.
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 quick reminder that if you have a
news item you want to let us know about. There is now a banner
on our website right on the homepage. Actually I believe it displays on every
page of the website, but in the sidebar on the right hand side,
there's a big banner that if you just click it, it'll take you to
write to a form where you can submit a news item for us. If
you're an audio drama producer, or if you're a fan who has heard about
some audio drama news that you want to let us know about, you can
do it that way as well. Again, that is right in the sidebar,
or you can save this link PFM dot link slash atc News and that'll
take you right to the form as well. Our first item is one that
I completely forgot to include in the last episode, and that is the Audio
drama Alliance released an episode in December. On December fifth of twenty twenty three,
they released chapter two of Springs Grow. This is a really interesting series
that was developed by Nate Kufal, and so this is the second chapter in
this series, and it's called a Home Unbroken. The summary is we return
to the world of Springs Grow and the young squirrel Chester Brushwood. This time
we meet his mother and sister as we visit their poor stump home in the
middle of a frightful storm. But the weather is not the only storm Chester
is facing. He is in the midst of an internal tumult as well.
Will he ever get the answer about his family history that he desires? So
that is a really fun short audio drama. Again, it is part two,
or chapter two of that series, so I would highly recommend you go
and take a listen to chapter one first. But if you missed those audio
dramas, I definitely think they're worth listening to. And I really love what
this really interesting story world that Nate has created and it's really fun. So
link is in the show notes or head over to audiodrama Alliance dot com.
It's a linked right there at the homepage as well. Also another audio drama
that has already been released and is out there for you to listen to.
It is the Lamb mini series from Witnesses. It is completed. The entire
mini series has been released. It is split into two parts, so We
have four episodes in each part and the summary is as follows. From shocking
beginning to painful end, experience the arrest, try and death of Jesus Christ
through the eyes of those who were there for each major event, from the
disciples in the garden of Gath Simone to Simon of Syreene on the road to
Galgatha, to Mary Magdalene at the empty tomb. The Lamb takes an unflinching
look at the story you thought you knew, told by the witnesses in their
own words. And I know we've talked about this show many times here in
the past, but if you haven't heard witnesses, it is just that the
stories from the scriptures told by the witnesses in their own words. So it's
a very interesting way to tell Bible stories in the audio drama format. And
the previous releases have been all wonderful, but this one is the first time
that Tracy the creator and writer of this show, Tracy Van Dolder, who
you may have heard in Phil Lawler's Iliot House, she has taken this story
and broken it down into multi a multi part miniseries and as I said,
eight episodes total with a runtime of two hours and twenty one minutes. In
part one we have the following episodes The Servant, the Coward, the Governor,
and the Condemned, and in part two we have the Chosen, the
Sun, the Teacher, and the Witness. And so the final episode there,
the Witness, was just released at the end of the year twenty twenty
three in December, and so that has concluded the entire series. The first
four episodes were released if I remember correctly, in twenty twenty two, and
now the final four in twenty twenty three, so it is all concluded.
You can head over to Witnesses audio dot com or there is a link in
the show notes to the direct page on that website and you can stream them
for free. All the credits are listed there. Some amazing talent worked on
this show. Many names you've probably heard of, Carol O'Brien, Andy Harvey,
Jonathan Cook, Sean Condy, Jake Phillips, Daniel cross Mark, Henry
Cooney of course as the role of Jesus, who he has played in all
of the episodes thus far and just does a phenomenal job. But many of
these actors you've probably heard in Jonathan Park and other shows like that. Nato
Jacobson is in this, David Sanborn, Nathan Carlson, so it's just some
amazing talent and this is an audio drama you definitely want to listen to,
So head over there, give those a listen, and we will be talking
more about them the entire mini series on the show soon, so stay tuned
for that, but in the meantime, go give those a listen. The
Lamb mini series from Witnesses all right, and a couple of items that are
coming up, And the first is twelve thirty two, the audio epic that
we have been talking about here for a little while on the show, and
also they spawned answered last year's Seneca Awards, is finally releasing to the public.
There have been episodes go out to Kickstarter backers, and I've heard the
first couple of episodes. I'm really liking what I've heard so far. It's
a really interesting take on the Arthurian legends, so it's mixing it in with
modern day stuff, so it's fascinating. I haven't heard the entire series yet,
of course, but they are dropping very very soon. So here's what's
going on. They are doing our release party on January seventeenth, and so
that's just a couple of days away, and you head over to their website
audio dash epic dot com and there's a link to where you can sign up
to get more information about the event and join that they're going to be dropping
the first five episodes on Wednesday the seventeenth, and if you want a taste
of it before then, episode one is available on Drama five now. And
so here's a little bit about the show. When the experience mental research of
a physicist goes awry, his estranged twin children follow him to medieval whales,
where a shattered kingdom forces them to confront their broken relationship. So, again,
this is a very interesting story, lots of things I don't It doesn't
really fit into one category or genre, so it's hard. It's hard to
categorize it. But if you do like epic fantasy, I think that you
will enjoy this as well. But if you also just enjoy a good story,
you know there's there's something there I think for everybody. So that release
party is again on Wednesday the seventeenth, and the first five episodes will be
dropping on that same day. At the event, there will be some behind
the scenes content and some the producers will be there sharing some tidbits and sneak
peeks at what's coming up later on in the season. So I think there's
like thirty some episodes that are involved in this first season of the show.
So this is going to be a long running series. And if I remember
correctly, there's already a season two planned. So this is going to be
a long haul and it's going to be a fun ride, I think so
again. Link is in the show notes to head over there, check out
those episodes, and of course to hop in on that release party on January
seventeenth. And lastly, tickets are now available for the Adventures of Odyssey.
One grand party that focus on the family is hosting in Colorado Springs this coming
summer August second and third, twenty twenty four. In case you missed it,
this is a special event that will include a live audio drama recording with
several of the AIO cast members. There's going to be an interactive display called
Experience Odyssey. There's going to be a you know, a wits End and
all kinds of stuff. I don't know exactly what that's all going to look
like, but it sounds like it's going to be amazing, and there's going
to be other stuff, chances to meet the actors, get autographs and things
like that. So if you're interested in that it all, check out the
link in the show notes or head over to one Grand Party dot com and
that's one one spelled out one Grand Party dot com and you can grab your
tickets there and that will be coming up this summer in Colorado Springs testing one,
two three testing. That was just me talking. I do that a
lot. Where's my speech now long you're going to war up with it?
That's what I want to talk about. So let's take a look at what's
coming down the road here in twenty twenty four in the world of family friendly
audio drama. Now, we published a post on the website here just a
few days ago, and it really details everything we knew about at the time
of what was coming in this year, and so I'm going to sort of
go down this list and just share some of my thoughts about it for this
episode's So here's what I'm thinking segment, and I think this could be fun.
Well, we'll just see where it goes. And they're going to be
you know, totally off the top of the head thoughts as I go down
this list, and I'm going to share, you know, some of the
ones that I think I'm looking forward to the most. Now I'm not going
to go into the main stage like Adventures and Odyssey, The Advenum, Jonathan
Park, lamp Lader Theater, and Nick Guy Private Eye. As far as
we know, all of those are going to be continuing to be produced as
normal. Those will be coming out this year. So those are the ones,
you know, a lot of people are already familiar with and of course
always looking forward to what those shows have to offer. So I want to
look at some of the things that we may not have heard of before,
or the ones that are from independent producers or ones that are not have not
been in regular production in some time, you know, those kinds of things.
So if you want to see the full list, it is linked in
the show notes here for this episode, but I do recommend going to check
that out and be sure to share your thoughts on what you're looking forward to.
But let's kind of go down This first off on the list was from
Wise King Media. We've gotten word that they're going to be rebooting Macmeat's History
and now that I say that, I don't know if that's the right word
reboot, but it will be picking up. There will be some new episodes
coming, so we don't know exactly where this is going. But they did
two episodes back in twenty twenty and then it just stopped, and I thought
they were off to a good start there, in my opinion, needed some
refinement. It was an interesting premise and I thought they had had some potential
and I would have liked to have seen them continue back then, but for
some reason they didn't. So I'm very glad to hear that they will be
continuing this now. I don't know for certain, but it was originally released
for free as a podcast, whereas everything else from ys King Media are premium
audio dramas that you must purchase, the Advenum and Jonathan Park, but this
one was released as a podcast, and so I'm hoping that they will continue
that and use this as a way to you know, reach a new audience
with wiskin media content and perhaps bring them over into the you know, the
paid for content from Jonathan Park or the Advenum, you know, adding some
promos in to for those shows in these episodes. So I'm hoping that they
will do that, but that's about all we know about that, But I
am looking forward to seeing what they do with that series. And next up
is from New Birth Audio Productions. This is Micah Touchet's audio production company.
And so I know that Micah has been working on developing his own company for
for a long time, and he's had series in the works, but twenty
twenty four will be the first year where he's putting out content under this umbrella
or this brand as far as I know. So the first one that is
coming is called Reckoning of Cowards and this is the first, potentially the first
installment in a new series called the Bayou Noir Series. And the script for
this was written by Darby Kern and Micah, and so this is supposed to
come out very soon here in the early part of twenty twenty four. And
I love a good detective or mystery show. I mean, I grew up
reading hardy Boys and some Nancy Drew and all kinds of mystery series as a
kid, and as I got older, I moved into, you know,
reading thriller novels and things like that, and so I've always loved a good
detective story, and so when I first heard about this one, I was
really excited about it, and I really can't wait to hear how this comes
out. I know Darby's a great writer. I don't think I've ever heard
anything that Micah has written, but I'm sure these guys teaming up it's going
to be great. I've definitely heard Micah's audio production w post production is his
sound design stuff, and I've heard music that he's done, and so it's
always great quality. So I have high hopes for this one. Really really
looking forward to this. And then also Micah has teamed up with Tracy Van
Dolder, who I mentioned just a moment ago regarding Witnesses, and she wrote
a script that is a feature length Western and this one, oh man,
I'm really excited about this too. It's called The Claim, and this is
expected to come late twenty twenty four. And again I'm a huge sucker for
a good Western story. Oh man. I've been a Louis Lamore fan for
years. We've talked about his audio dramas on the show in the past,
but I've read, I think nearly every one of the novels that he wrote,
and many many of the short story collections. There's still a handful of
those that I haven't gotten around to. Many of those started to be collected
posthumously and were published, you know, even is recently as a few years
ago, and so I don't think I've read all of those yet. But
I really do enjoy a good Western, and as much as his stuff was
somewhat formulaic, you could say, I still love him. You know,
a good gunfight, and you know the history aspect and the geography, and
now this is sort of turning into a Louis Lamore fan club here. But
all of that to say, I love Western stories, and so I'm really
looking forward to this one. Tracy is a great writer. Again, I've
heard her work in Witnesses and so I'm very very excited about this and can't
wait to hear how that comes out. Now, another one that has Micah's
fingerprints on it, and that is Jake Muller Adventures is returning Tanhauser Gate Entertainment.
This is Darby Kerr, and I think the first installment of this show,
Unidentified, was phenomenal. I've talked about this before on the show,
that there is a lack of great high quality audio drama aimed at an older
audience. There is some great stuff out there for younger kids. We've had
stuff aimed at that demographic for ages, I mean, for a very long
time. That also seems to be generally the audience that most clean, family
friendly audio drama targets is children. Nothing wrong with that, of course,
but I'm not a child anymore, and even though I still enjoy many of
those shows, I want to hear stuff that's aimed at an old audience,
or at the least an older audience, a teen and college age or something,
if not necessarily for you know, targeted directly at you know, a
middle age, you know, something like that. But and that's what Jake
Muller is. It's a great thriller, action adventure story with some really interesting
topics. So they're you know, in the first one they tackled the idea
of UFOs. And the second one is entitled Blood and it will be released
mid twenty twenty four. From what I understand, the script's already finished on
that they will be going into production soon and it's called Blood and that's going
to be a dressing the phenomenon of vampires. And the third one called Undead,
which is supposed to come out later in twenty twenty four, will be
addressing zombies. So these are pop culture topics and they're looking at them through
a lens of scripture, and I think it's great, and so I'm really
really looking forward to the Just the character of Jake as well is just interesting
to me because there's obviously a lot going on. He's got a very interesting
past, and as I allude to earlier, I have read a lot of
thriller novels and you know a lot of those are espionage or government cover ups
and you know, big, grand scale plots, and that's what the world
of Jacob Muller feels like to me. And so that we're going to be
able to get more of that series is really really exciting. And Darby played
an extended clip at Sonic Con during one of his classes, and man,
I'm really really excited about this series. So really looking forward to this now.
This one is one that we were hoping to get last year but that
did not materialize, and that is new episodes of Pause and Tales. Now
we know that they recorded them and had at least begun on the post production
of at least four new episodes they did not get released, but they are
coming this year, and thanks to ATC listener Carlton, who let us know
that he saw a post on social media that the team responded to a question
there and said that they will be coming in March of twenty twenty four.
So now I don't know if all four episodes are coming in March or if
there's going to be more than four. We'll find out as soon as we
can, but thank you to Carlton for letting us know about that. But
in any event, there will be new episodes of Pause and Tales. They've
refreshed all of the artwork for the showy, they gave the website a facelift,
and so they are really it seems like they're really going all in on
trying to introduce this show to a new audience and get you know, build
up the following for it in the build up to this release of these new
episodes. And so I'm excited about this one as well. It's a great
show. It really is a great show. They did sixty nine episodes over
a span of several years, but it's been quite some time since new episodes
have come out, so really, really excited about this and I can't wait
to give those a listen now. Shadows in Daylight concluded its first season last
year and released the first episode of its second season as well, so that
is exciting. Don't know exactly how many episodes from the rest of the season
will be coming this year, but this is a show that I'm looking forward
to. And if you've been around here for any length of time, you
know that Christopher Green is the creative behind that show, and he is also
the head writer for the comedy show that he and I make together called Greenhorn
Tales. And so I know Chris Green pretty well, I guess as well
as one can for a colleague that you've never met in person and every interaction
has been online or via phone. So I do have a sort of personal
connection to this series and was privileged to be able to voice a character in
season one of this show, and I was invited to come back for season
two. I can't believe that, and it was fun. I can't say
anything more about any of that, but I am looking forward to this series.
Christopher has really retooled his approach to this show and is trying to do
some new things with it, and I'm really excited to hear where it goes.
We'll be hearing more about season one. If you haven't heard that show,
we're going to. We're going to be talking about the entire twelve episode
season one on the show very soon and we'll get a little bit more behind
the scenes and hopefully have Christopher come on the show to talk about that.
But looking forward to what is coming in season two of Shadows and Daylight,
I know that there will be some regular season episodes, and there is a
Christmas special that is planned, which he's told me a little bit about but
no spoilers, and I'm really looking forward to hearing that one as well.
It's going to be from what I understand the little bits that I've gotten from
him, it's going to be a very different Christmas special, so it sounds
intriguing. So I'm looking forward to this one as well. And we've talked
about this before as well. Shadows and Daylight will be doing a crossover with
the Nick Guy Private Eye show, so some of the Shadows and Daylight characters
will be appearing in that show that's going to be coming out this year as
well. So I know I said I wasn't going to go too deeply into
the Nick Guy series here, because you know, Frank, Youughley and his
team, they just keep cranking out episodes all the time. They have an
amazing output putting out multi part arcs so frequently, and they release a lot
of great content. Fun show there, apologetics topics tackled in a very humorous
way from a bit of a bumbling detective Nick Guy who sort of stumbles across
the answers. But there's always fun characters, and so this is going to
be interesting to sort of merge that comedy and that mystery and drama of Shadows
on Daylight. So this will be interesting to hear as well. Well.
If you have been watching this space, then you know that Glenn Haskell has
burst onto the scene here in twenty twenty three with a bunch of new releases
under his brand First Acts Productions, and has just started cranking out audio dramas.
And again I was privileged to be able to be involved in some of
those and play some characters for him. But he's got a whole bunch of
stuff planned for twenty twenty four that's going to be coming more in the Dragnet
series. A holiday special for the on demand series, so those are great,
but he's also developing some new series as well, and at least one
standalone Christmas story. He did one standalone Christmas story last year as well as
a Christmas themed installment of his Dragnet series. So man, just some really
cool stuff from him. And he's a writer who, also, like Frank
Hughley, has a really fun sense of humor. And there are always some
really great zingers and one liners in these productions, and from a nick guy
as well. But they're fun to listen to because these guys just know how
to write fun quips and I enjoy that aspect of them a lot. But
one of the new shows he's developing is called Josiah Donovan Scientific Historian, and
this is sort of a follow up or a spinoff of an show that he
has done. If you heard that interview with him in the last episode,
I believe he talked about Dudley Junction, which was a show that he worked
on many years ago, and this is sort of a spin off of that.
And this character sounds very and I hate to say this because I don't
want it to sound like I'm saying that he's copying or anything. But it
just it carries similar vibes to me. This character of Josiah Donovan sounds sort
of like a mister Whittaker kind of character, or maybe even a little bit
closer to a Professor Phineas T. Boggs character from the Academy of Arts series,
but sort of like a from my understanding, a you know, eccentric
inventor scientist kind of guy, but he focuses on history. So this will
be interesting. There's there's scheduled to be at least three installments from that series
in April, May and June of this year. So I mean that's really
all that I know about that. I have not heard Dudley Junction, which
is the show, the show that sort of inspired this one, so I
don't have much context other than what Glenn has shared. So this sounds interesting.
I'm really excited for this, and as I mentioned, more dragnet from
him as well. And then well, he'll have that standalone Christmas episode in
either November or December, which is called Christmas at the Canteen, another one
that I'm really looking forward to. It sounds like it's a historical piece,
and so this sounds really interesting. I'm always excited to hear what Glenn is
up to, and believe it or not, he's already working on a new
series for twenty twenty five, tentatively titled Range Drifters, and it's going to
feature a bunch of cute little critters in this mountain region and this story setting
where they tell stories or something along those lines. One of the characters is
called Silas, the Storytelling Gopher, and so this sounds really really fun.
Six episodes are planned for twenty twenty five, and potentially more coming in twenty
twenty six, depending on how those go or how those are received. But
this just sounds interesting. Again, this is not till twenty twenty five,
so this is not coming this year. But Glenn is just cranking out audio
dramas and I'm so glad to have him back and active in the space again,
you know, producing his own stuff again. So this is really really
cool. I'm looking forward to that a lot. And another producer that is
just cranking out the content is LRT Media. Oh goodness, they've got a
lot coming up. The first season of robin Hood Rising to Honor has already
started. Two episodes are out at this point, and I've heard both of
them, and it's it's so good so far. I'm just I'm just so
excited about that show. But the rest of season one will be coming out
this year along with the season two so man and this is a collaboration with
Eternal Future Productions. So that's one that it is coming from l RT Media.
And then they're going to be premiering another series called Heritage Stories of American
Heroes. Two episodes we know about so far, Captain Molly and Pony Bob.
And this is going to be, as the title says, it's an
American history show. So this is just really interesting. It's just a great
opportunity to tell lesser known stories from American history. I mean, everybody knows
about the Civil War or the Pilgrims or you know, the War for Independence
and those kind of things, but the big events. But these, from
what I understand from Craig Hart, who is the main man over there at
LRT Media, the these episodes will be telling stories that you might not know
too much about or ones that you might think you know, and they'll be,
you know, kind of giving the full story. And so this is
going to be really really fun. Also from LRT Media, is the third
installment of their Shirlock Holmes series. This is their first original home story and
it's called The Lost Legacy of Tilly Whim. I believe it's going to be
coming out very very soon, and I'm really excited about this. You know,
I mentioned earlier. I'm a big detective fan. I've been reading the
Shirtlock Holmes stories since i was a kid, and I've read all of them,
and it's been a while since i've read them, so I could probably
use another trip through Baker Street here. But I mean, there's a lot
of Sherlock Holmes audio drama out there, and some of it is really really
good, some of it not so great. There are some from the old
time radio era and then some from more recent year. Big Finish has done
some. In fact, actor Caleb Bresler recently produced a standalone Sherlock Holmes original
not too long ago as well, so and we've talked about that here on
an updates segment in the past. But the first two that LRT dead were
adaptations from the original Arthur Conan Doyle stories. Now this time he's taking some
things that he's set up in those two adaptations and building out some original arcs
with the Holmes character, so again it's called the Lost Legacy of Tilly Whim
really really looking forward to this one as well. And then we are hopeful
that we're going to get the final two parts of the Greek Church robbery arc
from Chapel and Squeak, which is from Lart Media. And this is also
another show that has animals that talk, and this is about a rat and
a mouse who are friends and they live in a church. So this is
this was really fun the first installment of that that was released quite some time
ago, and I'm really really wanting to hear the conclusion of this. The
character voices were so fun in this. Craig did several of them. Jonathan
Cook is in them, Amy Lilly is in things, and it's just a
fun, fun show. And so I'm looking forward to hearing the conclusion of
that, and hopefully hopefully we'll get some more with Chapelin Squeak after this arc.
Now, another thing that Craig started is some micro audio dramas that he's
calling Nuggets, and the first one was released not long ago, and there's
supposed to be coming a few more of those in that series. So that's
going to be fun. This space of short form audio production is really interesting
to me. I was talking with Christopher Green about this just the other day,
and I've been doing some stuff in that realm for a little bit now,
and I did a little short form piece for Christmas, and I've done
some other ones over the last year. But it's really interesting to me because
working to make a cohesive story in a short form can be tough, but
it can also be really rewarding when you achieve it. And I think it's
also a really good gateway for people who aren't super into audio drama. Give
them a short piece that's only a couple minutes to test out and see what
they think of this type of storytelling. You know, so many people are
visual these days and they want to see something on a screen. But I
love audio drama and just the medium of audio in general, and there's so
much you can do with audio, and so audio storytelling in a short form
is so fascinating to me. So I'm looking forward to what Craig does with
this. The first one was very experimental short form piece that tells a story
without any dialogue, and it's really interesting. So if you haven't heard that
definitely want to give that a listen. But looking forward to more from this
Nuggets series from LRT Media. Well. I mentioned Eternal Future Productions a moment
ago, as they are working on the Robin Hood Show with LRT Media.
But of course we're going to be hearing more from the Pirateers series from them.
Season three is going to be wrapping up with the last two episodes very
soon, and so that is something to look forward to. Love that show,
privileged to be a part of that. Getting to play Smitty on that
show is just a blast for me. I really enjoy working with them.
But brand new coming from them is their Star Trek parody show called Venture,
which is a show that we talked about pretty extensively in the interview that I
did with Jonathan Cook and Alisha Hanson over there at EFP in a past episode
here on. And so that one is coming very soon and I'm looking forward
to that one. Even though I'm not a Star Trek fan, I do
like comedy and so I'm looking forward to hearing where they go with this show,
and I'm always up for something that will give me a laugh, So
looking forward to that, and of course the continuation of Pirateeers. But also
they have a standalone production that they'll be producing called Resurgence, and it's a
period romance piece and that's slated to come out in April of this year,
and it was written by Glenn Haskell. So they teamed up with Glynn as
they did on Venture, and so I didn't mention that a moment ago,
but yes, Glynn was the writer for the Venture episodes as well. But
again Resurgence is a standalone production. I do enjoy period audio dramas or any
I mean, I've read a lot of historical fiction as well, and I
listened to a lot of BBC adaptations of classic literature, and so I do
love learning about people and stories from history and so these different eras of world
history. Obviously, the BBC does a lot of stuff set in England,
and I really enjoy those kind of stories. You know, there's not many
types of stories that I don't like. I do like listening to great stories,
and so this sounds like it's going to be interesting. They shared the
artwork a while back, and it's intriguing. It looks like a scene on
a cruise ship or well, I guess it wouldn't be the modern day sort
of cruise ship experience, but it looks like a yacht or something along those
lines in the artwork there for Resurgence. But in any case, I'm looking
forward to hearing that. Having heard the audio quality that Eternal Future Productions puts
out, I know it's going to be great. They are, as I
said, teaming up with LRT on Robin Hood and they are working on post
production on this show and so and of course they have on Pirateers as well.
But you know, just getting to hear the quality that is coming out
from especially these two producers in recent years is really exciting. It's really exciting
to me, and I just can't wait to hear more from these guys.
So really looking forward to Resurgence and Venture. And finally, the last one
that I want to talk about is one that we're going to be getting into
in more depth, hopefully in the next episode of the podcast. And this
is a new entrant into the audio drama production space, and Oklahoma based Christian
nonprofit called Heart Matters is going to be launching an app and it will have
a bunch of content on there from what I understand, but they are specifically
producing audio drama for kids, teenagers, and young adults that tackle a variety
of issues that those age groups in particular are facing in this modern culture.
And so this is something that's really really cool now. I know, as
I said earlier, there are lots of audio dramas aimed at kids, you
know, adventures Odyssey of Course has been around for thirty six years, you
know, making audio drama aimed at kids, but or as they like to
say, it's written for families. You know, but they do have a
specific target age group. But you know, we know from Odyssey and and
even other shows Your Story Hour and some of these other ones, they're not
necessarily focused on specific issues all the time. I guess Jonathan Park sort of
was. They were originally all about the creationists point of view and apologetics from
that point of view, how to defend creationism and that kind of thing,
intelligent design and all of that. But as the case with all of these
other shows that I've mentioned, they sort of have other things going on,
you know there. Odyssey of Course has lots of Slice of life episodes and
some that are just straight up comedy, and Jonathan Park has it's primarily an
action and adventure show that could sort of just sprinkle in scientific information, but
this is a very different approach. These are actually going to be tackling tough
topics and so we're going to get into this a little bit more, as
I said in our next episode, but I'm really looking forward to hearing what
they come up with. They have six episodes that will be coming in the
app at its launch, and then there will be more coming throughout the rest
of this year of twenty twenty four, and so that is definitely something to
watch. And if you're a parent listening right now, this is definitely something
you want to keep an eye out for and possibly even use this in your
family to let your kids here some of the topics that they're going to be
covering in these stories. So that is one I'm really really looking forward to
as well. So you know, I've said that with all of them,
I am looking forward to all of these, and I said earlier that I
was going to share a little bit about, you know, maybe some of
the ones that I'm looking forward to the most. And I want to make
it clear there isn't a single audio drama on this list that I'm not looking
forward to or that I feel w hum about I'm looking forward to all of
these. I know the work of all of these producers from previous productions,
and so I know that all of these are going to be really good.
But if I had to pick one that I'm really really excited about the most,
I think it probably would have to be Jacob Muller Adventures. And that
is for the reason that I said before. They came out of the gate
with that first installment, and it was top notch stuff. It was amazing
the acting, production values, the music from Jerry de Pascual was just awesome,
and the story setting and the characters were so cool. I loved it,
and I wanted more, you know. And so that there is going
to be at least two more coming this year and hopefully more next year.
I'm really really excited about that one. That one is just really really intriguing
to me because it is again aimed at an older demographic. So, Okay,
as I said before, this is all off the top of the head,
So let me see, I'm kind of scanning through the list here.
What would I choose as my next I'm going to go ahead and mention my
top three that I'm looking forward to the most, and now that I'm thinking
about. This probably should have done in reverse order, because that's kind of
the way you're supposed to do top lists. But okay, whatever I already
said the one I'm looking forward to the most, So let's go to number
two. Let's see here, what would that be? Okay? So I
think probably my second most anticipated one would be the Claim the Western from New
Birth Audio Productions. As I said before, love love Westerns, So I
think that might be my number two. And let's see, let's see what
would be my third. Probably Sherlock Holmes, The Lost Legacy of Tillywhim,
huge Sherlock Holmes fan, so that would be my number three. I think,
hmmm, you know what, let's let's let's keep going. Let's keep
going. Number four would probably be Reckoning of Cowards. That Bayou Noir setting
just sounds so fascinating to me, So I think that would be my number
four. And number five, let's see what would that be. Probably the
continuation of the robin Hood Rising to Honor series. As I said, I've
heard the first two episodes of that already and it's already pulled me in really
enjoying it. They had a last minute change of composer. I know we
had announced in the episode where I talked with Craig Hert about that show that
John Campbell was planning to be the composer for that show. Something happened they
had to switch and Dominic Trice came in and is writing some really fun music
for that show. So I'm really really looking forward to that one. So
I think those would be my top five and the rest would probably kind of
come in at a tie at number six, because again, I'm really excited
about all of these, and I think Man twenty twenty four is going to
be a great year for family friendly audio drama. Really really excited about what's
coming. So what do you think of the show? Please leave your message
after the zone. Hi, Audi the Theater Central. Hey guys, this
is awesome preaching. How about j D Royan Andrew minumed Victorian. Now,
yesterday I received a letter from a big fan. No time to charge.
I've got an email list another package for me today. No, it's actually
just your mail. Well, just a couple of items of feedback in this
episode, But before I jump into those, if you would like to get
in touch with us, be sure to do that. We we love to
hear from you. You can head over to the show notes for this episode
and leave a comment there, as you can with any of the episodes or
any of the blog posts on the website at audio theatercentral dot com. But
you can email us at feedback at audio theatercentral dot com, or you can
send a text or give us a quick call and leave a voicemail to six
two three six eight eight two seven seven zero. Again that's six two three
six eight eight two seven seven zero, and love to hear from you as
we have heard from Well. First of all, it's an Apple podcast review
and the user name is Odissey Fan. Now this is not Odyssey Fan,
who has been a longtime fan in the odisse fandom odisseyfan dot com, the
one who has sponsored the Seneca Awards for several years. Now, this is
not him. This is somebody who's using the Apple ID or Apple username Odyssey
space fan all lower case and it's spelled O d y s e y,
so not the capital O d y double s e y capital fa N no
space as Dan the Odyssey fan uses. So this is somebody else, but
that's their username. So I don't know who this is, but they gave
us a five star review and said awesome in the title love the behind the
scenes of audio drama stuff. I have learned of so many great audio dramas
I had never heard of from ATC, great interviews, news and interviews from
the audio drama world. So this was again from Apple Podcasts in late November.
So thank you very much for the review and the feedback. Really really
appreciate that. If you would like to give us a review on Apple Podcasts
or Spotify or wherever you're listening, whatever platform you're using their podchaser, that
would be amazing. I would love to have you do that as well.
So thank you again to whoever you are who left this review for us.
Really appreciate it now. So we did get a message from Christian in our
Throne Room, which is a platform where you can chat directly with us and
comment on episodes and things like that. But Christian said, I was having
a discussion with a friend of mine and she asked an interesting question, what
exactly is a family friendly audio drama. She brought up the focus on the
family radio theater adaptation of Corey Tin Booms The Hiding Place, as well as
the amazing Grace series from Focus on the Family radio theater and some of the
Father Gilbert mysteries and the Screwtape letters. I would argue that just because something
touches on mature themes doesn't make it non family friendly as long as it is
done a certain way. But what do you think what makes an audio drama
family friendly versus non family friendly? It sure made an interesting conversation on where
exactly the line was. My question to Heather was, and I'm assuming Heather
is the friend, which of them would you let your twelve year old son
listen to? And that stumped her? So what are your thoughts, dear
ATC community? And he added, I also think it's important to make a
distinction between faith based audio drama and family friendly audio drama, because not all
faith based audio drama will be family friendly, just as not all family friendly
audio drama has to be faith based. Right. I hope I got this
right? Okay, So want to unpack there, and I think it is
an important discussion to have. So I want to zero in on one thing
that Christian said here. And he said that this conversation that he had had
with a friend was an interesting conversation on where exactly the line is, and
that's exactly the way to look at it, I think, because family friendly
sort of means something different to everybody. Every family has their own sort of
standard of what they tolerate or what they consider appropriate for their kids, so
it is a little bit tough to say definitively there is one definition of family
friendly, because I don't necessarily think that's the case. So here's how I've
always approached it and looked at it. Family Friendly to me just means that
it's clean of sexual content, profanity, and cursing, and doesn't focus on
things that are not edifying I guess, or at least doesn't show those things
in a positive light. It's hard to nail down exactly, because again,
everybody has their own tolerance level. But I do agree that there is a
distinction between faith based or Christian audio drama and family friendly audio drama, though
I would I would push back a little bit because I think that all faith
based audio drama should be family friendly. That's that's my opinion, but not
all family friendly audio drama has to be faith based. I do agree with
that. I don't think family friendly is synonymous with Christian audio drama. It
can be clean and not have an overt Christian or religious message in it.
I think that's that's totally fine. Greenhorn Tails is a comedy show. It's
not trying to tell or espouse any particular Christian message. It's just to make
people laugh. But it's still family friendly. It's clean, and so I
think that's that is a distinction there. But I also think family friendly does
not mean necessarily that it is appropriate for all ages. So yes, sometimes
an audio drama may address a more mature topic. Father Gilbert is an example.
Yes, there is some stuff in there that is not super savory.
You know, it's not great. They're not displaying certain circumstances as this is
the ideal way to live your life. But they do show some things or
portray some things in those stories to show how dark and how deep some person
can get in the wrong side of things. I don't know if I'm articulating
this properly, but so I still think that that is family friendly or that
it is clean stories because they're not saying, oh, this is the way
you should go live your life. They're just saying, hey, this character
has made some choices that are not pretty, and we're showing you this as
part of this story, but we're not saying this is the way you should
act, and so that might not be appropriate for a five year old.
You know, they may not even enjoy it at all. They might be
bored by it anyway, but it might not be something that you, a
parent would want a very young child to hear. They might not understand the
nuance of what's being shown in this story. Same with the Hiding Place.
There are some very intense scenes. I mean there's torture, there's death,
So yeah, that might not be something that's applicable for a very young child.
But I don't think that that makes that production not family friendly or not
clean. So yeah, I wish there were a better way to describe this,
another term that we could use. If you Christian or somebody else has
an idea of what that might be, I would be open to hearing that,
But family friendly is sort of the one that sort of works, the
most one that has. There is a sort of similar term that comes over
from publishing, which is I think primarily used in the case of like comics
or graphic novels, and that's just all ages. So you know that that's
going to be clean. There's not going to be any sexual content in those
kind of stories generally. I mean, I guess you can never say one
hundred percent certain on any of these kind of things, but that is a
label that has been used in that world, and it's close, you know.
I think, generally speaking, most family friendly or clean audio drama is
appropriate for all ages to hear. But there are some of those examples,
like The Hiding Place that has some very intense things that may not be appropriate
for very young children. So yeah, there is a bit of a tightrope
walk that you have to make here, and it's something that I've thought about
a lot. But I just know that I don't want a bunch of garbage
in my stories. That's just not what I want to hear, what I
want to read. So I just want something that's clean. It does not
have to be explicitly Christian, but I just want something that's not going to
be filling my mind with garbage, you know. So yeah, that's probably
an unsatisfactory answer, but that's sort of the way that I've approached it and
the productions that we've talked about here over the last decade plus. Generally,
we don't talk about shows that have any swearing, but there are some that
we've referenced, like some of the Louis Lamore has some mild swearing in it
occasionally some of the BBC stuff does as well. Those are ones that I
would say is, you know, use your own discretion to go in with
your eyes wide open. That's why if we do talk about something on the
blog that might have something like that, we will be sure to reference that
so you can make that decision. If you don't want to hear anything like
that, then then skip that one. Generally, we don't do reviews and
promote productions that have that kind of content at all, and those sorts of
productions are not allowed at all in the Seneca Awards. But you know,
there are some shows that I will listen to that might have some mild language
in them, and it's not my favorite. It's not that I want that
in there, but the overall story still has some to me personally that I
can overlook it a little bit. Now, if it's just gratuitous and that's
all throughout, then I'm just going to pass on that entirely. But there
are some that I'll give I will still listen to same goes with violence.
You know, that is something that some people draw an absolute line. They
don't want to hear anything that's violent. And one example that comes to mind
right now, off the top of my head is they focus on the family
Radio Theater production of Oliver Twist. Now, there is a particular scene in
there that is very violent and very tough to hear, some domestic abuse that
is happening, and it's ugly. It's very ugly, but it's part of
the story. And while it is tough to hear, I still think that
is a phenomenal audio drama production. The performances in that were just amazing and
the production values. Of course, it's focused on the family radio theater.
They always do amazing on those. But so I still I think it's a
worthwhile and I think it's a great audio drama. It's worth listening to.
Now. Another one that comes to mind just now is the productions that River
Cross are doing. They are tackling some very very dark subjects, child exploitation
and child soldiers, very very dark things, but they do it in a
very tasteful manner, and that also plays into it. You said, Christian,
As long as it's done in a certain way, and I think that
is key. You can still approach some of these heavy topics and do it
in a manner that is not crossing that line of showing too much or saying
too much, and that just makes the listener feel grimy or uncomfortable too much.
Now, the topic of exploitation of children, that's an uncomfortable topic,
and so you're gonna feel uncomfortable to hear those stories. But it's part of
their mission to bring awareness to what's happening in all so to help people who
have suffered from that experience to heal. And so it's a very interesting different
approach that they're taking to audio drama. And I would say that those are
their family friendly audio dramas, but they may not be appropriate for all ages,
for young young children. So that's the line for me. And so
again, if you have any ideas on a better term or a better way
to phrase this, I'm definitely open to hearing that. Well, I'm going
to head out the door. Thank you so much for joining me for this
first episode of twenty twenty four. Looking forward to the rest of this year,
some great content coming. Really excited If you'd like to get in touch
with us, head over to audio Theatercentral dot com slash contact join the ATC
Insiders, which is our newsletter, and I will email you about stuff that's
happening whenever we get a chance. It's not very often, actually super infrequent
at the moment, but it is nice to be able to have a direct
connection you if we really need to let you know about something, so join
us there. And if you'd like to check out the show notes for this
episode, they are at audio Theatercentral dot com slash one ninety five. I'll
see you next time. Thank you so much for listening. Happy New Year.
Hi. This is John Tuttle from Pine River, Minnesota. Audio Theater
Central is a production of Porchlit Familymedia. The theme music was composed by Sam
Avendano. The show is produced and edited by JD. Sutter. Find the
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