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 ninety
six, and we've got all of those things in this particular episode. It
is a packed episode. We've got a review of six brand new shows from
Heart Matters. We've got an interview with the producers of those shows, Christy
the executive producer and Austin the producer and director. And we've got some feedback
from Bethany Blake, Jeremy and Michael. A bunch of audio drama updates to
get to. I've got a monologue where I'm going to talk about how much
is age a factor in writing and acting in audio drama. So all of
that is coming up here shortly. But before we get into that, I
want to say real quickly that if you are listening to this show on Android
and you're using the Google Podcasts app, that app is going to be shutting
down very very soon. I believe it's in May when it will be completely
shut down. Google is closing that app completely, So you need to find
an alternative to listen to ATC and all of your podcasts on Android. So
I'm going to recommend a couple here. Pocket Casts is the app that I
use personally and have been using for many many years. Love it. It's
a great podcast app, really easy to use. They have some premium features
which allows you to listen to all of the shows that you're subscribed to in
a browser as well as in the app, and you can pick up right
where you left off on your phone. Things like that, really cool stuff.
Of course, we are available on Spotify, which is available as an
Android app as well, and another option is an app called podcast Addict,
So there's a few different options of There are lots of different podcast apps available
on Android. I can't speak to the quality of them. There are some
that are pretty good, some that are really junkie. I went through a
process of testing a bunch of apps several years ago and that's when I landed
on Pocketcasts as my daily as my daily podcast app. But you know,
there are lots of other ones out there, but those are the ones that
I think are the some of the best options, and they're all linked in
the show notes if you want to check those out. Also, last thing
before we get into the rest of the show, and that is episode two
hundred is coming up very shortly. This is one ninety six, so it's
not too far out now, and thanks to Blake for reminding me. I
wasn't even really thinking about it all that much, and so he sent in
a little audio message to celebrate the two hundredth episode of the show, so
I thought I would go ahead and toss it out. Anybody else who wants
to send in a little audio message, you can hit up the contact page
on the website for the various ways to do that. You can record a
message and email it, you can use the voicemail feedback line, or you
can use the speak pipe widget that is on that page. So I would
prefer to have audio. If you can't do that, you know, a
text message or an email is fine too, but it would be awesome to
have an audio clip. So episode two hundred coming up shortly, So thank
you again for the nudge, Blake, and we'll see what you guys have
to say. All right, let's jump into the updates. 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 just a reminder that if you are a producer or actor or
somebody involved in the production of a family friendly audio drama that you want to
let us know about keep us up to date on the progress of it,
head over to PFM dot link slash atc news and submit that news to us,
or click the button in the sidebar on our website. Please use those
methods to get those updates to us. Well. The first one is a
blog update, and that is that Austin Peache has published a review of season
one of Kaboom. All of the episodes from season one are reviewed there.
Great post and if you haven't checked out Kaboom yet, go give this blog
post a review and it'll probably give you the nudgs you need to go check
it out. It's a really fun anthology show and I think you'll enjoy it,
so go ahead and check out this review. Also out now is the
first episode from the Heritage series from LRT Media. It is called Captain Molly
and the official summary is Courage under Fire for a cause greater than herself.
Margaret Corbin was an early woman warrior who roke gender barriers to assist the Continental
Army. Despite devastating losses and physical wounds, she persevered in defending Fort Washington
in one of the first battles of the Revolutionary War. Her courage under fire
and willingness to take up arms earned her the nickname Captain Molly and a lasting
place in history as a revolutionary hero. So this is out now. Lincoln
in the show notices to go check this out. Bethany Baldwin stars as Captain
Molly, and LRT Media is really knocking things out of the park these days
with their quality, and so I'm pretty sure this is going to be a
show you're going to enjoy. And speaking of the Heritage series, the next
episode, which is called Pony Bob, is coming soon. And I'm going
to estimate or guess I could be completely wrong, but I'm just gonna throw
this out. They're probably somewhere around fifty percent completed on that production, because
not too long ago, just a handful of days ago, they said they
were at forty percent. So I'm just estimating here, but it's in the
works and we'll be coming soon. And they said on January thirtieth that on
that day in nineteen thirty three, the Lone Ranger debuted on radio, and
they were bringing that up because in Pony Bob, they've been able to get
the grandson of brace Beemer, who played the Lone Ranger in the original old
Time radio show, in this episode of Heritage called pony Bob. So this
is super super exciting for an old time radio nerd like me. I was
blown away that they had been able to do that. So I think that
is amazingly cool. And I don't know anything about this story pony Bob.
I'm guessing it might be related to a Pony Express Rider perhaps, so we'll
see, but who knows. I'm also going to guess that it's probably a
Western because of the correlay that they're drawing with the Lone Ranger and getting brace
Beemer's grandson. Who knows, Again, more conjecture on my part. They
haven't really said a whole lot, But in any case, that they got
this guy, I think it's super cool. And I don't know his name.
They didn't say his name in the announcement, so we're just we're just
gonna have to wait and see. But speaking of Westerns, also from LRT
Media, they announced that they are working on a standalone western called Red mesa
Ryder, and they announced that not long ago and posted the cover art which
looks pretty cool. And I love westerns, as I've said here on the
show before, so I'm also really looking forward to this one. So this
one is in the early stages. They're just in the casting phase these days,
but they're saying, get ready for some good old gunfights, land disputes,
outlaws and hard nosed brawls. So my goodness, this sounds like it's
going to be an amazing, amazing show. As I just said, LRT
Media is just putting out some high quality stuff. Man, I love it.
I love it. But hey, Craig Hart, don't forget about Chapelin
Squeak. Now, we gotta wrap that one up. Come on, man,
I couldn't I couldn't resist giving him a hard time if he's listening.
But yeah, really looking forward to that one called Red mesa Ryder. Well.
A quick update on Shadows in Daylight Season two, Episode two is titled
Trojan and has the music and sound design in process, and Christopher Green said
that he's been out recording on location sound effects for this episode and so that's
always fun. I've done a little bit of that myself on occasion, and
I do enjoy taking out the old recorder and going to capture some audio and
stuff like that. It's always fun. He also said that the music that
he's heard so far from the composer sounds really great, so looking forward to
that. He said hopeful for a late February or early March release on this.
So that's episode two of season two of Shadows and in Daylight coming very
very soon now. Glenn Haskell's First Acts Productions also has some stuff coming up
now. In the last episode, we went through a whole bunch of things
that he has lined up. But he recently let me know that he's got
a couple of surprises coming for twenty twenty four, and that is a planned
summer release of a show called Amplified Mortals, a superhero origin story set in
the nineteen thirties. So I don't now, my memory is not all that
great sometimes, so I may be completely misremembering. But I don't think we
even knew about this one in the last episode, so I don't think we
talked about this at all, unless we just didn't know the title at that
point, but you know if I'm misremembering. But also we did talk about
this one, I know, Range Drifters, which he was originally saying was
not coming until twenty twenty five, but he said the first episode is actually
going to come out in twenty twenty four, and it's going to be a
story that also serves to introduce the main characters and will hopefully serve to increase
awareness of the series before the first six main episodes come in twenty twenty five.
So that will be coming the premiere of Range Drifters sort of a pilot,
I guess is how he's treating this, so that's something to look forward
to. And Dragnet four is in the recording phase now, so that will
be coming fairly soon as well. So lots coming from Glenn Haskell's First Acts
productions. Well, Dominion Artists has three new titles that they are announcing.
The first is in the Nick Guy Private Eye series and it's called Nick Guy
and the Reformation Versus Revolution Affair, and Frank Youuley, the producer and writer
for this show, said that for this installment, we will wrestle with the
differences between reformation and revolution. Why do we call the Protestant Reformation a reformation
and not a revolution? Was the American War for Independence a revolution or a
reformation? And ultimately should we consider Jesus a revolutionary or a reformer? So
that sounds fascinating, he said, along with the regular cast members Rebecca Bradford
and Frank Eulee. This time we are joined by the lovely and talented Bethany
Baldwin, who does an incredible job as Princess Christina of You Bet You stan
Oh. I love that goodness. Frank's sense of humor is so I've said
this before, so this is nothing new, but I love his sense of
humor in these funny names and you know, the character names and place names
and stuff that he comes up with for his shows. Very very funny.
Looking forward to that one. The second one is also in the Nick Guy
series. It's called Nick Guy and the Vengeance is Mine Affair. In this
installment, Nick Guy and Doctor de Soto are hired to investigate the strange pranks
being played on the minor league baseball team, the Motteville Yodlers. Why would
someone seek to sabotage a last place team? In this installment, we look
at the difference between seeking justice and seeking vengeance and why God commands us to
leave vengeance in his hands. Wow. Okay, so man, they're tackling
some interesting topics in this series, so that's really cool, he said.
They've also started work on the collaboration with Christopher Green in Shadows in Daylight,
so that is slated for a spring release, but no specific date yet.
I know that, I said at the top three new titles, I guess
it's for if we count the Shadows and Daylight crossover here, but that one
doesn't have an actual title yet that we are aware of. So the third
one that we know of has an official release that is coming soon, and
that is The Human Eel, which is a spinoff series from Nick Guy.
And this one's called The Human Eel and Greystone, King of the Poodles.
The summary is Fidele's Greystone. I'm totally guessing on that name the pronunciation there,
but that's what I'm gonna go with. Fidele's or Fidelli's hmm. Anyway,
Fideli's Greystone, as a child of five, went missing. Twenty years
later, he has discovered, having been raised by a pack of feral French
poodles. His transition from life as a poodle to life as a human is
not without some obstacles, mostly caused by some mysterious happenings at the Porter Poodle
Pound and Palace where Fideli's is being housed. This serves as a backdrop to
explaining the biblical understanding of the relationship between man and animal. What does it
mean for man to be created in the image of God? And how does
that affect the distinction between man and animals? And how are we to understand
the dominion mandate given to man by God in Genesis one twenty eight. So
again, some deep topics there that they're tackling with these series, and so
lots to look forward to there from dominion artists and Frank Hughley and his team
testing one two three testing. That was just me talking. I do that
a lot. Where's my speech? How long you've got to work with it?
That's what I want to talk about. So here's what I'm thinking.
I'm wondering how big of a factor is age in writing and acting, specifically
for audio drama, since that's kind of what the show is about. This
is something I've been wondering and it's just kind of been running around in the
back of my mind for a few weeks now, And you know, I
don't know that I one hundred percent have all of the answers in this regard,
but it's just something that I've been thinking about, and that's sort of
what this segment is about. I don't always have it fully fleshed out,
and it's fun to just think out loud a little bit and share with you
and get your feedback as well. So what I've been thinking is, you
know, I've read a lot of independently published fiction, primarily in the Christian
fiction realm, and a lot of that is written by younger writers, and
a lot of it is written by homeschooled kids. And I say kids.
You know, I'm in my forties, so anybody younger than me as a
kid, I think. But so, you know, young people in their
early mid late twenties even, you know, no disrespect to people of that
age, but I sort of think of them as kids. But some of
it is really good and some of it is not so good. And you
know, that is another point that I think we've touched on a little bit
here in the past, and that's the democratization of media times you know,
leveling the playing field can have positives and negatives. Anybody can publish a book
these days, and that's really cool. But anybody can publish a book these
days, and sometimes they're not very good. So it's a quandary. But
that's not really the main point I want to touch on here. The issue
that I have sometimes with some of this fiction is due to the age of
these writers, and no fault of their own, but they just don't have
a whole lot of life experience, and so therefore the writing lacks a lot
of depth at times. And I can't recall ever reading one of these independently
published books written by a younger writer that deeply moved me, and people who
know me in real life, no, I'm a bit of a softie,
and so I have been known to tear up reading a book or of course
listening to an audio drama and stuff. So it's not that that never happens
to me. And so I think that there is just a little something about
somebody who's writing, even if they've never experienced the exact circumstance that their character
is going through, just by virtue of having it lived more life, you
observe things you experience some things that might be similar to what your characters are
going through, and so you're able to write these situations in a way that
just feels a little bit more genuine. And so sometimes I wonder if a
very young writer can suitably capture the nuance and subtext of a story, or
what a story really needs for it to have the impact that a more mature
person might be able to do very very well. And by ma sure,
I don't necessarily mean you know you, or maturity level. I mean older
people can be immature and younger people can be quite mature. That's not what
I'm talking aout. I'm just talking about just the fact of that you've got
some years behind you, You've got some miles beneath your feet, and it
just makes you a deeper. Again, this is a generality and it's not
always true, but I think it makes you a deeper, more well rounded
individual, and able to think and write a little bit better. So these
are kind of what I've been thinking about, and I think that this might
apply to writing audio drama scripts as well, and on the performance side,
on the acting side of things. Something that I've talked about with some friends
in the past is child singers. Now, I know that everybody loves a
cute little kid that can sing really well. I've had friends and family members
telling me about, oh my goodness, this kid is amazing. They go
viral or whatever, and I think it's the same thing. You know,
they could say the words or sing the words correctly, they pronounce it right,
they perhaps sing in perfect pitch, and the performance is perfect in a
technical sense, but it's missing some heart because that young kid isn't able to
fully grasp the words of the songs that they're singing, especially if it's a
really deep heartfelt message of a song. And so while I also might enjoy
hearing some of these kids' performances, I do think they can't reach the same
level as somebody who has who can sing and that music, those words that
they're saying, you feel them deep down because you know that it's coming from
a place of experience. And I think it's the same with audio drama performances.
For acting. Yes, at its core, acting is pretending, and
technically anyone can pretend to be anything, and one of the benefits of voice
acting is that the actor can't be seen, and so this allows them to
play many more roles in terms of age and ethnicity even or all kinds of
things than they could if they were on stage or screen. But if it's
supposed to be a believable and genuine story, can a very young actor convincingly
portray a deeply complex, mature character as well as as one who has really
gone through a significant amount of life. I don't know. I lean towards
probably not. Again, these are generalities. There's always exceptions, But just
because you know, let's take an example of a young boy who has a
very mature sounding, deep voice and can sound like he's in his thirties or
forties, and the sound of his voice sounds like he would be able to
tackle this particular role of the middle aged man who is going through some terrible
life circumstances. Will that teen or twenty something be able to genuinely, believably
portray this character so that the message and the essence of who this character is
really comes through in the performance? Again, I don't know. And so
this is just something that's kind of been rattling around in my brain for a
little while. And I don't say any of this to discourage young writers or
actors because you have to start at some time, and you have to get
experience. And how do you get experience but by doing the thing that you
want to do. So I'm not saying any of this to say, oh,
you've got to wait till you're thirty or forty or fifty to be able
to do any audio drama, acting or writing. Not saying that at all.
Again, this is just something that's been floating around in my brain and
I just kind of wanted to toss it out and see what you thought,
let me know your opinions, And maybe I'm missing something here, but I
would love to hear your thoughts, and you know, sort of where I'm
coming down on it is maybe perhaps stick to lighter topics and situations in the
beginning for writers. Don't try to tackle a deeply complex, nuanced situation that
you personally have absolutely no clue about how people in the real life would really
handle that. Maybe maybe, or maybe if you are going to try that,
you're gonna have to sit down and talk with somebody who has gone through
that particular thing or something very similar and maybe get their perspective so you can
write that character and situation from a more genuine and real place, I don't
know. And the same for acting. Perhaps I know that personally and I
am certainly not an accomplished actor. I'm probably average at best, But I
know that for speaking personally for myself, there are some roles that I think
would have been very, very difficult for me to even try to do twenty
years ago and do them justice. And maybe that just speaks to my lack
of talent or abilities. But I do think there is something to be said
for having some life experience, and I think sometimes we discount some of these
perspectives from writers who have been there, who have gone through a lot of
life, and they might write a script or a character and portray them show
them in a way that we're like, I don't understand that. That doesn't
I don't get why they're doing that. Well maybe again, lots of generalities
here, but perhaps just maybe they're writing from a perspective of really understanding what
that would be like, and we who don't have as many miles behind us,
aren't able to see that point of view. So that's what I'm thinking.
Let me know what you think about all of this. Love to hear
from you. Let's bring in our guests I have some very important information and
I thought i'd be getting it into the hands of a real reporter. Sir,
Sir, can I speak to a moment? Oh, well, there's
nothing to it. I just ask you the questions and you answered them in
the tape recorder. Here play the interview. Well, this is a conversation
that I've been looking forward to for quite some time since i first heard about
this project. Well, I don't even remember how long it's been, but
it's been quite a while. But I'm so excited to have some of the
creative team at Heart Matters, and you're gonna learn a little bit more about
what that is here shortly. But I'm thrilled to have Christy Jardo lead program
coordinator, and another person that you're very familiar with, Austin Peache, who
is a regular contributor here on ATC, but he's also the audio content producer
for Heart Matters. Thank you so much for coming on the show to talk
about what you guys have been working on. Thanks for having us. Yeah,
thanks so much. We flipped the script on you. Austin got you.
We got you in the other chair today. Yeah. Yeah, it
doesn't happen too often, but this will be fun. Well, thank you,
This is so exciting what you guys have been working on. Obviously you're
on ATC, so that means it's relating to audio drama and we'll get to
that in a minute. But Heart Matters is a nonprofit organization in Oklahoma.
So Christy tell us a little bit about what Heart Matters is and sure,
what is the organization's mission. Our mission is we demonstrate Christ's love by safeguarding
hearts and minds through our digital media safety, intervention and prevention programs. And
so some of those programs are our in school program. We go into schools,
public schools, private schools, homeschool groups, youth organizations, and we
teach digital media safety to kids from pre k all the way to eighth grade.
And so we do that not only in the town that we are in
Bartlesville, but in surrounding communities. So we have three counties that we go
into and teach kids in school. And so then we also have a resource
center on site. People can come and we've got books and handouts, We've
got computers where people can sit down, and we have some videos that we
highly recommend just learning about the safety. You know, how to keep kids
safe. We even have computers to where if somebody's struggling with an addiction of
some kind, they can come and sit down and learn more about it and
kind of work through that. We've had a couple of you know, for
example, grandma's come in and say, hey, I caught my granddaughter sending
inappropriate pictures? What do I do before I tell mom and dad? And
so it was really good we were able to give them information, give that
to them so they can go back to their kids, you know, and
try to help their grandchildren through stuff like that. So we also have we
bring in guest speakers, we do presentations. They're the experts, right we
kind of just give out their information, but we bring them in and serve
dinner and let them speak to people in our community about things that they do.
We've had top digital tips and tricks. It's talking about Instagram, YouTube,
Snapchat, all those things that kids are on. Come in and tell
parents about what's going on in there, how those predators are using those apps
to get to kids. And then we do things on online enticement, how
kids are being groomed online. So we're bringing those experts and teach our communities.
About that, and then we do workshops ourselves, go out and do
these same kind of things, just talking again, passing on the information to
people in the community. And then our last program is our app, which
is what we're getting ready to talk about here today. But what happened was
it was born out of we go into, like I said, the schools
and we're not able to talk about God or Jesus, which is our hope,
you know, because this is sometimes seems like a hopeless thing, is
the exploitation of kids, and so we know that hope, but we can't
really share that hope necessarily in our schools. And so we thought, you
know what, the way that we can do that is to create an app,
an app where kids can come and learn about digital media safety online but
also the hope of Christ. We can't do it there, we say,
you know, our instructors can say, hey, let's talk about the rest
of the story. If you want to hear about that, why don't you
go to our app. And then they can hear about the Gospel and about
the stories of the Bible and things that help build that biblical character in them
to help make those right decisions online and off. Yeah, yeah, so
you know you're making an impact there in your local area, and now this
is a way to reach a larger audience, which you're doing to a certain
extent already through your website. It's full of resources they are already, but
this is just another avenue that you can explore. Absolutely. Yes, you're
right. That's so exciting and it's a very needed topic to address these days.
And you know, so many parents which you know, I can't say
too much because I'm not a parent myself, but I mean, they're not
watching what the kids are doing on these devices. So and I'll be honest
with you, having these presentations, our community is thirty five thousand, so
it's not huge, but we can only get about thirty people to our presentations.
And I've had moms come up and say, you know, I just
want to worry about getting my kids to bed on time and feeding them the
right thing, and I don't even want to worry about this or like,
but if you're putting an iPad in their hand or a phone in their hand,
you got to worry about it. You know, it's never too young
to talk about the safety that because there's predators that are out there trying to,
you know, to get them, and we don't want that to happen.
So yeah, So as part of this new app, you are going
to be branching out into a completely new medium for you from what I understand,
and that is audio drama. So tell us why audio drama and how
is that going to help you accomplish your mission? Absolutely well, like I
said, we want to get out there. We can't talk about the Gospel
and the hope of Christ outside in the schools, but we can on our
own app. So that is one thing that we for sure want to do.
But it's also getting those kids to come to the app where if they're
going to be online, let's have something constructive for them. I mean,
we also want to talk about media balance. Okay, yeah, watch an
ho or listen to an audio drama but then put down the phone and go
play outside or something like that. But just being able to give them something
that they can listen to that's going to not only entertain them but also to
teach them. And that's that's so important too. Yeah, you got to
have the balance. And what's so cool about audio drama and regular listeners to
the show know this. I love this medium. So much because it's so
powerful. You know, they could grab the app, hit play on one
of these stories and pull out a coloring book and do something you know,
stimulating with their mind while they're listening as well. Yeah, which is kind
of great that you say that, because we have added coloring pages to our
audio dramas that the kids can print off in color. For the ones that
are targeted to kids, they can. Yeah, we've got discussion questions that
come along with the audio dramas that Austin has fit together really good questions for
them to think about. And we'd love parents to sit down with the kids
and go over these questions. But then, like I said, we've attached
to coloring page to that too, so they could print that off color that
while they're listening to the audio drama. Oh that's fantastic. We'll get to
the content here in just a minute, Austin. But Christy, one more
question directly for you, and what is the target audience for these Is it
a range or what are we looking at here? Yeah? It is a
range. We have some that I mean, honestly, anyone could listen to
them and that would be great. I just figure that maybe a target audience
for us would be some little kids might not want to listen to. You
know, well, I know we won't want them to listen to, and
Austin will talk to you about it. We've got one coming up called Darkness
Zoology, and it's got a two part thing. We're going to make sure
that the parents know that this isn't for young kids. But the ones that
are going to be launching again us, we'll talk about that. They can
listen to any of those. Honestly, it's going to be great, but
we will have those that won't be for young audiences, and we will make
sure that parents know and kids know that these for mature audiences. Yeah,
and so, as you alluded to it at the beginning of the conversation,
you're going to be addressing some topics that are pretty heavy, some stuff that's
you know, not applicable to all ages. But I've listened to a few
of the productions already and it's always done tastefully and in an age appropriate way.
So I appreciate how you guys are handling these topics. Yes, thank
you so much. You know, Austin has been working hard with the writers.
He has written a couple of them and so him being able to communicate
with them and them know our heart and honestly we know their heart, and
so it's been really easy to be able to do that and to you know,
tailor it to meet the needs, you know, to be age appropriate.
Yeah, yeah, so Austin, Yeah, tell us a little bit
about some of the productions. Now. The app is launching with six complete
stories and then there will be more to come, but tell us a little
bit, just give us a little teaser about maybe some of the things that
they can check out right at launch. Sure. So the first audio production
that we ever did, the audi drama that we did for the app was
The Spire and the Fly, which is based on the eighteen hundred's poem.
The script that I wrote, it's kind of a test, if you will,
of how this would work. And that's one of the stories that's geared
for more younger kids. That tells about a flight named Felicia and an encounter
with a spider named Sick Freed for and for listeners, if you want to
hear ATC's on J D. Sutter play a villain, you can go listen
to the episode. You do. You do a really great job with that
it's a really I'm sure it was a really funderroll to play, but that
story is again for more younger kids, but again, like Christy said,
any agents can enjoy that one. We have David versus Joseph, which is
a Bible story and in that title, he's like, you know, two
different people in the Bible, basically appair contrast of how two men in the
Bible. I will dealt with temptation with David, King of Israel and Joseph,
Jacob's son. And that one's geared pretty little bit older audience for closer
like teens, but I'm sure a lot of kids would enjoy it too.
And then we have a Pigtail, which is one of our h it's a
fairy tale that you have never heard this in a way, play it this
way. Before we had the idea for to use the story of the Three
Little Pigs, one of our writer's Glenn Haskell, did such an amazing job
making this story fit for like a modern audience and like modern technology and also
be an absolutely hilarious. There's some really people are really going to enjoy that
and laugh over that, and we have some really great actors in that one.
Probably the standout in that one, it's probably Bethany Baldwin as the narrator
omniscient narrator, and John Farnoff plays a couple of characters in that, including
the Big bad of Wolf. And that's that's good. That's a lot of
fun. That's that one's probably more geared for kids, but I think all
the humor is going to be applicable to probably a little bit older audience,
but it's still appropriate for all ages. We have another fairy tell story called
snow White, Two Dwarves and a Queen, which has also written Mike Glenn
Haskell and dealing with some cyber bowling and things like that where you'll probably guess
who does a cyber bowling, and that one based on the story. Okay,
okay, I'm gonna interrupt you right here, Austin, because I listened
to that one and I was laughing so hard at some of the points of
that one. It's like these, I mean, young young kids are some
of that stuff's going to ride over their head. But I love that it's
in there because I was like, this is this is genius. Sorry,
now you can continue. You're good, No, you're good. I'm glad
I'm really glad you enjoyed that one. Speak mar Names and that one you'll
hear Glenn Haskell and Kila Bresler and Triscia Rose, Oh my goodness, Tricia
Rose is so amazing with a role the evil Queen and that one you're you're
really gonna enjoy hearing that. We also have the Dundersage Delusion, which is
another script by Glenn Haskell. Glenn, as ATC listeners know, Glenn is
a writing machine. He never never sleeps when it comes to writing stuff,
it seems like. But he's also an actor in that one too, that
deals with about being careful what take what we take into her minds, in
this case song lyrics and showing it in a funny and unique way about being
careful what we allow into our minds and how those things can influence us in
our actions. Glenn Haskell e sid it's in that one and a few of
the dane Arts, the dane Art family which very talented family, and also
Rebecca Bradford from Nickuy Private Eyes and that one as well, and this was
probably my favorite one in the launch shows is A Far Off Planet, which
is a masterpiece written by Alicia Hansen and it's a story of the prodigal sun
set in space. Oh wow. And for me, I'm not a sci
fi fan really, but I had this idea for it, and I pitched
it to a lead shit and as you all us know, she's a big
sci fi fan, and you know with her show Venture and all that she
knows the that genre very well, and she wrote in a way that people
like me can appreciate, even though it's, you know, a sci fi
space thing, but very emotional, very very epic story with like some great
actors like Dominic Trice Place the Lee Carton that John Thornoff play some roles in
that too, and Garret Vanderberg does awesome music with that too. And Micah
Tscha, oh wow, my goodness his his sound design for that is amazing.
That one's that one's a lot of fun too. But yeah, there's
a little bit for everybody. There's stuff for younger kids, you know,
older kids, teenagers, and just stuff that for the whole family to enjoy
together. That's amazing. Well, I think we should let the listeners hear
a little trailer that give them a little taste of these audio dramas. What
do you think let's do it. Yeah, all right, join Heart Matters
as we take you on an audio journey from the pages of the Bible.
If you do not bring me more money than what I paid your brothers and
you will be beaten beyond recognition. Do you want to to the far reaches
of space? What's going on? I've just received the warning that the storm
is here, much earlier than anticipated and much more spear. The population has
been ordered to seek shelter immediately down to the world of insects with web That
means you're a spider. Why, of course, I come from a long
line of spiders, classically trained in web design and everywhere in between. I'm
not sure if you should be concerned, but chickens make impressive house cleaners.
Chickens Obviously, someone doesn't want you to know about it. Plus fairy tales
like you've never heard them before? Big Bad named that they are relative.
There were books about them. Yeah, I've been reading up screen screen on
my desk. Who's by far most picturesque. Find these stories for kids,
teens and the whole family, and the Heart Matters out download today from the
Apple App Store, Google Play and the Amazon App Store. Oh man,
I love that, and I know the listeners will too. And as as
you already said, there's some very familiar voices in there, and even got
a little a clip of an old Sigfreed in there. Yep. And yeah,
that was so much fun to play that character. It probably had too
much fun, but with it, well, villains are usually the most fun
characters to play for a lot of people. Yeah, yeah, the web
designing spider, Yeah, I love it. And you know, as we
said, you know these there's a lot of humor in at least especially in
the ones that I've heard so far, but I don't think that that diminishes
the lessons that are involved, because that one in particular, I mean,
there are some there are some funny lines throughout it, but the end is
not funny, and the narrator comes in and kind of well, I hate
to call him even a narrator. I think he's more of a storyteller that
actually kind of guides the listener through. And because that one is geared towards
a little bit of a younger audience, I think it was perfectly appropriate and
I loved the way it was done. And so man, I'm just really
really excited about what you're doing now, Austin. I wanted to ask you,
because you know, you're not a stranger to the audio drama world.
You've been producing and writing audio dramas for a very long time, but this
is a new territory for you. So what has that transition been like,
going from more of a hobbyist into a professional setting. So to tell us
a little bit about that, well, that in itself was quite the journey.
I actually did not start working at Heart Matters as audio content producer.
I was hired on as a social media coordinator. Can remember what the exact
role was. I think it was basically with a lot of social media is
and web design stuff and I know resume i'd put, you know, my
work on faith field stories and stuff like that, and Christy I think I
had listened to that and stuff, and I think I mentioned my interview about
hey kind of cool to the audi dramas, like I mentioned an app,
and so for a while, like you know, I had in the back
of my mind and like, oh, this might be a good idea,
but I was working on my social media stuff, and of course people know
I love audio drama and I think Hard Matters in their mission is a perfect
a place to create stories like that, and so I actually sent Christy,
who Christy hasn't listened to a lot whole audi drama before this time, so
I sent her an episode from dankly a Lane Beating the Beast, within which
tackle is a really tough subject in that one. So Christy, what,
how how will you tell listeners what you thought when you first heard that audio
drama? Oh? Wow, I thought it was great. Again, like
he said, it's not something that I've ever really listened to. I haven't
really listened too much. That's changed, but but being able to hear that
and understand that that can come across in that way. It's not visual.
I am visual, which is probably why I kind of leaned towards the video.
However, like I said, until this, I have listened to some
of these stories of ours a few times, just on occasion for the fun
of it. So I'm really getting to know that genre better and I really
really like it. It's kind of like when you're reading and I can visualize
everything in my head the way it's coming across. So to hear that story
and to be able to see that in my head for that to come across.
I thought it was unbelievable. So I'm like, we could do this.
That's awesome. I can't do this, but you can do this.
Well. I'm grateful for the trust y'all gave me in that in I know,
like listen to that. That was kind of like the green light.
Okay, we can do audio drums. Let's do an audio dramas. So
I roll eventually morphs into audio content producers. So as for my job,
every day I'm working on audo dramas, getting casting and voice tracked and things
like that. And coming from just doing it as a hobby where I just
do my free time, you know, like in the evenings or on weekends
and things like that, doing it as a job one is a dream come
true. I'm very blessed. I'm very thankful to God to give me this
opportunity because I love this meetium. I think it's a great medium to tell
stories, especially really good messages. And it's been kind of surreal where every
day I'm front every weekday I'm here and working on audi dramas, and it's
like it's not something I thought would happen, especially in my hometown. I
thought maybe something I would do like freelancer, move out of state to do
but don't get to do it. Here is a big blessing, but it's
also you know, a little more stressful to a certain extent because I have
you know, actual, you know, firm due dates. Okay, I
need to have actors lines by the specific day. I need to send them
notes for retakes at certain times, and they need the music for this to
be done at a certain time. So have jugglingly a lot of that the
same time, and it makes things a little more stressful, but it also
helps more creativity happen. I know sometimes if you if you're giving like a
deadline for a certain thing, you're gonna work harder. You're going to do
your best for that, where if it's just something you do on the side,
like oh, that can be done at any point in the future,
you know, it's easy to put that on the back burner. But when
you're focused on this, I think you can create a much better product.
And frankly, I don't do as much as some people a lot. How
these audio dramas, how great they are. I give that one credit to
God, the ultimate storyteller, and also for the many talented actors, the
writers, the sound designers, the music composers, and the people that create
the artwork things like that. It's just so it's such a fun thing to
be part of a team effort. And I've worked on some projects where basically
I was the only one doing it most everything, and that's not always the
most fun thing to do. So be able to share the burden. I
know that sounds kind of bad, but to be able to share share those
different parts of the process with other people and collaborating with them that give and
take. Okay, we need this, let's go in this direction. That's
a process too, of the collaboration process. I've learned a lot more with
going with what we thought we wanted and they may it's a different direction,
but maybe this is a better direction. And doing those things helped me teach
me we're working on a team and things like that, and also working for
you know, like an employer, like making sure that you make a best
product. Can that's also you know, communicating the message for the mission of
the organization as well. And it's been a learning process, like I'm still
learning, but it is. It is such a fun ride, and I'm
so so grateful to God and for everyone of Hard Matters for allow me to
be able to do this for them. Well, yeah, you never stopped
learning, and I think people that decide that they know enough are not usually
going to last very long. So yeah, having that willingness to just keep
learning and with every production you figure out maybe a little thing here that you
might tweak or whatever. So yeah, I think that's important. And you
write it. It's a collaborative process, but you still have to have somebody
at the helm and so you know, you're steering the process, and so
it's important every single aspect and what I've heard so far has been really really
great quality, So I'm I think it's this is really good stuff. I
mean, what you guys are doing, I'm really excited for where it's going.
Well, thank you. I'm glad you're enjoying it absolutely. So there's
a link in the show notes to of course the Heart Matter's website for people
to go check out everything that you guys are doing, but also links to
where they can go get the app. And so you know, we said
six stories are in the app at launch, how often will we be getting
new content In terms of audio dramas well, we have several odd drums that
are still yet to come. This year, we have a standalone production called
In the Worlds Collide coming out in April of this year, dealing with VR
in video game addiction. Really epic story and we're close to we're getting close
to the end of that process of producing that and it's sounding amazing. It's
because of the many talented people that are working for us on this, and
it's it's gonna be pretty epic. We also have another Bible audo drama similar
to David Versus Joseph, coming out sometime in July. Then we also have
in September, which is gonna be The Darkness Duology. That's a two part
show that deals with an issue that is very prevalent and very saddening in today's
world for kids and teenagers, is suicide and how the digital world influences those
kinds of things. And it's very unique story with a story with the same
circumstances, but two different endings, and but each episode can stand alone on
its own. You'll listen to one in any order, just two different endings.
But hopefully in all of it shows you know the hope, hope that
Christ can give and also hopefully help people think twice about take in their own
life and showing how it can be for the people left behind and how there
are options to get help. And then closing out the year, we're gonna
have a I guess say, a mini series or multi part story called Princess,
which has to do with human trafficking in the US, and that's a
very powerful So that's probably gonna be the it's the long it's gonna be the
longest this year, so that we've been working on one of the most one
of the most powerful and most I want to say, probably heart wrenching to
a certain extent. Again, like we're still gonna, you know, be
tasteful with it and things like that, and kind of my model for some
of these shows is like River Cross, I think you mentioned that earlier.
They're dealing with really tough subjects on things happening to children in Africa, but
in a tasteful way, but a good story first and foremost. And that's
what I went for these stories, is good story first and foremost. If
you don't have a good story and you're just having characters, you know,
just preach at someone and just saying it, you know, not in an
organic way, but a story is going to teach a lot more than someone
given a lecture or a sermon. So we want all these stories to help
edify people and inform people. And we have more audi dramas planned for twenty
twenty five or I saw the first draft for one the scripts for next year,
and that's going to be a lot of fun. Yeah, several more,
several shows planned for So we don't have any plans to stop doing audio
dramas. We love making them and we hope people will love hearing them.
Oh man, that's awesome. I'm really excited about you know. You know,
again we're talking about some heavy stuff here, but it's a ministry tool
here that you that you can use this medium to reach out to touch people's
lives. And that's what storytelling really is all about. Each one of us
is a story, and I believe that God has put that in us,
and we love story and so that you guys are putting that first. You
know, Yes, we want to we have we have a message with what
we're doing here, but we want to tell a good story too, and
you're you're doing that and and so I'm really excited about it. And Christy,
what was the reason, I mean, explain to the listener why it
was important to have these discussion guides and other things to go along with these
with these episodes. Sure, absolutely, you know, I think sometimes maybe
we want to make sure everybody gets the message of the story, and I
think it's written so that they will. But if they don't, or if
they want to go a little further, you know, we've put those questions
in there so they can kind of look at what I'm doing. How did
I see that? How what would I have done if this had happened to
me? I'm thinking of Felicia. What would Felicia's mom? What could she
have done so that Felicia didn't I won't give it away, but I think
we probably all know, but for the listener to put themselves in that,
you know, the shoes of that character, to decide what they would have
done, What could I have done? What would I have done? And
if I didn't make that choice, what would the outcome be? Of course,
Austin's you know, put those discussion questions together and we're pointing them to
scripture too, So I think that's like the thing that I love the most
in those discussion questions, is pointing them to scripture and then just teaching them
along the way this is what she should have done, This is what you
know. It's easy to see hindsight, right. I mean, we can
all say that we've all made mistakes and we can will continue to do that.
But if we teach them the right way now when they're met with something,
then maybe they'll realize, oh wait a minute, I remember this in
The Spider and the Fly. I'm not going to do this. I'm going
to choose this way this time. You know. So when we have we
have students that come up to us when we're in the schools and come up
to the instructors and say, you know, when little boys like you know
what, I remembered what you said in class last week, and I put
my game down and I went and played it with my little brother outside,
you know, and he said and it was a lot of fun. So,
you know, those things that we begin to teach. And then there's
the heartbreaking stories or you know, somebody adult reached out to me on this
game I was playing and he wanted to meet me in person, and you
know that kind of thing. So we can say, hey, we don't
talk to people unless we know him in real life, you know. So
those lessons that were teaching out there, we can teach within here, and
so that's what those discussion questions are kind of meant to do, is to
continue to teach. And also again, like I said, what would you
do if you were in that position? Yeah, yeah, that's fantastic.
Now this is a question that's more for me, I think, or and
I guess the super fans of audio drama in the audience, which I know
there are a few, but for those kind of people. Is there any
chance that a CD collection might be made available at some point? Ooh,
I didn't know that was a thing. I would say, yes, wonderful.
I think we could probably do something like that. I think something else
that Austin did when he got the music composers together. You know, we
have original soundtracks too. I don't know if you've had a chance to go
on there. So that's a lot of fun. We were kind of updating
the app today as we were sitting there together, and we just had a
far off planet playing in the background, you know. So I think that's
pretty amazing just to hear those the original music too. So we put that
in there for people to enjoy also, so that might be something that goes
on there also. Oh, that's wonderful. I didn't see that yet.
So well, speaking of other features in the app, but tell just a
real briefly what other kind of content and resources are going to be available there.
Sure, So we have what we're calling masterclasses, So we're just going
to launch with one. But within that one, it's one of our youth
pastors and his wife's a teacher, and it's called commune Cating with Teens.
And so within that there's about nineteen two to three minute videos on different subjects
of talking with your team. We're going to have videos doing Bible stories.
So one of the first ones that's going to come up is going to be
Christ in the Cross, and so again it's going to be told in an
entertaining way, but a way that those you know, kids listening can kind
of sync that in and adults you know that those lessons and so there'll be
a bunch of things like that. It's two people talking it out. One's
giving the story, narrating it while the other one might be kind of giving
it a little flare. And then we also have something called Safety with Ryan.
So this is geared towards parents, and it's just talking about the different
apps that are out there that the kids might be on, and so just
giving them a little a little information on what can go on in the app,
what the app does, and maybe how you can keep it you know,
can kind of lock it down or keep it SA or some of them
we don't recommend at all, and so those will be up in there.
Then we also have short films and those are again just videos of probably two
to five minutes of doing the same thing, teaching again, all in an
entertaining way. A lot of it's comedy, some of it's not so funny,
but it's again teaching kids about what can happen online. And then we
also have we're coming out with a documentary probably I think January twenty twenty five,
but there is a kind of a trailer in there. It's a twelve
minute trailer that we did. It's about a young woman who was groomed and
abused by her professor. And so again it's part of that piece of I
won't say necessarily trafficking, but it's within that. So a lot of stuff
took place online and so we're just trying to teach people through that. And
she said again, if it could help you help just one person to be
able to see her story and to know when something like that is happening and
then they can stop it, she said, then it's all worth it.
So wow. Yeah, And the good news about this is you get access
to all of these resources, all these awesome audio dramas and more to come,
for the price of nothing. All right, it's free. Yes,
it's free. Yes, which is I love that that we're able to do
that. We have a resale store here in our town and people donate items
to them, and then on Tuesdays and Saturdays and once a month on Thursdays,
they're open for people to come purchase things from there. And they make
up about sixty percent of hour of the donations that come up of the money
they were able to use, and then the rest of it comes from Yeah,
it's pretty amazing. Now I say that before we begin the app,
so it's going to change a little bit with the app. But we're just
hoping that, you know, if people see something that they like or they
really appreciate these audio dramas or these short films or another thing that's going to
come out next year as a puppet show and it's a drama. It's called
Jungle Elementary and it's gotta be two seasons that will come out next year.
And so that's pretty fun in itself, but weird. It's being written right
now, and we've got the puppets already made from a company in California and
so they're here and so we could see them every day. They're pretty life
size, so it's going to be really amazing. But that's just going to
be something else coming along. But you know, if people see that and
they're learning stuff and their kids are enjoying it, we're hoping that they kind
of buy in, you know, to help that next thing to be made.
So why we really are so blessed with that resale shop. I know
with what's coming up, it's going to take private donations and things like that,
but we're believing for provision from God because we honestly believe he's calling us
to do this. So yeah, yeah, it makes it really easy in
the app. It makes it really easy to donate. So if you like
any of the content and there, you want to see more happen. And
I know if youc Is talked of this a lot about how you know,
good audio drama does not come cheap. So if you feel blessed by it,
if you think this is something that is worthwhile, we'd appreciate it if
you donate. You know, donating the app makes it really easy to do
that, and that'll help the organization keep running and more audiodramas and video is
made. Yeah, I mean, we believe that the worker is worthy of
his higher And also there's the what's called the value for value model that a
lot of content is distributed under, and that is, you know, we're
giving this to you. If you get value out of it, then maybe
give us a little bit back in return. And so I think that's that's
a great way to do it. And of course, as Austin mentioned,
you can do that through the app or head over to heart Matters, dash
Okay dot org and there's a there's I'm sure there's a way to do that
there as well. Before we head out the door, Christy, any any
last words anything we didn't cover that you want to make sure to let the
audience know about. I honestly can't think of anything. I really appreciate you
having us on I really do, and this is something that my background is
not in this. My degree is in microbiology, so oh wow, this
is totally different than anything I have ever done. God called me into nonprofit
five years ago and so here I am. But I am so humbled and
honored to be able to be a part of something like this because, like
I said, I think I operate on the other side of the brain that
a lot of creative people do. So I can do the spreadsheets and the
budgets and I can create that way. But what you guys are doing,
I think is something that is not in my skill set. But I am
absolutely having a ball doing it. So well, I want to say just
say for me, thank you for seeing the potential in this medium to use
it in this way. It's a powerful storytelling medium and I love what you
guys are doing, and so thank you, and thank you for letting me
be a little part in participating in one of the episodes. So that was
a lot of fun too. Absolutely, I think that's great. And yeah,
don't stop, don't stop trying out. We expect you to be in
more of them too, Okay, Austin anything else that we want to let
the audience know about. Well, another thing that you all can do for
us, if you if you believe in the mission of Heart matters and what
we're doing is also to pray for us. It's not a it's not an
easy thing what we do, and I'm not trying to make us. Some
want to pity us, but it is is tough material to work with and
the stories we hear and what we're making and you know, moving on the
devil's territory. Devil does not like it. So we would appreciate everybody out
there that was a Christian that would stand behind us and pray for us and
that we would keep doing the Lord's will. And we would greatly appreciate that,
absolutely absolutely well. Again, links to the website and the app are
in the show notes. I highly encourage you to go check this out and
listen to these episodes. And I'm sure that there's a family or your own
children who will benefit from listening to this, to these productions. So thank
you again, Christy and Austin for Kevin on the show, thank you so
much. Yes, thank you, JD. This is a lot of fun.
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, you just heard all
about these audio dramas, where they came from, and a lot of the
people involved in them. But let's go ahead and dive into them a little
bit deeper. Now, there are six of them here, and they're all
about thirty minutes or less, so we're not going to take a whole ton
of time with them because they don't want to give away any spoilers. But
I do want to touch on a few things with regard to each episode here.
So let's talk about the six Heart Matters standalone audio dramas that are in
the app today as of the launch. And we've got a good variety here
of these episodes, and of course link is in the show notes to head
over there, get the app, visit their website learn more about what they're
doing. We talked about all of that with Christy and Austin just a moment
ago, and speaking of them, Christy Jardo is the executive producer of these
Heart Matters audio dramas, and producer and director was Austin Peachey on all six
of them as well. Well. So let's jump into these audio dramas.
Now, quick note before we get started. I was involved in one of
these shows, as you heard in the interview there, and Austin is of
course a friend and a longtime ATC contributor. But I do have to give
an honest review of these. Now these are it's just my opinion. You
are free to disregard my thoughts on these, but that has been a foundation
of Audio Theater Central from the beginning, and that is that we give honest
critiques and reviews of audio dramas. So that might mean that on occasion there
are things that we think could have been improved, and we're gonna bring those
up when that happens. So I just wanted to give that caveat that,
you know, just because I was involved in these, I'm still going to
give an honest assessment my opinions of these audio dramas as and jage he pays
off God for everything else. I'm praying your take as a servant, be
your progame. So Daddy, I'm too Cold song of the lists before I
could see you were listed from my footsteps. You came learn and off me
as com cold, but your bodies used to love the pod God broken lone?
Is me enough? Prodigal would know? I have love to his daddy?
Pis you enough? Were? We're gonna go down these six audio dramas
in the order that they were released on the app here. So the first
one is The Spider and the Fly, and that just happens to be the
one that I am in. So here is the summary for this fourteen minute
audio drama. A spider named Siegfried has moved into Felicia, the Fly's neighborhood.
She's been warned not to get near the spider's home. Is Siegfried as
dangerous as her mom says? Or is Sigfreed actually a good friend? So
this one was written by Austin Peachey, with sound design and music by Mark
mulcahy, who you may be familiar with from Greenhorn Tails. He's done some
work on that show, and of course he worked on the Watch and some
other projects. And I've really really liked Mark's work and his music and his
sound design are always really really great. So this is a show that is
geared towards a younger audience, and it's basically talking about stranger danger essentially to
put it in the vernacular, so to speak. And I thought this one
came together really really well. I'm not gonna talk about it too much because
I don't want to see him self serving, because again, I did have
a role in this. I get to play Siegfried the Spider. Had a
great time with that role. And the rest of the cast Jonathan Cook as
the storyteller, Christianna Thomas as Felicia the Fly, and Tricia Rose as Felicia's
mother, they were phenomenal. They really really did a great job. I
thought this one came together really, really nicely. One thing about the sound
design that I thought was really kind of funny is because we have, you
know, Felicia. There's a scene where she's leaving the house heading out to
go to school and we hear where the flies live. Now, they don't
live in a typical home. You know, sometimes stories that feature animals or
insects they actually have houses. In this case, they live in a garbage
can or something like that. If I remember correctly, and so in the
sound design they chose, Mark chose to still use like actual doors opening and
closing, which I thought was a funny, funny touch because we hear in
the story that they live, they don't live in a house, So I
thought that was just a funny, little comical element that he added to it.
There are some humorous lines in this one here and there, but overall
it is not intended to just be a story that you're sitting there chuckling and
go falling at, because it's talking about a serious topic, which all of
these really do in some way. And so I thought this one was done
really really well, and Austin really really impressed me with the writing on this
one. So I really enjoyed The Spider and the Fly really really fun show.
And now that I say fun, sounds terrible to categorize it like that
because it is so serious and the ending is not fun, but I think
you'll understand what I mean when you listen to it. Well. Next up
is David versus Joseph. The summary is two different lives, the same opportunity,
two different outcomes, which hero of the Old Testament will fall? And
this one is right at thirty one minutes long, also written by Austin and
sound designed by Christopher Green and music by Dominic Trice. Now this one is,
of course it's a Bible story, so we know how these go,
but it's an interesting way to put these two different characters back to back and
we see how this story plays out framed in this perspective of temptation, and
how each of these men reacted to it. Now, if you're familiar with
the Bible at all, you'll know these stories, but the way that they
are chextaposed in this particular production was really interesting and I thought it was handled
well. We had a great cast. Of course, we have the main
characters of Joe Joseph, who was played by Dominic Trice in addition to doing
the music, and David was played by Craig Hart. And we have a
full cast here which includes Bethany Baldwin as Potiphar's wife. We also have Tricia
Rose as Bathsheba, and Austin Peache also picks up a role here. We
have Steve Phillips, Glenn Haskell, Frank Hugh Lee, John Mark Force,
and Garrett Vandenberg. Also hopefully I'm not missing anybody, but a pretty good
sized cast for this half hour show, and this one, I would say
is aimed at an older demographic. Most really small children are not going to
be encountering this particular issue of lust and temptation, so I think this one's
for older teens. And of course the scenes with Potiphar's wife are a little
bit edgy, but it is trying to make a point, is trying to
show you what really happened in this story. So again I think this one's
for older teens. But it's extremely well done. The performances were fantastic.
Bethany Baldwin was a standout in this one. She was fantastic, as was
Dominic as Joseph. Just really really great job all around from the cast on
this one. So that is David versus Joseph. The next one is called
a Pigtail and it's th al E not t ai L, and the summary
is a trio of pig siblings are looking at building their own homes. However,
they've caught the attention of the Big Bad Wolf, who finds a way
to influence them into building inferior houses through his online presence. This one is
twenty two minutes long and it was written by Glenn Haskell, with sound designed
by Ben Kimp, who you may be familiar with from a bit of Time
Travel and his new show The Church at Tressel Falls, as well as working
on Greenhorn Tales as well. His sound design is always really really good.
I always appreciate his work as well. And so this one, of course,
as the summary says, it's talking about online influencers and the way that
they can well influence your buying habits or whatever the case may be, and
of course more sinister things as well, But this one tackles this topic in
a really really funny, humorous way, of course, a retelling of the
classic tale of the Three Little Pigs in a modern setting, and of course
using the Internet as a main focus here. And this one is the one
that you heard Austin reference in the interview that Bethany Baldwin plays the omniscient narrator
and so a really humorous take. What I liked about it is it was
a little bit similar to the way the narrator acts in Jungle Jam, how
he sometimes interacts with the characters. So that was a really fun touch.
And we know that Glenn Haskell is a great comedy writer so there's some very
funny lines here. We have Christopher Green as Brian, who is one of
the pigs, Rebecca Bradford as Bridget, another pig, and John Foraranoff as
Kevin, the third pig, and so they all did a really great job
here. And then we have John Fornoff also as the Big Bad Wolf.
Now, this is one thing that I was not super crazy about because I
thought I thought those voices were a little bit too close. We had John
Tharanoff playing one of the pigs and the Big Bad Wolf. If it had
been me, I would have cast a different voice there. I just thought
they were too similar. Again, this is just my opinion, but that
was one thing that I thought I would have done differently personally. But in
terms of the acting itself that it was all fantastic. And I love the
way that John Fornoff plays these characters, especially the wolf. He's got some
very funny lines. There's some interactions with other characters that were just very very
funny. There's also a bus driver as they're traveling to where they're going to
build their homes, very very funny character. Again, the humor that Glenn
incorporated into this is very very fun and I always enjoy his stuff, and
so this is a really fun one. This one's totally fine for all ages.
I think. You know, sometimes parents are given very young children these
smartphones, so this is a topic that needs to be addressed. And you
know what, here's the thing. I mean, I hope parents will listen
to these things and realize that maybe it's not such a great idea to just
give unfettered access to the Internet through iPads and smartphones to our young kids.
So anyway, I'll get off myself box now. But that is a pigtail,
very very fun. Really enjoyed it. Well, that's three down.
We've got three more to go. The next one is snow White, Two
dwarves and a Queen. Now this is sort of again a fairy tale that's
been retold, but in a pretty different way. We only have two dwarves,
oh goodness. The summary is the annual Fairest of them All ball is
approaching and the Queen is looking forward to being admired and crowned at it again.
But a stranger named snow White arrives in the kingdom and threatens the Queen's
plans. This one's about twenty one minutes Long, also written by Glenn Haskell,
with sound design by Ezra Losa. So again a retelling of the snow
White story in a more modern context, but some very different elements. I
really really enjoyed this one. I laughed out loud multiple times during this one,
and I've gone back and listened to it again and had the same same
reaction. I just so many funny lines here. The dwarfs. Here we
have Sparky and Leon played by Glenn Haskell and Caleb Bresler. Just some great
interactions between those two and then with other characters, just funny stuff. Caleb
Bresler also plays the Queen's mirror, does a great great job, and Glenn
is also the narrator here, so goodnes I see he was the writer,
narrator and plays one of the dwarves. Great job all around. The Queen
was played by Tricia Rose. She does a fantastic job of playing an evil
villain. Really really enjoyed her performance. Freya, who is the Queen's attendant
or assistant, whatever whatever you want to call her, played by Rose Beasley
and she did a wonderful job as well. And then we have snow White,
who was played by Heidi Stewart, who if you've listened to the Seneca
Awards for the last several years, you've heard her voice every year, and
of course she's been in Lamplighter Theater and other stuff as well. Really really
great performance by Heidi. Overall, Man really really had fun with this one.
Now, there was a couple of times where I thought the pacing in
the overall mix could have been adjusted. There was just a couple of moments
where I just felt a little off and I would have liked to have seen
that tightened up in a couple of spots. But overall, really really nicely
done. Again, I laughed out loud at this one. Had a lot
of fun with this. One of my favorites in this first batch of productions
from Heart Matters. All right, we move on to the penultimate one,
and that is called a Far Off Planet. The summary is Duade has it
all a luxury apartment on Mars, his own teleporter, and a companion robot.
However, and approaching dust storm might change all of that. And this
one is just over a half hour. This one was written by Alisia Hanson
of Eternal Future Productions, who you know her work from Pirateers, but this
is something very different, and as Austin mentioned earlier, you know she's working
on her own science fiction show. And this is the story of the prodigal
sun set in space and it is really really well done. Sound designed by
Micah Touchet, music by Garrett Vandenberg, and I absolutely loved this one.
Now, this one is I think aimed at an older audience too, so
that might be something to do with it, because it is more not mature
in a bad way, but it is aimed at an older demographic, and
so I am in the older demographics. I really enjoy this. My goodness.
The cast, it's got one of the larger casts, maybe even the
largest cast of any show of these six so far. But everybody was so
so good. We had Dominic Trice in the lead role of Duade, who
is of course the prodigal son here, and he did a fantastic job in
this character's role. My goodness, I really really enjoyed his performance. We
had Betsy Nicholson as an animated voice of multiple different I started to say inventions,
but that's not the right word. Just different interfaces, maybe is the
is the word in this futuristic space world. And she had the perfect intonation
and cadence. She did a great job as a as a an AI sort
of voice. We had Andy Harvey here in the in the cast, and
Craig Hart Glenn Haskell as a security robot. Jonathan Cook plays a shop owner
in a scene. We had John Fornoff as the aforementioned companion robot of Duade,
whose name is Rizzo. And this one was just an interesting, interesting
way to tackle this story. And you know, if you've been around church
for any length of time read the Bible, you know this familiar story.
But hearing it turned in this way and presented in a new way, I
mean, this is not the first time a Bible story has been retold in
a new context. I mean that's been happening for forever probably, But there
was something really interesting about this. And Austin said earlier that he's not a
huge science fiction guy, and I'm not either, but I really really enjoyed
this one. And this one is my absolute favorite of these first six.
I don't know, every single element of it was just really good, really
good. The writing, sound design, music. Now I haven't asked him
about this, but I'm sure that Micah had a lot of fun with the
sound design here with a science fiction world, it's probably a challenge and freeing
at the same time, because we don't have any of these things really in
real world in our life. Son, you have that freedom to sort of
imagine what these things might sound like. But on the other side, you
do have the challenge of making sure that it's we can understand it as a
listener who has never experienced these things, so you have to walk that line.
And I think he nailed it. These inventions and tools that Duade encounters
and uses, these teleporters and all this stuff, robots, it sounds like
a real world and I can absolutely picture it in my mind as I'm listening,
and so I really really really enjoyed this one. We also have John
Fornoff in the role of Duade's father, and he does a fantastic job there
as well. So just a really really great one. Again, this is
my all time favorite of the first six. I think anybody who listens to
this one is going to enjoy it, even if you're not a science fiction
fan. It's just well done, very very well done. All right,
So we come to our last audio drama of this batch, and it is
called The Dunder Sage Delusion. The Summer is Zeke's grandpa tells him a story
about Claude dunder Sage, a man whose life was filled with jogging plates and
cleaning chickens. This one sixteen and a half minutes long, and it was
also written by Glenn Haskell, with sound design by Mark mulcahey. This is
a fun one. It's tackling the idea of how content can influence our minds
and what we think about and how we perceive things. Actually, I think
Austin said it earlier that it's about in particular in this context, it's about
song lyrics, and so that is an interesting way to frame this particular topic
and jogging plates. I'm sure you can pick up on the reference there to
some nursery rhymes and things like that. This is another really fun one.
The grandpa and grandson are played by John Daynert and Rigby Dayannert. We have
Claude who is played by Glenn Haskell, and so it's framed as a as
a talk show, and so Claude is being interviewed by Carly who is played
by Katie Daanert. Really really fun performances from all of them. There are
some very funny lines in this one, and I found myself chuckling along to
this one on multiple occasions. This is a shorter one, like I said,
sixteen and a half minutes, so it's the second shortest one of this
batch, but it does pack a great message. I think it's applicable to
all of us, even adults. You know, be careful little ears what
you hear. You know, that is a mantra that we all should be
thinking about. And so it is of course really applicable to kids, as
they are sponges and they soak in everything that comes around them. So being
careful to guard your mind, your heart, your eyes, and your ears
is extremely important, and so every single one of these six audio dramas is
tackling that as an overarching theme. Now, the way that might come out
is different in each one of these, but overall that's the goal. It's
to guard your heart and your mind. That's why they're called Heart Matters,
because we need to guard our hearts, and it's particularly important for younger people.
And so I love what a Heart Matters is doing. This is just
the first of many more to come. I'm hoping that this continues for a
long time. Now here's something that I would like to toss out. If
you have any feedback on these audio dramas or the app, the way it
functions, any features and things like that, how you interact with the contents.
As Christy mentioned earlier, there are also music soundtracks for three of these
productions. You have discussion questions, you have coloring pages, so all of
that content is in here. It relates to these audio dramas. So if
you have any feedback at all, of course, you can reach out to
Heart Matters directly through their website or something, but if it's easier for you
to just hit me up via all of our methods to contact us. I've
told Christy that I can pass on that information to her, so they are
open to hearing how these have these stories have impacted you, how your interaction
through the app with this content is going, So be sure to let them
know or let me know and I'll pass it on. But overall, again,
really enjoyed these six audio dramas, looking forward to more to come.
Love it heart Matters is doing, so be sure to check out the links
in the show notes to go and listen to these. You can stream them
all for free right now, so what do you think of the show?
Please leave your message after the shown. Hi. Audi Theater Central. Hey
guys, this is awesome. Hello j D Royan, Andrew Minum Victoria.
Now, yesterday I received a letter from a big fan. No time to
Josh, I've got an email list another package for me today. No,
it's actually just your mail. Well, speaking of feedback, if you would
like to feedback here regarding ATC, you can send in your emails to feedback
at Audio Theatercentral dot com. Of course, you can always comment on the
show notes, or send a text message or give us a call to six
two three six eight eight two seven seven zero. Well. The first up
is a comment on Spotify regarding the last episodepisode one ninety five, where I
talked about what's coming in the year of twenty twenty four. It is from
Bethany Baldwin, who we've already talked about a couple of times here in this
episode. But she said, great episode, enjoy the detail you go into.
So much great stuff coming out this year and beyond let's go Audio drama
Renaissance. Yes, I'm in total agreement Bethany on both points. Lots of
great stuff coming this year and this renaissance, you know what there, it's
sort of like a second wave in my opinion, because we had this huge
resurgence in interest when podcasting sort of started to blow up a few years back,
and so a lot of creators jumped into podcasting to distribute audio drama,
and so that sort of started bringing it back around in the consciousness, especially
here in the US and now in the family friendly space. Just in the
last couple of years, there's just been a huge uptick in content, and
ah, I think it's like a second wave of this renaissance, if you
want to call it that, And I am loving it. Oh my goodness,
I'm so glad to see this happening. Such great stuff coming and it's
clean and you could listen with your whole family, and I'm so, so
so happy about this. Side note, that is the main reason why I
implemented that that new submission process these days, because I just cannot keep up
with everything that's happening anymore. And so yeah, it's just really really great.
That's a downside to it, but I'm totally willing to put up with
that if that means we're going to get some more great stuff. Well,
the next piece of feedback is an email from Michael C and he said,
I really appreciated your Sonicon coverage. It made me wish I would have gone.
The next best thing to be there. Well, thank you, Michael.
That was the goal. That really was the goal. And you know,
I know that a lot of people can't go and that I totally understand
that. I get that, and so I also want to sort of bringing
the conference to you in give you all the main takeaways, and coming up
very very soon, there will be another episode totally dedicated to the top takeaways
with clips from some of the sessions and interviews with people at the event.
So that's still to come. So more Soniccon coverage is coming, So that's
something you can look forward to here on ATC. But Michael also continued,
he said, I emailed Lamplighter Theater asking if I could buy the book INDs
of the Finian Jones arc in a set separately, and he was told that
no, you cannot do that currently, but that they do have the show
about Finian Jones exclusively in the works. And so he heard from Mary at
Lamplighter who said we are actually working on that. Watch emails for a future
release. I do not have a date for you, sorry. So I
reached out to my contact, Sarah at Lamplighter and asked if she had any
more specifics on this. So here you go, Michael, this is an
update directly from them. It's tentative titled The Finnian Jones Chronicles, and it
is in the works because I know that, you know, they've been talking
about it for years and I wasn't sure if it was ever going to come
to fruition, but it is. It is in the works, Sarah says,
and she said, I don't have much detail that I could share at
this point, but we are hoping to record it this year if all goes
well, and she reiterates it. As of now, that's just the working
title and it is subject to change. But the Finian Jones Chronicles are coming,
and I'm really excited about this. So lots of cool stuff coming.
So hopefully that will help you out there, Michael. Yeah, something to
look forward to here hopefully later this year. Next week got an email from
Jeremy and he said, I really enjoyed your last podcast about the new audio
drama for twenty twenty four. I would like to give you my top three
audio theater things I'm looking forward to this coming year. Number three, I'm
looking forward to what Glenn Haskell is putting out in twenty four. His production
sound really interesting to me, and he seemed like a great person interview.
Yes, they do sound interesting, and yes he is. Number two,
he says, I am really excited for that mystery show you were talking about.
I really enjoy good mysteries. They are some of my favorite series to
read. Now, he didn't specify, but I think he's talking about the
show from New Birth Audio, and that is the Bayou Noir series, So
I think that's what he's referring to. And yes, I'm really looking forward
to that one as well, he continues. Number One, Pause and Tales.
I really like this show, and I have ever since two thousand and
four or two thousand and five when it first aired. It's so hard to
wait until March. Now, Pause and Tales is probably going to be my
favorite audio drama of twenty twenty four. Well, i'll see if I'm right.
Then, he continues, I also had a quick question about Jungle JAYM
and Friends. I used to really enjoy the shows from Nathan and Phil and
I really enjoy the songs from the show. I remember hearing somewhere, though
I can't remember where, that there was a CD with all of the songs
from the show is called Bert the Moose sing Along. Would you happen to
know where I can purchase this? And again this is from Jeremy Now.
I had never heard of this product, and so I did some digging around,
looked all over, could not find anything about it. So I reached
out to Jeff Parker over there at Fancy Monkey, the people behind Jungle Jam,
and unfortunately, he said, there has never been such a product.
I would love it if we could even just release the sing along with Bert
the Moose segments as downloads. We had a ton of fun making them,
and people seem to enjoy them, but they are based around albums we don't
own. The entire genius of that segment was to help our label Everland to
get exposure for some of their other projects. So unfortunately, there is no
Bert the Moose sing Along CD album, and there is also no way to
get those segments as downloads on their own either. However, there is a
download for I think it's like an nine minute or maybe ten minutes somewhere around
ten minutes called the Bear sing Along or something like that, and so it's
gruffy, and so that is one option. It's not what you were looking
for, Jeremy, unfortunately, but I think at this point it's probably the
best we're going to get. But thanks for reaching out, and thank you
to Jeff for sending me that information as well. And our last bit of
feedback here is an email from Blake and he said, I posted a page
at ideas Wiki where I decided to challenge myself to cast a modern adaptation of
a Christmas Carol the same way Philip Glasborough did. What I did was listen
to a whole bunch of productions that he directed and try to fit roles with
actors that I knew to still be alive and active. And it took me
over three months to come up with one, but I did. It got
me thinking why not have ATC fans engage in a fun way to cast a
classic British story the way Philip Glassborough would listen to productions he worked on,
as well as other stuff from the UK and try to imagine how their audition
would go. It may not be one hundred percent the same as casting an
audio drama in real life. But it gives people a fun challenge and it's
a way to engage and maybe inspire people. If nothing else, it also
inspires me for an irl audio drama I wish to eventually do on the Ukraine
or the story of Ann Frank. That is interesting. That is interesting.
I would love to hear an audio drama on the story of Anne Frank.
Phenomenal book. Of course, I've read the Diary of a young Girl and
some of the other writings about her. Just an amazing person and their whole
family, and so yeah, I would love to hear an audio drama regarding
that. And Blake did send the link to his proposed new casting of a
Christmas Carol and he made some really interesting choices for characters. I think it
would be very fun. So that is linked in the show notes. And
if you want to take up his challenge and try to come up with a
cast for or some other story, that would be fun, and let us
know if you do, and I'll take a look at it. And I
think that would be a lot of fun. So again, links to that
are in the show notes if you want to check that out. And again
thank you to Blake and Jeremy and Michael and Bethany for the feedback. Really
really love it when I get to hear from you guys and get to respond
back to your thoughts on something that we've covered here on the show. We
also had some really great feedback in the show notes of last episode. Christopher
Green and Caleb Bresler as well chimed in about the things that are coming up
this year, So I really appreciate that Caleb and Christopher and of course Christopher
also chimed in about the discussion regarding the definition of family friendly audio drama and
had some really really great thoughts to share. And so one thing in particular
that he said is that this illustrates a larger concept. Is the goal safe
content? Sometimes yes and sometimes no. A faithful adaptation of the Gospels would
require depictions of a brutal form of execution That doesn't fit into my definition of
family friendly, but I don't think that it means it shouldn't be made or
listened to. He had a lot more to say regarding that, some really
really great thoughts on that. So if you want to chime in regarding that
discussion, please head over there and do that on the show notes on episode
one ninety five. But again, thank you to everybody who sent in feedback
in some form. Really really appreciate it and I love interacting with you.
Well, that's going to do it for this episode. Man, it was
a lot of stuff. I hope you enjoyed it. Thank you again to
Christy Jardo and Austin Peachee for coming on the show to talk about heart matters
and everything that they've got going on. The song at the top of the
review segment is called Prodigal by Josh Bates from the two thousand and five album
titled Perfect Day. If you'd like to hear more from us, you can
join the ATC Insiders and we'll email you about it everything that's that we've got
going on whenever we have some news to share with you in between episodes,
and of course, you can get in touch with us anytime at audio Theatercentral
dot com slash contact and the show notes for this episode are at audio Theatercentral
dot com slash one ninety six. Head over there, give us your feedback
and check out the links to everything we talked about. Thank you so much
for listening. I'll see you next time. Audio Theater Central is a production
of Portlite Family Media. Our theme music was composed by Sam Avandanio. The
show is produced and edited by Yours Truly Jdsutter, and our website is Audio
Theatercentral dot com. I got no joke for you today, but if you
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