Speaker 1: 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, J D. Sutter,
and this is episode two twenty five. Well, this episode
could technically be titled the one about Adventures and Odyssey
because pretty much every segment here we're going to be
talking about Adventures and Odyssey in some way, with the
exception of the audio Drama Updates segment. But before we
get to that, I want to let you know what's
coming up in this episode. We've got some feedback from Michael,
and I've got a monologue all about the recent Adventures
and Odyssey news, including the new artwork and logo. And
then I'm going to be joined by Madeline Ware, who
is heading up a project to bring Adventures in Odyssey
to the stage. So I know you're going to I
want to hear about that. Lots of great stuff to come.
But before we move on real quickly, I want to
mention that listener Jeremy had asked a while back about
the clips that we use in the show segment transitions here,
and so I went through and compiled all of that
information it's all in a spreadsheet and that is now available.
It's linked up on the About the Show page on
our website if you are curious. All right, let's move
on to the updates.
Speaker 2: We interrupt this program to bring you a special report
and in other news tonight.
Speaker 3: A brief look at the headlines.
Speaker 4: Now. They want exciting, fast piece news that's relevant and
entertaining like this.
Speaker 1: As always, just a quick reminder, if you have any
updates regarding any audio drama in the community that you
want to let us know about, send it in to us.
Go to PFM dot link slash atc news to let
us know, or click the link in the sidebar on
the homepage. First up, a couple of updates on industry events.
Just want to remind you that the Realm Makers Writers
Conference and Expo is coming up in Saint Louis, Missouri,
on June twenty fourth through the twenty seventh. It's at
the Hilton Union Station and registration is now open. It
opened on February first, so if you're interested in that conference.
They have started putting an emphasis on audio drama in
recent years. And this is also where the Realm Awards
are held and they do have an Audio Drama category
in that awards ceremony, So link is in the show
notes if you want to check out all the information
about the Realm Makers Expo and conference. And then of
course Sonicicon is coming up now. It has moved from
the fall to the summer this year. It's being called
Sonacon Uncut. This is a three day convention June thirtieth
through July second, twenty twenty six. It's at Liberty University
in Lynchburg, Virginia, and they have recently announced some of
the speakers Phil Lawler, John Fornoff, Jared de Pascual, Katie Lee,
Daniel Cross, and more. There will be more to be announced.
So a few other changes that they've made this year
besides the timing. They have an event only ticket, they
have an event plus meals ticket option, and an event
plus meals and lodging on campus options, so lots of
different options to fit your budget. So this is a
great conference and if you're interested at all in getting
involved in this industry, then this is a great place
to get started. So link for that is in the
show notes as well. And a couple of updates on
upcoming projects. Not a whole lot here but just a
little teaser from Lampladder Theater. Molly Mayo from their team
announced that one of their latest books that they've published,
called The French Fugitive by Aloe, which stands for a
Lady of England. She published her novel under that acronym.
That is going to be one of the next books
that they adapt into audio drama. So that's one of
the newest books that they've published, but it'll also be
in the lineup to be adapted for audio drama. Also
The Hardy Boys and The Tower Treasure from the Audio
Drama Alliance. A little quick update. It is moving along.
Project is. It's been slowed down a little bit due
to some holdups there that we hadn't anticipated in the
production process, but we are moving along and all of
the voice actor pickups and retakes have been completed. The
voice tracks are now at one hundred percent completed as
far as the editing goes, and the musical score is
right at about ninety percent now and sound design is
getting rolling as well, so we're making progress on that project.
Huge thanks to Ben Kemp for working so hard on
the voice track edits, and to Mark mlckay for his
amazing work on the score. It's sounding really great and
we can't wait to get this project completed and released
for you, hopefully later this year. And speaking of the
Audio Drama Alliance, I think it was last fall sometime
I rebuilt the entire website for the Audio Drama Alliance,
and Austin Peachey just recently reminded me that I never
shared that with you here in the podcast. And the
reason why that's relevant is this new website is easier
to navigate, and it has a new listen tab which
links all of the past shows that the group has
ever produced, plus all of the projects that have come
out from our periodic member audio challenges, which are micro
audio dramas, and some of them are not even actually
full audio drama. Some are just interesting audio projects all
around five minutes. So all of that is linked up
in the new website Audiodrama Alliance dot com and navigate
to that listen tab and there's all that stuff there,
some great stuff that the group has put out over
the years, and particularly the projects that have come out
of the Member Audio Challenges. Some really fun stuff to
check out there. So link is in the show notes
to visit the new Ada website. Now moving on to
recent releases, Resurgence from Eternal Future Productions has been released.
It comes in at a running time of just over
an hour at sixty six minutes, and you can grab
your copy at Eternalfutureproductions dot com. Next up, we have
two new releases from Dominion artists in the Nick Guy
Private Eye series. First up, Nick Guy and The Night
at the Pop Opera Affair Rufus Leaking. I've said it before,
but I love the character names that Frank you Lee
gives these characters. I mean, come on, Rufus Leaking hilarious anyway,
Rufus Leaking is making the leap from singing opera to
singing pop music, but his career shift is sidetracked when
he is accused of Budgie smuggling. Nick Guy is hired
to clear his name and get his career back on track.
He also uncovers what it means to be truly blessed
by God. Along with Rebecca Bradford and Frank Uley, the
cast includes John Bradford, Bethany Baldwin, Joe Freeman, Alicia Hanson,
Jenna Levick or Levick I'm not sure on the pronunciation
of that name apologies, and then we have Ethan Phoebe
and Hannah Maynard, Betsy Nicholson and Bubba Watson. And Frank
said that for his role in this production, Bubba Watson,
who plays Rufous Leaking, took vocal lessons so that he
could sing the operatic parts his role called for. So, man,
that's awesome. That's dedication to year Craft there, So kudos
there to Bubba. The second release is called Nick Guy
and the Little Orphan Andy Affair. Nick Guy and Doctor
de Soto are hired to find the heir to the Burnbacker,
Smoked Jams and Jelly's Fortune, who is somewhere in the
foster care system as an orphan. As our heroes work
to find the child before numerous conniving fortune hunters do,
they also discover some interesting things about adoption into the
Kingdom of God. Based on the comic strip Little Orphan Annie.
This cast includes Rebecca Bradford, Elizabeth Hanson, Glenn Haskell, Yours Truly,
j D. Sutter, Christiana Thomas, and Frank you Lee and
features five members of Frank Lye's Church, William and Hannah Calhoun,
Mitch and Jenna Staggs and another name that I'm not
sure on the pronunciation of Oliver Gwynnen. I'm gonna say apologies, Oliver.
If I'm mispronouncing that, you can reach out and let
me know the correct pronunciation. But I, as you heard,
was involved in this cast. It was a really fun role.
I got to play a lawyer called mister Cheatham and
I had a fun time with it, and I think
you're going to enjoy it. Really funny stuff in this one.
So I want to give you a little taste of
this new release. So here is a little promo for
Nick Guy and the Little Orphan Andy Affair.
Speaker 3: In the town of Nugatory Falls, a number of people
are interested in adopting an orphan named Andy. My wife
and I want to adopt a child.
Speaker 4: And Andy is a perfect child for us.
Speaker 1: I want to adopt John. His name is Andy.
Speaker 3: Hey, hold down there, pill, I'm adopting Andy. Why are
so many people interested in this orphan named Andy, Well,
it could be because he just maybe the heir to
the Burnbocker, Smoke Gems and Jelly's estate.
Speaker 1: If the child is an orphan and is up for adoption,
whoever adopts him or her will be overseer of that
child's holdings.
Speaker 3: Which makes him very valuable. Can Nick Guy find the
child before any potential fortune seekers? Well, you'll find out
when you join us for Nick Guy and the Little
Orphan Andy Affair, and you'll also discover some interesting things
about a option into the Kingdom of God.
Speaker 1: Well.
Speaker 3: To find out more about Nick Guy and the Little
arp and Andy Affair and the Nick Guy Prime and
I Apologetics series, visit our website at nick Guy dot net.
That's Nickguy dot net and discover that sometimes the most
amazing things must be true words. Thanks thinking.
Speaker 1: Oh so much fun. Frank always does such a great
job with these shows, And if you want to find
out more information, you can head over to Nickguy dot
net to learn more about the show. These new releases
are available to stream on Dramafi or window Seat, but
you can also purchase your own copy on Amazon. All
those links are in the show notes and finally, Welcome
to Hope Springs is out or it is airing now.
A few of the episodes have already dropped of season one,
in case you missed it. We talked about this in
the recent episode when I had Paul McCusker on the show.
Show but Welcome to Hope Springs is a family audio
drama series following the lives and adventures of a few
Colorado kids through an unforgettable journey of friendship and faith.
It all starts with the grand reopening of the old Depot.
From there, mystery leads to mystery as each answer reveals
a deeper question. Welcome to Hope Springs sparks your curiosity,
tickles your funny moone, and encourages middle school listeners to
use their imagination and see more in their daily lives.
Told through the lens of the Christian faith, it is
a perfect recipe for growing the mind and feeding the heart.
Written by award winning author Paul McCusker and produced by
the Augustine Institute, It's Christian content you can count on.
Link to their website is in the show notes, and
there you'll find links to check it out on the
various podcast platforms. It is being released for free as
a podcast, so be sure to check that one out.
Speaker 4: Testing one, two, three testing.
Speaker 3: That was just me talking.
Speaker 2: I do that a lot.
Speaker 1: Speech. How long you're going.
Speaker 4: To work with it?
Speaker 1: That's what I want to talk about, all right, So
here's what I'm thinking I've been thinking a lot about
all of the changes that have been going on with
Adventures Notdyicsey over the last handful of months, and you
guys wanted to hear me talk about it as well.
I asked in the last episode if you wanted to
hear me talk about the art and logo changes, and
I heard from some people that you did. And then
I also got an email from Caleb Bresler asking about
the AIO movie, so I will share what I know
about that project as well. So first let's talk about
the movie, because that is what triggered some of these
other changes. So Caleb sent an email regarding the movie,
saying it would be interesting to know what prompted them
to go in this direction. I'm curious to know if
it's similar to the original AIO cartoons or if they
do something completely different. I'm also curious who from the
audio drama will be involved, such as the cast. I
hope they try to make the movie more grounded to
appeal to the entire family like the show used to be,
as opposed to just the younger crowd. So to answer
that first point, from what I know, from what I've understood,
this is going to be very different from the old
Aio cartoons from many years ago. This is going to
be an animated feature film with a wide release in
theaters nationwide, and they're aiming for sometime in the fall
of twenty twenty six, so feature film format as opposed
to short animated episodes that the other show was. And
the big difference is that this is actually a prequel
to the audio show, So all of the events in
the film take place before anything that happens with Wit
and wits end and all of the locations and characters
that we know in the show today. So this is
set in sometime around the nineteen seventies, and it's again
it's pre WIT's end, so it's sort of the lead
up to all of the events that bring Wit to
purchase the building and all of that kind of stuff.
So this is I guess you could call it a
period drama or something along those lines, being set in
the seventies. And to your question about the cast, because
this is all set, you know, pre Connie and Eugene
and all of that kind of stuff, this will not
involve the cast of the audio show. This will be
mostly new characters and Wit will be much younger, so
it won't be Andre Stoika playing Wit in this film, unless,
of course, I suppose they do a flash forward at
the end of it to you know, quote present day
or something along those lines. But the main character of
Wit throughout the film is going to be a much
younger version of Wit, so quite a bit different from
the approach to the previous film projects, and quite different
from the stories that we're used to in the audio
show as well. So that's what I know about the
film project and what I can share with you at
this time. Obviously, we're Audio Theater Central here, so we're
focused primarily on the audio show. But I know that
many of you were interested and curious about this, so
and then, of course Caleb sort of brought the issue
to the forefront with his email, so I wanted to
make sure to address that for those of you who
aren't interested in that. But I don't know exactly what
prompted them to pursue the film project, but my suspicion
and my thoughts on it are that they're trying to
do these projects that point people back to the club,
and this was a sort of outreach kind of project
that brings the adventures in Odyssey brand to a broader audience,
and the goal is to point those people who hear
about Odyssey for the first time back to the website
where they can find all of the other content. As
to whether or not that's going to be successful, I
don't know. They are working with animators in Hollywood to
make this film. I've heard and seen lots of opinions
about the approaches to the art style. I personally don't
mind it, but I'm certainly not an expert on animation,
so I don't know what is best, And you know,
I can't judge the deep intricacies of how to do
three D animation versus two D and all of that
kind of stuff. That's not my wheelhouse. So honestly I
don't It doesn't really bother me one way or the
other what they do with it in terms of that
film project. If it brings more people to the audio
show and that helps fund more episodes, that's a good
thing in my book. So those are my thoughts on
the movie. But because of this project of bringing these
characters to life in a visual form and working specifically
with animators to make more anatomically realistic character designs, that
then prompted the team to address all of the artwork
for the show, in all of the branding, the marketing materials,
the album artwork, and stuff like that going forward. So
that is why we have all these new character designs.
And while they were doing that, they updated the Adventures
in Odyssey logo as well. So let's talk about this
a little bit now. Again. I've seen all kinds of
opinions on both the logo and the character designs. Many
are for the changes, many are not. But at the
end of the day, I think we just need to
realize that in the grand scheme of things, a new
look for these characters doesn't change the audio show. It
doesn't change the characters that you picture in your mind.
If you don't let it, you can still picture with
however he was in your mind. These are not things
to get all up in arms about. I think some
people get so invested in some of this stuff that
they just say the first thing that comes to their
mind without thinking about how it's coming across. I personally
think the new art style is really good. The character
designs are really cool. If you ask me, all of
the ones I've seen I've really liked. So if you
have strong opinions on them. That's fine. As I said,
with the changes to the release schedule and the killing
off of CDs and all that stuff in that episode
where we talked about all of that stuff, you know,
make sure you're just sharing your opinions with consideration and
doing it in love, because I've seen some really hateful
comments about all of this stuff, and it's it's just
not a good look. It's not a good look. So
I'm not telling you do not have opinions or feelings
about these changes, but make sure that you're being constructive
with any kind of feedback. I'm not saying that you
have to love it or that you have to applaud
any changes like this if you don't like them. But
you know, there's no need to get hateful or angry
about this kind of stuff. But the new style, as
I said, it's more anatomically realistic, and they wanted to
have a cohesive look across the show. So when people
go see that film, they see these characters in a
certain style, and then they go look up the website
and they see the artwork for the characters on the
website and the episode covers and the books. Going forward,
it's all got a standardized look, and that makes total
sense from a brand perspective. You want it to be
a cohesive experience across your brand, you know. Growing up,
I remember seeing the various versions of the artwork that
would come across, you know, album covers or whatever, and
I never really thought all that much about the style.
And I think that most children who are the target
audience for the show don't really pay too much attention
to it either, other than to say, Okay, well that's
what that character is supposed to look like or whatever.
But it's not anything that I ever really thought too
deeply about, even though as I look back, you know,
I'm not super crazy about the Bruce Day era of artwork,
and I do like Gary Locke's style. He's an amazingly
talented artist and the style that he's done for the
last several years looks really cool. But to me personally,
I've never considered Adventures Odyssey to be a cartoony type
of show. Yes, there have been some episodes that are
pretty comedic and sometimes even over the top a little
bit in the comedy side of things, but overall the
show is not a comedy, and so I think the
move to keep the characters looking a little bit more
realistic and not like caricatures is a smart move, and
so I'm liking the new art style. Gary Locke will
still be involved in doing cover and episode artwork, but
going forward he will be using the new guidelines in
the new style that this team has come up with.
So all of the new designs for all of the
characters in the show and any new characters that might
come up, is going to be based on the style
from the character designs from the film. Though my understanding
is it's a different team that is doing these other
character designs, so the film team is not necessarily involved
in all of the artwork going forward, but it's going
to be in that same style. And I have it
from the team that there are no plans to redesign
all of the previous album artwork to bring them up
to this new style. The artwork that's out there on
those albums will stay as it is, but going forward,
all of that stuff will be changed and will have
the new logos and all of that stuff on it.
And so that's just a moving forward kind of thing.
Though they are going back and updating some of the
single episode art, but the existing album covers will not
be changing. And speaking of the logo, it's a little
bit more flat in terms of the design, and that's okay.
It has a few different variations and a few different
color schemes so that they have flexibility in the application.
So if it's being used on a book cover, or
on an album cover, or on the website or on
some marketing materials, and depending on the background color of
what that logo is being placed on, they have some
options to play with and make it look really nice
regardless of whatever the application is. And again, I think
that's a smart move. They're thinking ahead, they're trying to
future proof things, whereas before, you know, there is the
one logo design and that one logo was just used
on everything, which is not necessarily a bad thing either.
But I think updating it a little bit and creating
a few different variations it just makes it look a
little cleaner. And yes, it does lose a little bit
of the personality, but I think it looks good overall. Again,
I'm not saying that you have to love it and
you have to praise every decision that the AIO team makes,
but I don't think it's anything to lose some sleepover.
So there's some of my thoughts on the fail and
the artwork and the logo changes. Now let's talk just
a few minutes about Adventures Not Assey going forward. So
we talked about a lot of this in that prior
episode that I referenced earlier, which is going to be
linked in the show notes. But I'm still seeing comments
where people haven't heard the news and they missed out
on all of those announcements from last year. So just
to briefly reiterate, as of this new year, twenty twenty six,
there are no new episodes of the show which will
be going to the radio schedule. So the radio schedule
will continue, but it will only be episodes through album
eighty and nothing new will be entered into that schedule
that rotation. There will also be no new CDs or
digital downloads for purchase. Everything lives in the Adventures Not
Assey Club now, And I've made it clear in that
episode and since then that I'm I'm a fan of
this decision entirely. I understand some of the economics of
the CDs going away, but as I've said before, I'm
still a proponent of having some kind of digital download option,
even if it's not a full album every you know,
every six months or or whatever, even if it's just
a collection of episodes at the end of every year,
if they have to raise the price on that, whatever
they have to do, I would still love to see
some sort of digital download option, even if it's many
months after they originally hit the club, just to allow
people to own the contents. That's my big thing. I'm
a big proponent of owning content rather than perpetually renting,
and so I've talked about that extensively in previous episodes,
so I won't rehash all that here. But again, everything
is going to live in the club going forward unless
they make some kind of changes. But all of these
changes that they've made are to push forward Adventures and
Odyssey as a brand, not just as a radio show,
and it has technically been much more than that for
many years. I mean think back, I remember many years
ago ads for board games and video games and books,
et cetera. I mean, just ask Odyssey fan. Go to
odysseyfan dot com and see Dan Klein's collection, ask him
about all of the aio products that have been made
over the years. They've had all kinds of stuff. Recently,
we've had the trading cards, and so they are really
trying to lean into the brand of Adventures Odyssey instead
of just an audio drama. Though it seems like in
my conversations with the team that audio drama is still
the primary focus and that's still where they have a
lot of love for that type of telling a story,
and so that's still going to be the core of
what Adventures and Odyssey is. But all of these things
are going to be available as well. I mean, you know,
we have the magazine, we have the comic books. Now,
all of this content around this brand and the club.
The website Adventuresnodyssey dot com will be the hub for
all of it. I mean, if you go look at
the website now, I don't remember exactly when this change happened,
but there's a lot more public facing content on there now.
And if you look at the homepage, it's broken down
into types of content. We have the audio show and
the film projects, and the books and the comics. It's
all categorized there. So they're really leaning into Adventures and
Odyssey as a larger brand, and honestly, it makes good
business sense to do that and so I know that
some of these changes are uncomfortable for some people, and
again I'm not super fond of every single one of
these changes either, But overall, we want to see Adventures
Odyssey continue. We love the show, we love these characters,
and as I said before, if you have thoughts and
opinions on it, sure reach out to the team. Let
them know your thoughts, give them your opinions, but do
it with kindness and love and be constructive about it.
Explain your reasons for why you feel a certain way
about things, and just be respectful. That's it. But overall,
I'm excited about the direction that the show is going.
They've made some I don't want to give any spoilers
in case you haven't heard some of the latest episodes,
but there's been some really interesting storylines that have come
out in recent episodes that I'm liking the trajectory of
these character arcs. And speaking of character arcs, one thing
I did get from the team is that there have
been concerns from fans about the character of Eugene. Many
people were concerned about the idea of them having the
character of Eugene die, and I've thought about it myself
and I've wondered if they might do that, and I've
been assured that they have no intention of having the
character of Eugene Meltzner die. Apparently, for the time being,
when the Meltzner family shows up, we're primarily going to
be focusing on Katrina and Buck, but who knows where
things might go in the future. I don't know. I've
said it before, but I don't necessarily think it would
be a bad idea to recast the role at some
point so we can bring him back into a more
of a regular appearance on the show. But anyway, rest
assured that they said they have no intention of killing
off the character of Eugene Meltzner. So if you have
any thoughts on any of these topics and you want
to share them with me, I'm I'm definitely open to
hearing that, So be sure to let us know what
you think about all of these changes. And again, if
you feel like you need to reach out to focus
in the AIO team and let them know your thoughts
as well. Well. Let's bring in our guests.
Speaker 2: Now, just say your name and the role you're playing
in this production.
Speaker 1: Please excuse me, excuse me. The local news station would
like to talk to you. Oh, here's a couple of
me play right. I'm here to ask you a couple
of questions. So I recently heard about an interesting project
that I think you're going to very much want to
learn about. If you're an Adventures Odyssey fan, which I
know you are because you're listening to this show. So
I have on the show with me right now, Madeline Ware,
who is heading up a project called the Adventures in
the Odyssey Theater Pilot Project. And if you're interested in
acting for the stage and you're an Odyssey fan, why
not combine the two. Here is your opportunity to do that. So, Madeline,
thanks for coming on Audio Theater is Interrol to talk
about this.
Speaker 2: Of course. Thanks jd Well.
Speaker 1: You know you emailed me a little while back and
when I first took a look at your website and
what you were planning to do here, and I was
excited because people who have listened to the show for
a while know that I'm a fan of theater as
well and have done a little bit in my earlier days.
And I'm not a professional actor by any means, but
I do enjoy attending theater much more than participating in it.
But it's an interesting idea to take these scripts that
many of us grew up listening to and are familiar
with and being able to put them on for your
church or your school or even just community theater groups.
Speaker 2: Right, yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So tell us a little bit about how you
first got introduced to Adventures Odyssey.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Well, my grandparents were the ones who introduced me to it.
They listened to the Doctor Dodson Show, and so we
were listening to the cassette tapes growing up when I
was young, and we were homeschooled and did a lot
of co ops growing up, and enjoyed listening to Adventures.
Not a cy for for entertainment, I guess, but yeah, Ultimately,
I was always a theater kid and had was blessed
with some Christian groups that did performances. And by the
time I graduated, my younger sisters were I have six sisters,
so I'm the third third oldest of six sisters, and
they saw my love for theater and wanted to do
it as well. But the groups we were with had
closed down, and so you know, say, hey, you know
it can't be too hide. I can direct one I
do cost them, and you know, I do all the
other things, so why not direct without knowing how hard
it would be to find the script? And you know,
we were just a small co op, so we didn't
have the big budget for the classics like Sound of
Music and everything, those are like thousands of dollars. And
so I was searching online, searching everywhere for a good
script that would fit the Christian co op kind of
a group, and it was just really challenging to find
trusted Christian content and content that didn't feel poor quality
or kind of cringey and so and then it was
just hard to know, you know, you had to buy
the script to be able to read it, to be
able to vet it. And I just kept thinking, I
just need adventures something like Adventures in Odyssey. I just
need a script. You know, it's it's got everything, it's
good quality, it has great characters, and parents know it
and trust it, so they're gonna want to support it.
And yeah, long story short, I ended up reaching out
to Adventures in Odyssey and they were willing to give
me a script, but I had to completely adapt it completely,
you know, come up with the music. They wouldn't give
us any music and promote it myself, and it was
a great success. Everyone really enjoyed it, and I wanted
to create that opportunity for other people, other co ops
and people in my same situation and adventures in audis
see you know, fast forward two years, was willing to
do a pilot project with me, and they were willing
to work with me so I could create and they
would give me all the music that I requested, the
scripts and everything and create pretty much like a VBS
package where you have everything you need to perform a production,
whether you're you know, a theater group that's done it
several times, or you're just like a mom who wants
to help your church have a fun Christmas production. And
so it's it's been super awesome because now through this
project for free, actually they're offering it for free that
now you can take this package I call it a
play kit, and you get the script that's been adapted,
you get the official music from that episode, and you
also get some of the original artwork for it, and
so you can perform your own production.
Speaker 1: So you have everything you need to put on the
show and to market it because you're getting access to
the artwork as well.
Speaker 2: Right, exactly.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's been super fun because some of the participants
who have gone through it and the kids, like they
know the episode so well they can literally quote a
lot of the lines. And so it's so fun to
see kids who have listened to these characters and you know,
they had their fate, they love Eugene or whatever, and
they get to act him. They get to be him
and learn the lessons that he learns in the episodes.
And I've gotten comments from from a lot of the
parents and the kids that the message was a lot
deeper to them, like they took home a lot more
because you know, they had to run the scene several times,
and so that's been really really neat. And then the
directors have been super grateful for content that kids love.
They were already like way more excited about it than
like other productions because they're already so invested. And then
parents are super supportive because they trust the content already. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So you're adapting these scripts. These are existing episodes
that people are already familiar with, but you're adapting them
for the stage. How much are these actually getting changed?
Because on your website you have the Mystery of the
Clock Tower, You have The Star and you have Big
Trouble under the Big Top. Now those are varying links
and in the actual episodes. Are you trying to standardize
the lengths of all of the scripts that you're working
with for this project or are they coming in at
different links for different uses.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a great question.
Speaker 4: So Big Trouble under the Big Top is my one
act play and that runs, you know, about thirty minutes
to forty minutes. And when I take a script, I
try to keep it as close to the original episode
as possible because I do know there's those adventures and
not to see you know, dimards are like this is
how it must be or this is how it goes originally.
But definitely there are some scenes that I do combined.
If I you know, it's very simple in audio entertainment
to jump from one place to another, where it's like
technically on stage that's a lot harder. Yeah, So I
do try to make it as feasible as possible, as
simple as possible, and you know, some things all cut out,
but I do try to keep the script as close
to the original as possible. So for the clock Tower
and the Star, those are both two episode.
Speaker 2: I guess stories.
Speaker 4: So those ones can run more like a two act
where you can have an intermission. So those are more
you know, more like probably forty five to sixty minute runtime.
Speaker 1: So are those the options to choose from right now?
Those three? And I guess the point is at this
point just to see how things go, and then if
the all goes well, then more scripts will be authorized
for you to adapt.
Speaker 4: Yeah, those are the ones that are currently available. I'm
hoping to have five ready to use by the summer.
I have a couple in the works, but yeah, those
are the ones that are currently available.
Speaker 1: And I think Mystery of the clock Tower is such
a great one and I think it would be so
fun to see on stage. So I I and the
Star is a classic, classic Christmas one. So these are
great choices. Did you choose these yourself or did they
recommend episodes for you to work with?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I just them myself. The first one I did
was The Big Trouble under the Big Top, and that
was the first That's what started the whole project. I
just needed a good story that you know, Avengers and
Odyssey fans would like, but also I needed an independent story.
So if no one had ever heard of Adventures in Odyssey,
they was still appreciate it. Yeah, so I really liked that.
I'm a huge mystery person. I love mystery. I'm a girl,
so I love.
Speaker 2: Drama, you know, I love like romance.
Speaker 4: And so that's why I like The clock Tower is
one of my ultimate favorite ones. It's so it's got
such great intense, you know, scenes, and the characters, really
good character build up and everything. So that one I
just purely enjoy as a story. So I knew that
would be good. And it has Eugene, has Connie, has
all those characters in it that Avengers and Odyssey fans I.
Speaker 2: Thought would really enjoy.
Speaker 4: And then for the winter, for the Christmas season, I
really wanted to have a Christmas show for the churches
and stuff to be able to perform for their Christmas
like program, and that one was a little limited on
because the other good Christmas one was the Journey is
It Journey Back to Bethlehem, and the rights for that
one are tied up, so I couldn't do that one.
So that's why the Star was still one I wanted
to do. But that kind of pushed me into doing
the Star because it was available.
Speaker 1: Gotcha gotcha. So if somebody out there is listening, they
have already got a theater group or a co op
as you mentioned for homeschool groups, and maybe they're a
little bit more advanced. They have access to live musicians
or whatever. Are they required to use the music from
the episode or can they do their own original music
as well?
Speaker 4: They are not required to use the music. It's really
just like here is content that you can use to
help you with your production. So they're not required to
use the music. But with that being said, I don't
have music sheets or anything, so they could do a
live performance.
Speaker 2: Of the music, so it is canned. I guess you
would say.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So you mentioned that there's no cost to the
director who wants to put on these productions. They just
simply reach out to you through the website and you
send them all the information, all of the materials that
they'll need. But there is a caveat. They are not
allowed to charge for these productions or a church tick
at sales for these right, that is correct.
Speaker 4: So it's a nonprofit, you know, Advenguers in Odyssey is
a nonprofit organization and for the project, the pilot project,
it would be donation only. So you can you know,
get funds to help cover the cost of your play,
but you technically would not be able to sell tickets
to this production.
Speaker 1: Gotcha. So we have a little bit of a time
frame here. If somebody is interested in reaching out putting
on one of these shows, they need to do so
pretty quickly. We're in February of twenty twenty six now,
but they will need to start the ball rolling for
them for their group very quickly, because you have a
timeframe that you're under to try to get as many
people signed up and put on one of these shows.
So tell tell the listener a little bit about what
we're looking at here in terms of time frame.
Speaker 4: Yeah, as of right now, Adventures in Odyssey has cleared
us doing these pilot productions to September of twenty twenty six,
so that would give you time to do a spring
play or summer camp production. I have several summer camps
lined up that are going to perform. So yep, you know,
if you're interested, you'd just have to sign up, get
the script, and ideally perform it before September.
Speaker 1: And is there a sort of a reporting process do
they need to get back to you to let you
know how it all went, and I'm assuming that it's
all going through you. They don't have to contact Focus
directly for any of this. It's all through your website, correct, correct.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so I would be your point person. I'm like
the coordinator, So I would love to connect with you personally,
give you all the information and then yeah, the project
is completely free.
Speaker 2: But the whole purpose of the pilot project is.
Speaker 4: To gauge what kind of impact, what kind of interest
that Live Adventures in Odyssey Theater productions create us on.
The family has been great to work with and they
really do care about what is impactful for the fans.
What is you know, meaningful for them? And is it
is it sharing the gospel?
Speaker 2: Is it is it helping families thrive?
Speaker 4: And so what we do is give you the content
and then afterwards we came in touch. I have little
questionnaires that I'll send out so the children or the
actors can fill out what you know, give like a
little review of their experience. Asked a couple of questions,
same thing for the director.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 4: And then we also asked that we could get a
recording of your production, so we can you know, have
that on our end and then I'll take that information
and bring it back to Adventures in Odyssey and and hopefully,
you know, we'll be able to look at how impactful
it was and if it's something that they want to
continue developing and bringing into their their like create an
official program for live theater product options for Advenors and Odyssey.
Speaker 1: That's great, that's great. So I'm sure there's going to
be some people who have always wanted to you know,
there's always the young kids who are the clowns of
the class or the aspiring actor, and they love Adventures
and Odyssey. This is a great opportunity to put this on.
It doesn't have to be a massive show, and you're
giving them all the material they need. Of course they've
got to still come up with the sets and the costumes,
but you know, all of the IP is there for them.
The hard part of sifting through trying to find a
clean story is already done. And I think this is
a great, great idea. So thank you for undertaking this
for on behalf of Odyssey fans. So I love this idea.
Speaker 4: Definitely, And they don't they don't even have to be
like exclusively Christian groups. If you are you know, a
parent and you want to have a theater outlet for
your children, whether that's through their school or co upper church,
or just doing your own home production, it would be
a great, great experience. But I also have had public
schools that the directors are Christian, but they've reached out
to me and have been interested in it as well.
And some of the productions are you know, you can
choose to do the message.
Speaker 2: At the end or not.
Speaker 4: So it's been a great experience for some people, even
if they don't have actual like Christians in their group.
It's more of like a relational ministry. So that's been
really neat too. You know, it could be for a
great number of groups and whatever they look like.
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely so. Is there anything else that I haven't
covered here that we need to make sure that somebody
who's considering participating in this they need to know?
Speaker 2: No, I don't think so.
Speaker 4: I think if it's something that they are at all
interested in, they should definitely just take a look at it.
Take a look at the website, and there's descriptions on
the script, so it gives you an idea of how
many people in your cast you might need, or you know,
the budget. I'm available to answer any questions.
Speaker 2: So, yeah, I don't. I don't think so. I think
you covered at all.
Speaker 1: Great. So you want to head over to Familytheatergroup dot
com and that's theater the e R spelling, not the
R E like we use around here, but so that
that is linked up in the show notes that website
Familytheatergroup dot com. But we can't let you go without
asking you a couple of Odyssey fan questions. So I
got to know what's your favorite episode?
Speaker 2: Oh my goodness, that's such a good question.
Speaker 4: Well, because I already mentioned the clock Tower, I'm going
to have to go with. I would say Search for
Wit is one of my favorites. I really enjoy that,
And I don't have to say, like the family is it?
Family Values is a close second.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah. Now you've probably been listening for a long time,
and I grew up with the show too, and I
always really enjoyed the Imagination Station adventures. So were you
one who really liked those or were you more into
the day to day life at around witsand or the
town itself. Oh?
Speaker 4: Man, I think I really enjoyed. I would say the
dramas of the actual town would probably be where I
would go. Yeah, but I did enjoy the history ones.
I know it's not it an adventures, it's not an
imagination station journey, but it is like the Alvin York is.
Speaker 2: One of my favorite.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, that one is so good and some really
amazing sound design moments in that one. Oh man, Yeah,
now you're making me think. I haven't listened to that
one in a while. It's such a good one. I
need to go back and listen to it again.
Speaker 2: I'm hoping to adapt that one.
Speaker 1: For Oh yeah. That's a good question. So obviously you're
not committed to any of this, but what are some
of the other ones that you want to work on
down the road if this gets green that.
Speaker 4: Yes, Alvin York is actually I think it's Sergeant York
is on top of that list one because I love
the story. It has a little romance, you know, and
it has some fun characters for boys because like they
want to be in more, you know, and like you
have a stage gun and all the things. But also
I've found a lot of co ops appreciate historical episodes
historical like place. So that's that's top of my list.
And then I also would like to do a Lamb's Tale.
I think that would be a really fun one. Has
a lot of characters in it, you know, it has
Rodney Rathbone, and I really like the message it's about sacrifice,
So I think those would be top of the list.
I also love Kathy Buchanan's episodes Any of Us are
amazing too, So yeah, I know, like Sunday Morning Scramble
has been talked about. There was at one point a
time I did a poll for or what episodes would
be the best to adapt for live theater production, and
it was really fun to see what fans wanted to
see on a stage.
Speaker 1: Very cool. Well, I thank you for taking the time
to come and tell the ATC community about this. I'm
excited and I hope people are going to take you
up on this because I think it's something that needs
to be a permanent thing around here. So this is awesome.
Thank you.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that'd be awesome. Even getting feedback from people on
the idea is going to help the project. So even
if you can't actually perform one but want to want
to help the project, even just giving your feedback on
the idea is helpful.
Speaker 2: So we can reach out from the website. There too.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So again, that's Familytheatergroup dot com. There's a button
right on the homepage that says connect now and they
can reach out and that's going to go right to
you and you'll help them out with any questions. Correct, yep, exactly,
all right, thank you.
Speaker 2: So much, Thank you JD.
Speaker 3: Let's see what do we have in the mailbag?
Speaker 2: It looks like letters or something. Is that your phone?
Speaker 1: What? Yeah?
Speaker 2: Hello, I just sent you a text.
Speaker 1: You've got tons of comments on that entry.
Speaker 2: You're like famous. Oh, let me get to these comments.
I'm sorry. What number are you calling?
Speaker 1: Yes, it is that time of the episode. To hear
from you, send in your emails to feedback at Audio
Theatercentral dot com. You can always comment on the show
notes or send a text or leave a voicemail at
six two three six eight eight two seven seven zero.
Would absolutely love to hear from you. And in keeping
with the theme of the episode, have an email here
from Michael C. And he asked about our adventures ot
to see reviews. He said, now that Adventures in Odyssey
appears to be going club only, with no way to
purchase the episodes or listen to them on the radio.
How long will you wait after they are released on
the club to review them with spoilers, And just to
clarify real quickly, they will still be airing on the radio,
but just not new episodes. So I think you may
understand that, Michael, but I want to make sure that
everybody listening understands that as well. So how long are
we going to wait? That's a good question and one
we're still trying to figure out. So I would be
interested in hearing what you think. But Michael said, I
did not mind if you include spoilers because many people
that are not club members will want to know what
is happening in the world of Adventures Odyssey. Just give
the spoiler alert warning for those who want to skip
the spoilers. So yeah, some good points there, Michael. And
because the release schedule is a little bit up in
the air, and that is another thing that I wanted
to mention and I forgot in the earlier segment, But
the team says that they will try to publish a
schedule because it's since it's not going to be a
full album that will release, you know, over a certain
period of time. Rather it's going to be episodeisodes every
single month, and it's not going to be, you know,
one episode every week all throughout the entire year. It's
going to be a little bit staggered as they work
on multiparters or one offs. It just depends on what's
coming down the pipeline. And so there's not a concrete
release schedule at this point, and they're going to iron
out the bugs on this as they as they get
this all figured out, but they're going to try to
publish the release schedule for a month or two at
a time on the website so that you have that
idea of what's coming up when to look out for
those new episode drops. But that does kind of mess
with our standard review schedule of waiting until we have
a six episode album and then reviewing them all at once.
So we'll have to figure that out. And this is
where you can come in, Michael and anybody else, reach out.
Let us know what you think. Should we do one
episode at a time or should we wait until there
are six episodes that have been released and then we'll
just go in six episode chung throughout the year. There's
no difference between club episodes and album episodes. It's all
just going to be adventures and Odyssey episodes and they
will be numbered sequentially like that, So I'm open to
hearing what you would prefer, so let us know reach out.
There's all the ways to get in touch with us,
so let us know what you think. Well, that's going
to do it for this episode. Real quickly, want to
say thanks again to Madline for coming on the show
and letting us know about the amazing theater project that
she's working on. Just a quick reminder, join the ATC insiders.
It's our email list and we'll email you about the
cool stuff we're up to in between episodes. Sometimes we
need to get something out and we can't wait until
the next episode, and that's a quick way to reach out,
so be sure to join that. And if you'd like
to get in touch, head over to Audio Theatercentral dot
com slash contact. All the different ways are listed there
and the show notes for this episode all at Audio
Theatercentral dot com slash two two five. That's Audio Theatercentral
dot com slash two twenty five. We'll see you next time.
Thank you so much for listening. Hi, this is Emily
Cobb from Dallas organ Audio Theater.
Speaker 4: Central's production of Porchlight Family Media The theme music was.
Speaker 2: Composed by Sam Avandanio.
Speaker 1: The show was produced and edited by JD.
Speaker 2: Sutter.
Speaker 4: Find the website at Audiotheatercentral dot com.
Speaker 3: Porgelightfamilymedia your source for family centered content.
Speaker 4: Porglightfamilymedia dot com