World Audio Drama Day returns this October 30th with terrifying horror for Halloween season
HOUSTON, Oct. 30, 2017 /PRNewswire-iReach/ -- Audio Drama Day ( http://www.audiodramaday.com), the Halloween-season holiday celebrating audio drama podcasts, old time radio drama, and the "War of the Worlds" hoax, is back this October 30th. The 2017 celebration comes at a time when "fake news" controversies have taken over the world's watercooler. Almost 80 years later, Orson Welles' thrilling radio drama, which spurred listeners to run from an imaginary Martian invasion, seems more prescient than ever. In 2017, horror and serial podcasts are also reaching an ever-broader audience.
An innovator who was at his best with collaborators in the Mercury Theatre, Welles would be thrilled by the horror podcasts premiering as part of the 11th Hour Audio Production project ( http://www.11thhouraudio.com/). Each year, creators rush to write, record, and then premiere new audio horror, releasing it free to fans on the night of October 30th. Shepherded by the Ogle-Award winning producers behind the top podcast Radio Drama Revival, groups from around the US and in the United Kingdom will be releasing new 11th Hour tales on Halloween eve.
"War of the Worlds" is not the only audio drama chiller that has had longevity. Chicago's critically acclaimed Wildclaw Theatre ( http://www.wildclawtheatre.com/), which produces terrifying, live audio drama for sold out audiences, is also celebrating its tenth anniversary in 2017.
Ele Matelan is the resident Foley artist, producing sound effects live on the stage, and the director of outreach. She explains, "Horror thrives in uncertain or 'interesting' times, since it has a unique freedom for cultural criticism, as well as opportunities to explore familiar but previously undefined concepts. That's an asset, too, in theatre, which is all about intimacy; there's nothing more intimate than telling someone what frightens you."
Matelan credits the podcast revolution for much of the demand for fresh audio drama, but adds, "We're in a great period of discovery for live audio drama performance, because we now have generations of adults that were raised thinking fluently in story structure: narratives become disseminated, canonized, and cliche faster than they ever have before thanks to the internet. That makes the personal experience offered by audio horror more precious–the werewolf in your head is very different from the one in mine, and exactly as scary as you can handle. "
Josh Zagoren, Wildclaw Theatre's artistic director, explains, "We still like it LIVE, it's a communal experience to watch the horror happen, to watch actors play off our Foley artist, and all the snapping, popping and crashing on that table."
WildClaw's audience often has a visceral reaction to the "theater of the mind." Zagoren explains, "In our last two productions (Woman in Black and Night in Alachua County) we had groups of people screaming, startling each other and then laughing at their own reactions." Matelan also notes, that during Scott T. Barsotti's Kill Me, directed by Jeff Christian, "We had some graphic body horror onstage which caused an audience member to have a very violent reaction, resulting in an overnight hospital stay for observation."
Audio Drama Day also remains a day for celebrating older radio works, too. Matelan and Zagoren also note that some of the work by Welles' contemporaries still has a power of its own. "I'm a real sucker for the Lights Out episode "The Dark," where people get turned inside out," says Matelan.
"I always liked 'Three Skeleton Key,'" explains Zagoren, describing an episode of Escape, a traditional audio drama that ran in the 1940s. "Three panicked sailors on an abandoned ship heading right for a swarm of rats. Vincent Price made it popular back in the 50's. That's just dark magic."
Audio Drama Day is celebrated each year on October 30th.
Media Contact: David Jarvis, Sibby Wieland, Audio Drama Day, 281.935.8727 / 281.236.2924, [email protected]
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