Intermission: Fifteen years ago, actor Qasim Khan and playwright Kevin Shea, both fresh out of school, accepted positions answering phones in the box office of a notable Toronto theatre. Their hilarious and occasionally harrowing experiences talking with the city’s audiences inspired Kevin to write the new fiction podcast Feedback, produced by the Toronto-based Cue6 Theatre.
7 comments:
Discovering the link between theatre and auditory dramas has been eye opening. Living with a very talented sound designer has made me more attuned to the power of sound. It's not just about telling a story—it is a potent tool for steering emotions in our audience, much like in the theatre we are familiar with. The article rightly points out that if theatre is about storytelling, then auditory dramas are just another storytelling avenue. They are not separate; they are an extension of how we express narratives. This perspective makes me appreciate how sound, often overlooked, plays a crucial role. It is not just background noise; it's a storyteller in its own right, guiding emotions and enriching the overall experience. This fresh understanding broadens my view of storytelling, showing me that whether on stage or in the realm of auditory dramas, there are varied yet compelling ways to spin a tale.
Talking on the phone is one of those things that has gotten lost within the recent generations. It Is an art that not many people still practice but as someone who has talked on the phone for a theatre and worked in a box office, I know how hard it can be. There are so many factors that go into how to handle it with different policies at different theatres and the interpersonal conversations that can be overwhelming at time. There was many a moment that a patron was mad because of any number of issues. I tried to remind myself that on one hand the issue was not my fault. On the other, the patron was most likely mad about something else or embarrassed at their actions in the first place. I do think hearing these stories might make people a little less likely to repeat these same actions.
This was a super interesting read. Starting from the title, ‘can audio dramas tell stories traditional theater can’t’ I was curious as I never really thought of the two as comparable. I still don’t after reading this. They are both methods of storytelling, and I think both quite important. The shift from old radio dramas (my dad likes listening to those mysteries sometimes) to podcast-based stories is interesting, and I wonder how you would define the difference between a podcast drama and a well-read audiobook. I suppose as the podcast would include multiple actors. I would love to listen to some of these-while I create art I normally listen to music, though sometimes will listen to an audiobook and many of my friends have been doing the same recently, so I wonder if I should try one again or now try a podcast drama! Overall though, I think experiencing the immersiveness and the visuality of it is quite a drastically different experience than listening to a production, so I wouldn’t compare the two as I believe they are both great storytelling mediums that exist sort of in their own world a bit (though some parts overlap).
I have never really considered podcasts as audio dramas, but now that I’m thinking about it, why couldn’t they be! It is interesting how the plot is so centred around talking on the phone and only hearing voices, yet here the ‘audience’ is, listening to the story through their earphones (or other devices). As the conversation suggests, listening to someone over the phone can be a really intimate experience that also comes with lots of unexpectancy – you can’t use body language, facial expressions, or eye contact to predict what the other person is about to say, nor can you use them to signal the other party. Conversations, especially business ones, over the phone are tricky for our generation (as Kelsey said) because they just don’t happen as much anymore. The only people I talk to over the phone are my family, and there are hardly any restrains to that. Many phone etiquette are slowly lost and it certainly doesn’t help when panic rushes through your head.
I think the utility of so called audio dramas has not been fully explored, or at least in my opinion, expanded on since the days of the radio drama. Now, to be fair, audio dramas have had a resurgence in popularity since the popular proliferation of podcasts. While most podcasts are unscripted content, there are some popular ones that are scripted, for example The Magnus Archives, which was a quite popular show. It seems that many people spurn audio dramas, in exchange for visual media, which I think is quite disheartening. If you go back to the days of the radio drama, you’ll find the precursor to what we consider to be the modern day serial and soap operas. A great example is Gunsmoke which was a wildly popular radio drama and later show that is considered to be one of the best productions of any style and time. I think this golden age of the radio drama is long gone but I wouldn’t be opposed to a revival of sorts.
A fictional podcast is an interesting offshoot of radio plays. There seems to be a growing discussion of creating recorded plays, but as Kevin Shea points out this is different from an audio recording of a play. Fiction podcasts are able to go more in depth with the plot and character development since there aren't the same constraints of time and feasibility as there are with theatrical productions. Fiction podcasts will never replace live performances, but this is a great way to expand the industry. As I was reading this article, initially I couldn't imagine wanting to listen to hours of customer service interactions. It did finally click that I already enjoy this format: I LOVE listening to Dungeons and Dragons podcasts. I adore DnD podcasts as much as I do because there is incredible world building, complex characters and intimate connections. I'm looking forward to seeing how this genre expands.
Yes absolutely. I am a huge fan of fantasy podcasts or audio drama productions of books and such. However I am a believer that every art piece has its ideal form, the form it was made for, and it is perfect in that form, any other form is no longer ideal for the piece. I believe that to be true of audio dramas. Some of the best stories I have ever consumed have been through audio dramas but that’s because they were written to be an audio drama. Trying to make a piece written for the stage into an audio drama will never be as successful as writing something to be performed as an audio drama. All that is to say, I really like what these people are doing. They’re writing a show to be an audio drama. In addition, the way they talk about the show makes it sound like every choice they make has a purpose and a meaning behind it, that’s what makes good art.
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