Disturbing Frequencies is a new podcast showcasing science fiction, fantasy, and horror/suspense stories penned by Rochester-area writers and performed by local actors. Produced by the Rochester Speculative Literature Association, join us as we present some of the most imaginative, entertaining, and thought-provoking stories from seasoned professionals and exciting, new talent.
Disturbing Frequencies to be featured at Atlanta Fringe Festival
We have more good news to share today — our full-cast audio drama, “Take It or Weave It,” by Meredith Powell Carroll and Ted Wenskus, is going to be featured in the audio portion of the Atlanta Fringe Festival! This part of the festival showcases a selection of recorded/radio shows from across the country starting the week before and ending the week after the festival. There are only twelve slots available in this program, so we are very fortunate to be included in the mix and to have the opportunity to bring this fun story to a wider audience.
A great audio drama needs a great cast, so we once again thank Karen Craft, Corrie Spike Carter, Jeff Moon, Ron Dufort, R. Emmett Michie, and Jack Simel for their wonderful performances and talent!
Disturbing Frequencies stories to be featured at HEAR Now: The Audio Fiction and Arts Festival
It’s been a while since we had an update, but we have some very exciting news to share today…
There is a national festival held annually in Kansas City that attracts a who’s-who in the audio drama, podcast, and audio book worlds called HEAR Now: The Audio Fiction and Arts Festival. It’s like a film festival, except that it only focuses on audio.
We are thrilled to announce that our audio short story “Harkness Road” by Eric Scoles and beautifully read by Jeff Moon has been selected to be featured in the podcast portion of the festival at the Gold level. That ranking means that the Festival’s panel of judges agreed this work was among the best submitted this year.
There’s more, too: Our audio drama “Take It or Weave It”, by Meredith Powell Carroll and Ted Wenskus, has been selected to be presented at the festival itself at one of only a handful of live listening sessions.
None of this would have been possible without the time, effort, and talent of everyone involved in these projects, particularly Meredith Powell Carroll, Jeff Moon, Eric Scoles, Karen Craft, Corrie Spike Carter, Ron Dufort, R. Emmett Michie, and Jack Simel.
We have an abundance of talent in Rochester and it’s going to be great to share it with a wider audience. Updates to come!
In the meantime, check out the festival website for events, happenings, and other audio goodness:
http://www.hearnowfestival.org/
New audio short story: “Like Pharaoh Unto Joseph” by Gary A. Mitchell
Our latest story comes from the pen of Gary A. Mitchell, who originally wrote “Like Pharaoh Unto Joseph” for the anthology Rochester Rewritten, a collection of alternate histories, presents, and futures of our Flower City.
As someone who likes to haunt flea markets, Gary chose the Rochester Public Market to be the subject of his tale — though he claims that nothing else in this story is autobiographical.
Originally performed at the 2015 Rochester Fringe Festival, we are very pleased that R. Emmett Michie and Meredith Powell Carroll have reprised their roles for this moody audio short story. So sit back and hear how you really can get anything at our renowned Public Market … if you talk to the right devil.
New audio short story: “Dogs of Chernobyl” by Rob Tyler
This month’s story takes us to deep into the Exclusion Zone around the contaminated Chernobyl nuclear power plant, decades after the world’s worst nuclear accident. Dogs, long abandoned by their owners during the mass evacuation, have survived and thrived … and are growing beyond the enforced boundaries. Mittemeyer and his team of veterinarians have been tasked with a catch-and-release program to help control the population, but what they discover on their expedition changes everything…
Featuring Don Beechner, Sean Michael Smith, Jeff Moon, Ron Dufort, Jack Simel, Corrie Spike Carter, R. Emmett Michie, Jonathan Wetherbee, and Meredith Powell Carroll in our first multi-cast audio short story, we hope you enjoy Rob Tyler’s “Dogs of Chernobyl.”
New audio short story: “Carp Man” by Nick DiChario
Our audio short story this month is a modern-day fantasy by long-time Rochester-area writer, Nick DiChario.
Nick has been publishing fantasy and science fiction stories since the early 1990s in such magazines as Galaxy’s Edge, Weird Tales, and The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. He has been nominated for both the Hugo and World Fantasy Awards and his first two novels, A Small and Remarkable Life and Valley of Day-Glo, both received nominations for the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel of the Year.
“Carp Man” first appeared in The Tampa Tribune Fiction Quarterly (1998) and was collected in The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror: Twelfth Annual Collection (1999). We are proud to be able to feature this story, and to have it beautifully read by actor and playwright, R. Emmett Michie.
We were also fortunate enough to have Nick in town for the rehearsal of this story, and he very generously sat down with our host, Dean Amsler, for a fun and enlightening interview afterward — be sure to check it out!
So without further ado, we hope you enjoy this short tale of love, loss, and magical realism.
Live from the Fringe Festival – “The Zauber City” by Steven Donner
In March 2015, the Rochester Speculative Literature Association was invited by local literary center Writers & Books to put on an evening of staged readings of stories from the anthology Rochester Rewritten to support that year’s speculative fiction selection in the popular program If All of Rochester Reads the Same Book. The event was a success — so much so that the performance was brought to a larger audience at the 2015 First Niagara Rochester Fringe Festival.
Steven Donner’s story “The Zauber City” was fortunate enough to be included in both programs and is presented here as a live recording — a recording that ultimately inspired us to create Disturbing Frequencies.
Rochester’s future has always been in the hands of its inventors and entrepreneurs. In this short, fanciful tale — performed by R. Emmett Michie, Meredith Powell Carroll, Don Beechner, and Ted Wenskus — Steven shows how some of the key players of the twentieth century might be led to remove themselves from the game … and it all starts with a mysterious stranger by the name of Hans Zauber.
New audio short story: “Harkness Road” by Eric Scoles
Winter may be officially over in Western New York, but in our latest audio short story the fog lies bone-cold at the edge of spring, and the old man sits waiting with a blanket down at the end of Harkness Road…
Written by the very talented Eric Scoles and beautifully read by local actor and voice artist Jeff Moon, we hope you’ll sit back and enjoy this short winter tale.
“Take It or Weave It” wins Audio Verse Award for writing
We’re pleased to announce that our first radio play, “Take It or Weave It,” by Meredith Powell Carroll and Ted Wenskus has won the Audio Verse Award for Best Writing of an Original, Long Form, Self-contained Production!
The Audio Verse Awards are an annual awards show dedicated to celebrating the best in free audio drama around the world. Over 1,250 votes were cast this year, weighted toward those involved in creating audio drama, but also open to the public. While we were honored to be nominated (the show was also nominated for Best Original, Long Form, Self-contained Production), we are thrilled to have earned this recognition from our peers and the listening public.
A big congrats to all involved in making this possible–especially our cast Corrie Spike Carter, Karen Craft, Ron Dufort, R. Emmett Michie, Jeff Moon, and Jack Simel.
As part of the Awards process, we also had the privilege of being highlighted in the Audio Verse Award showcase. Complete with a special intro from Meredith and Ted, you can now check out “Take It or Weave It” via:
Our first full radio drama!
At long last, we have completed our first fully-produced, full-cast radio drama! And there was much rejoicing.
“Take It or Weave It” is a half-hour comic fantasy written and directed by Meredith Powell Carroll and Ted Wenskus. War is afoot in the realm and sisters Hildegard and Prunella are merely trying to support their family as rag and bone collectors—amid fierce competition with an unscrupulous rag-and-bone conglomerate. That all changes when a stranger gives them an item that soon even the highest powers are trying to recover which has the power to save their fortunes … and the kingdom.
Our featured cast includes talented Rochester actors Corrie Spike Carter, Karen Craft, Ron Dufort, R. Emmett Michie, Jeff Moon, and Jack Simel. A big kudos to Karen for designing our awesome title graphic—you can see more of her photography and design work here.
And finally, you can listen to it right here:
Xeno 911 at the Rochester Fringe Festival
It’s been a while since our last update, but we have been hard at work on a one-hour radio show for the First Niagara Rochester Fringe Festival—specifically written for the festival by Meredith Powell Carroll and Ted Wenskus, and based on a series idea by Ted and Ray Anthony Claxton.
Xeno 911 chronicles the misadventures of the Rochester branch of the Office of Extranormal Affairs as they try to keep the Flower City relatively free from chupacabras, zombies, and a host of others, all while navigating the crushing bureaucracy of a New York State department. Yeah, it’s a comedy.
Featuring two action-packed, radio-style episodes, you can find all the ticket and show info here. If you’re in the area during show time, we’d love to see you!