Episode 1 is loose!!

Here it is... the moment you've all been longing to hear! Episode 1 of Magellan's Children, titled "Lost Horizon", is now available for your listening experience.

As stated previously, this is the Ashcan Edition of this episode. We'll be releasing an "Ultimate Super-Splashy Director's Cut" edition at the end of the summer once we fix some things. We mostly wanted to see if we could it and we did! Yay us!

Episode 1 - The Ashcan Edition


As always, feedback will be very welcome. You can send it to me at brian@aurealityproject.com. Thanks for all the support as well. Cast and crew credits are as follows:

Magellan's Children - Episode 1: "Lost Horizon"
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Written and directed by Brian E Smith
Sound Design by Brian E Smith
Original Music by Brian Lumpkin
Recorded and produced at Mesa Community College and Arizona State University

Cast (in order of appearance):
Captain Peter Lewis - Clay Clevenger
Commander Alicia Clarke - Melissa Stinson-Borg
Chief Engineer Carter Jones - Brian E Smith
Yeoman Briggs - Robert T. Davies
Admiral Michael Nelson - Hal Semmens
Navigation Officer - Robert T. Davies
Communications Officer - Hal Semmens

Announcer - Brian E Smith


Special thanks to the ASU's Katherine K. Herberger College of the Arts, Keith Heffner and the MCC Sound Design program, Dr. Bonnie Eckard, Barbara Acker, Benjamin Smith, Shirley and Evan Hammond, Nutter Butters (TM), the French legume and the Force, which will be with us... always.

Post-Mortem

So we've passed the moment of performance (in fact, it was about 24 hours ago) so I figured I'd take a look at what we did.

With a cast of five (including myself), we performed an 8-character original script live before an audience of my peers, acquaintances, etc. And we succeeded, I think. It was a rough start -- I won't deny that. But I think I tickled the fancy of several actors in the audience and I hope it gives me a chance to expand my available pool of voice talent, especially as the Project expands into other areas (see previous entry).

So what did we do well?

• The timing of the sound effects with the actors worked really well. It helped that I was running the effects on stage along with acting. Even the spots that were time-critical worked pretty well. The recording will only improve on that as I'll have far more control over the placement of them.
  
• I believe the players managed to create, if nothing else, a good starting point for these new characters. Every new series is rough at the start as actors discover the basics of these characters and build a group dynamic. Need I bring up Season 1 of Star Trek: The Next Generation? Seriously, just ask Wil Wheaton.
• The script rocked! Okay, I'm biased because I wrote it, but I got a lot of positive feedback from everyone I showed it too and took a number of their suggestions to heart while revising it.

Now, the hard part... what didn't work well?

• I regret that we were unable to record the performance live, as I initially wanted. I think it would have been nice, for archival purposes if nothing else. But I was able to record dialogue in advance of the performance, so I'll get a more produced version out before too long here.
• The cast. All I mean by that is what I stated above about the group dynamic. This was mostly a group of people who were strangers to each other, but all known by me. We only got one night's rehearsal and I think we certainly would have benefited from more time to work on character styles. Part of that is also a lack of aggressive recruiting on my part. Had I really worked casting on early enough, I could have had the cast finalized far earlier than I did and had that time. But I am satisfied with the cast I performed with. They did admirably and I think they will only make it better as we go.
• I don't know if this really is a negative or not, but it felt like we needed some more elements. Again, if my time management skills were up to snuff, this would have been taken care of.

Okay, so a lot of this was on me, because I was overseeing so much of the production. It's hard not to with the maiden voyage of something you've spent more than a decade living with. I really want to work with more people on the technical side as well, not just actors. I think with the right amount of collaboration, the plans I've laid out for the Project will go much more smoothly and make each show that much better.

A link to the produced version of the ashcan edition of Magellan's Children will be posted here within the week. I just have to finish assembling it and turn in a copy to ASU for my senior capstone. Then I can finally relax a little...

It's time... for show and tell

Tonight's the night! No more rehearsing and nursing our parts!

The premiere performance of the Aureality Project is nigh. Tonight, I and my castmates will be getting on stage before a theatre full of people (of 80 seats) and performing the first episode of Magellan's Children for them. May the Force have mercy on us.

Actually, I think we're in reasonably good shape for this show. And to let all you hypothetical readers know, the studio version of this "ashcan edition" episode will be posted here no later than Friday, April 25th. Anyone's free to download the episode and I'm working on how to get both the performance and the BTS podcasts I've been doing posted to iTunes as well. So here's hoping...

A little teaser for the future of the project. This summer I'm hoping to release a "Director's Cut Digitally Remastered" version of Episode 1 of Magellan. Also, in keeping with the mission of the project, I will start work on adapting and producing classical works for release as well. Shakespeare's definitely on my list, but which play first?? We'll see. The real trick is selecting works that work on an aural level. You probably won't hear a lot of physically-based drama in the Project's works... unless I figure out how to really pull that off.

Here, to make it easier for you... and for me to get motivated, I'll draw up a quick list of what things I'm looking at:

• A re-staging of the entire Shadow radio series (pending rights and things, etc.)
• More episodes of Magellan's Children
• The plays of William Shakespeare
• Goethe's Faust (this one could get interesting)
• War of the Worlds (for sentimental reasons)

That's a good start. It's certainly enough to keep me occupied for several years to come. I also want to do plenty of original works as well, so if you have something you think might sound good, I'd be open to hearing about it.

Talk to you again soon, campers!

First Episode will be LIVE!!

It's official. The premiere date for the start of the Aureality Project will be April 22nd. We will perform/record the pilot episode of "Magellan's Children" in front of a live audience as part of the capstone showcase put on by the senior theatre students at ASU.

More details as to time and location will be forthcoming, but if you want to see audio drama done (hopefully) right and live, mark the day on your calendar!

And so it begins...

Welcome one and all to The Aureality Project.

This is going to be the central repository for news regarding the development and performance of both classic and original radio dramas created by us for your enjoyment.

As this site will be podcast-based, stay tuned for our first episode, coming soon!!