All three episodes of environmental audio drama ‘Rising Heat’ are now available online.
So that’s all my audio drama work over and done with for 2015. So far planned for 2016 is a 1916 centenary drama that is pretty large in scope and will be broadcast Easter week. And then at some point in the summer we’ll have 2 more episodes of Rivitin’ History.
I’m hosting an audio drama writing workshop this Saturday featuring talks from a number of writers I’ve worked with over the years. They’ll talk about their experiences and their approaches to writing audio drama.
This will be taking place in the Northside Civic Centre in Coolock on Saturday 12th December from 11.00-14.00. There are a small number of spaces available so drop me an email at gavin@near.ie if you’re interested in coming along.
The line up of speakers is as follows:
Playing for Time – https://soundcloud.com/nearfm/drama-on-the-northside-playing
Twin Candles – https://soundcloud.com/nearfm/kay-farrell-trilogy-1
Black Monday – https://soundcloud.com/nearfm/tales-from-the-northside-3
Been There, Seen There – http://garethstack.com/tag/beentherecomedy/
Any Other Dublin – http://garethstack.com/tag/anyotherdublincomedy/
Choices – http://garethstack.com/tag/choicescomedy/
The Wall in the Mind (Coming Soon) – http://garethstack.com/2015/11/25/the-wall-in-the-mind-new-drama-series-coming-early-2016/
Rising Heat Trilogy – http://nearfm.ie/risingheat/
Dante’s Domain – http://nearfm.ie/dantes-domain/
The Hanging Gardner of Ballymun – https://soundcloud.com/nearfm/kay-farrell-trilogy-2-hanging
The St. James Rejoice Boarding House – https://soundcloud.com/nearfm/drama-on-the-northside-the-st
The Critics Choice – http://nearfm.ie/the-critics-choice/
The Shamrogues – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mki4Lz6IXKw
Rivitin’ History – http://nearfm.ie/rivitin-history/
Part 2 of the Rising Heat Trilogy is now available online. Quite a bit of work had to go into the sound effects for this one.
The second play highlights for Dubliners how we may fare with a changing climate and increased severe flooding, as some may think it will all happen somewhere else.
Susan was Adrianne Murphy
Burt was Gareth Stack
Ned was Joe Murphy
Mrs Ford was Carol Dempsey
Danny was Frank O’Connor
Dr Hartley was John O’Connor
Detective Flannery Peter Prior
Jacinta was Deborah Gafney
Script by Jack Byrne
Directed by Declan Cahill
Production assistant was Deborah Gaffney
Music by Ken Tuohy
The podcast I produce about arcade and retro video games is finalist in the Irish Web Awards
And as it’s International Podcast Day I’ve just uploaded a brand new podcast about growing up gaming in Ireland in the 80s and 90s.
You can listen to it here:
A new Arcade and Retro podast went up last week.
In this one myself, Sera and Stephen discuss the Mother series of games, known as Earthbound outside of Japan.
We also talk about Satoru Iwata, who died tragically recently, and how instrumental he was in the development of Mother 2 and the important roll he played in Nintendo and gaming in general.
I have two new radio drama projects which will be going into production this year. One is a 3 part drama about climate change called ‘Rising Heat’ and the other is something very special that will be broadcast as part of the 1916 centenary next year.
We rely heavily on local amateur drama groups to help out in the production of these radio dramas and we’re always looking for new people and new voices for our plays. So if you think you’d be interested in trying out acting in a radio drama then please get in contact with me at gavin@near.ie
We’ll be having a preliminary read through of the plays on Thursday the 2nd July 2015 in the Northside Civic Centre in Coolock.
The Craol Achievement Awards 2015 were presented, Friday 5th June, at the Royal Marine Hotel, Dun Laoghaire. The live radio drama “A Woman, A Dog and a Walnut Tree” that I produced last October won an award in the Special Programming (non-commissioned) category.
“A Woman, A Dog and a Walnut Tree” deals with the topic of domestic abuse and was presented along with a panel discussion about the realities of domestic abuse.
You can hear the entire play and panel discussion online here:
I just cut together the promo for the new series of ‘Rivitin’ History’ by Pat Meehan. Starting Friday 15th May at 18.00 we’ll be playing the original 2 episodes over the next two Fridays followed by 2 new episodes on the subsequent Fridays.
In Rivitin’ History you’ll meet ‘Marrion Monroe’ and ‘Duck the Bullets’ as they are taken in by Professor Henri DuFornicate’s ability to travel back through time to ancient Ireland.
This series is made with the support of the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland Sound and Vision scheme.
I recently got things set up at home so that I can capture footage off some of my older consoles like the Famicom here. So I did a little ‘Let’s Play’ video of Treasure Island Dizzy, a game I mostly remember from playing on the C64 and the Amiga as a kid. The NES version seems a lot closer to the Amiga version. Both being considerably easier than the C64 version.
Last Sunday we booked a big block of studio time and I recorded the latest Near Drama Company production ‘Rivitin’ History’
Now I’ve got to start on post production and get all the sound effects added in. We should be ready for broadcast in March.
This is a follow up to two previous episodes that were produced about 2 years ago.
It’s a Irish time travel comedy written by Pat Meehan who was one of the writers behind The Shamrogues series of childrens books back in the 80s.