Arguably, there was no creative medium that was curtailed so much by Covid as much as theatre was. It’s not that surprising that theatre-makers pivoted to podcasts so successfully. Indeed, all three podcasts that placed in the Best Fiction category at the British Podcast Awards were created by (or in collaboration with) theatre makers. The winning show, Sound Worlds, uses the episode format to share a variety of standalone stories in all their forms – from the ones we tell our children the ones we tell ourselves.

Conceived and directed by Patrick Eakin Young, Sound Worlds was supported by Arts Council funding, which allowed Patrick to enlist collaborators from the world of theatre, literature and music. The result is a mixture of texts, music and sound design that Patrick aptly describes as ‘sonic theatre’.  As well as the creative aspect (the show also placed Silver in the Creativity Award category) I love the peak behind the curtain we get from Patrick at the end of episodes where he explains his inspiration. But I of course wanted to know more, and managed to catch up with Patrick via email to learn about the show…

Congratulations on the BPA win! How do you feel?

Thanks very much. I feel great! It was very unexpected, but very welcome! When you are making things that you think are good, it feels really nice to have that thought confirmed by others. Like: oh! Other people think this is good too! Amazing!

What was the first podcast you ever listened to?

I’m old school (like, actually old, ha ha!) so my first podcast was This American Life. The OG podcast as it were. I was living in New York in 2006 and my roommate was really into it and so I started to listen. This American Life became a bit of a victim of its own success, and the format started to grow a little tired (not to mention every podcast after was trying to emulate it), but some of those early episodes were such amazing storytelling, and really affecting.

Why did you decide to start podcasting in the first place?

I was a theatre director making music and sound-based theatre before the pandemic. But I was growing a bit unhappy with the space of theatre, or where I sat in it. The pandemic stopped all that anyways, and I thought: I’ll take this opportunity to try making sound-only work—ie. podcasts—which I always wanted to try but never had the time or space to do. Our first season was kind of a knee-jerk reaction, like “what can we do quickly?” The second season was about discovering the form, as in “what is possible and what do we think is good?” Our third season is going to be about going deeper!

Which podcasts do you take inspiration from?

I don’t hear a lot of podcasts like ours. But the podcast I admire the most (and which I hope we approach even in a small way) is Have You Heard George’s Podcast? By George the Poet. It is, hands down, the best podcast and everyone should listen to it, even if you don’t like podcasts. There are also some other great podcasts out there that are pushing the envelope in terms of storytelling which I like. Two of my favourites are Love and Radio by Nick van der Kolk , which is mostly interviews, but really beautifully done in the way they reveal information to the listener, and The Memory Palace by Nate DiMeo, which are creative essays about obscure American history, just beautiful writing and storytelling.

Who’s your dream guest for the podcast?

We don’t have ‘guests’ per se. Each episode is a collaboration with a musician and a writer. I’d love to make episodes with top-level musicians like James Blake, Solange, Perfume Genius, Flying Lotus, Anohni… I mean my list goes on and on!

What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learnt so far as a podcaster?

Always use a pop-shield! Seriously, I’ve learnt a lot about storytelling. When you remove the visual, you really concentrate on the essentials of story and narrative, and that has taught me a lot.

Which episode would you say is the perfect introduction to your podcast?

I love all our episodes, but I think ‘Town Is By The Sea‘, is a really good example of what our show is about. The mixture of story, sound design, and music by Anna Rheingans is kind of what I hope we can achieve more often than not. Also, I love our series of Raymond Carver short story adaptations What We Talk About When We Talk About Love, especially the episode entitled ‘Gazebo’.

Where can the Pod Bible readers find out more about you?

You can check out our website www.soundworlds.org and sign up for our newsletter there for updates on the podcast. Also we’re on Instagram and Twitter @_soundworlds.

Listen to Sound Worlds now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and other popular podcast apps.

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Since then, more than 30 older people aged 60+ have been involved in the first series, and it was even praised by Prince William! The award-winning podcast is back for a second season and looks set to continue is its mission for creativity and connection. We spoke to creators, theatre company Made By Mortals.

Why podcasting? What is it about the format that appeals for this project?

We turned to podcasts through necessity to be honest. We run a not-for-profit that traditionally creates music theatre and films with groups of people from our community in Manchester. When lockdown hit, like everyone we were forced to work remotely, which meant that none of our groups could meet in person. We wanted to create something that could bring people together during a time that they were forced apart. So, through experimenting, playing and using our imaginations over zoom, we came up with the concept of Armchair Adventures, a podcast series for children that takes them on a journey of the imagination.

We were able to develop the scripts, rehearse and record using equipment we all had to hand, while still managing to create something that meets (and I think has now surpassed) the artistic quality of our theatre work.

Podcasting has also helped us to grow our audience reach. Armchair Adventures has had tens of thousands of listens, if that was one of our theatre productions we’d have to sell out a lot of venues to reach those numbers!

You’re also able to play with sound design to make the listener feel part of the action. Podcasts have allowed us to create immersive theatre far more regularly than we ever could when putting on a staged theatre show

To top it off, podcasts are also easy to get hold of, they’re convenient for an audience as they can take their podcasts with them wherever and play them whenever. So all in all, podcasting was the perfect solution!

Which episode would you say is the perfect introduction to your podcast?

I think our Armchair Adventures episodes are getting better and better all the time, so I’d go for our latest one ‘An Underwater Adventure’ (released 11th November). The series follows 15 year old travel agent Connie, and her gang of explorers. With the pandemic, people haven’t been able to go abroad as freely as they used to, so they’ve come up with an alternative to a traditional vacation, a journey of the imagination, an “Armchair Adventure”. Using the voices of Connie and the gang, music, immersive sound design, and places in the podcast for the listener to interact too, the listener is very much a part of the action.

The use of the music in this latest episode, ‘An Underwater Adventure’ is really fun. It’s like the piano has come along on the journey too, and instead of hearing someone speak, the piano communicates through music!

We also always have an important message for children in the podcasts too, in this one, it’s all about conservation and climate change. And as always, there’s plenty for the listener to join in with too in this episode! I do love ‘Carla’s Bubble Adventure’ and ‘A Showbiz Adventure’ from season 1 too though!

Has Armchair Adventures grown beyond the podcast?

One of the most exciting things about Armchair Adventures is how it has been adapted to be used in lots of different settings. We made the series for children so it was important to us that we put it in front of as many kids as possible! We have great relationships with local schools through our theatre work, so we presented the podcasts online in ‘Live Online Shows’. This also put podcasting on the radar for many schools and children. Since then we’ve made teaching resources to accompany the podcast episodes, so teachers can embed the learning. This was particularly impactful with ‘A Unity Adventure’ which is about racial equality.

We’ve also created an activity pack for older people and trained up activity co-ordinators in nursing homes so they can use it with their residents. Now restrictions have eased up we’re now creating the episodes in person and also working on the development of a live Armchair Adventures theatre show – watch this space!

Which podcasts do you take inspiration from?

I really like The Story Pirates and how it blends actors, musicians, improvisers and stories from kids. It’s quite like how we create Armchair Adventures, except we make it using stories from over 65s!!

Away from podcasts, we’re really into the work of Tim Crouch, a theatre maker who challenges traditional theatre conventions. We try and do that with our work, blurring the distinction between performer and audience member.

What is the most valuable lesson you have learned from working on this project?

You can’t just expect an audience to fall at your feet, no matter how good you believe your podcast to be. You need to spend just as much time, if not more, marketing your podcast and maintaining audience engagement as you do making the episodes!

We’ve worked really hard at this, and although we’ve had a low-budget, grassroots marketing campaign, the results have been brilliant: tens of thousands of listens including a surprise following in India; engaged with over 5,000 school children through our Live Online shows; we’ve trained over 50 activity co-ordinators in nursing homes; we were recommended by BBC Radio 4 and Podcast Radio; received a letter of commendation from HRH Prince William and most recently we became an award-winning podcast by winning Best Podcast at the Manchester Publicity Awards 2021!

It’s all nuts and can’t wait for where our next adventure takes us!

Listen to Armchair Adventures on SPOTIFY or your favourite podcast app.

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Who are you and what’s your podcast about?

I’m Scarlett Kefford and I founded Script Sirens, a Midlands based group for female and non-binary scriptwriters. I produced and directed our new show Script Sirens Presents: Siren Screams a six-part horror anthology series of audio plays, each designed to frighten the listener in their own unique way.  I also wrote one of the plays and acted in a few of them, it all got a bit ‘write the theme tune, sing the theme tune’ (ironically two of the only things I didn’t do) – Shout out to the very patient David Bernie!

The Script Sirens. Top Row: Carmen Capuano, Annabel Brightling, Scarlett Kefford, Miriam Sarin, Cassiah Joski-Jethi Bottom row: Kayleigh Watson, Alexandra Taylor, Louise Osbourne, Melly DeNiro, Holly Louise Psaliou

What was the first podcast you ever listened to?

It was either The Adam & Joe Show or Kermode & Mayo’s Film Review.

Why did you decide to start podcasting in the first place?

Well in all honestly, I was kind of forced into it by the coronavirus…with the usual film & theatre avenues closed I wanted a way to keep our group sane, safe & scripting during this time. Having had success (I was nominated for a Royal Television Society Breakthrough award) with producing our own web series Script Sirens Presents:#GoingViral (all on zero-budget) this year and being a podcast fan myself I saw it as means of producing and distributing our own radio plays. And this time we bagged Arts Council Funding to boost the project. Enterally grateful to them!

Which podcasts do you take inspiration from?

The main inspirations for the series weren’t actually podcasts but The Archers (we’re mostly Brummies of course!) and the TV series Inside No. Nine. However some of the podcasts we take inspiration from into our writing practice and living ethos are: Films to Be Buried With with Brett Goldstein, Script Apart, Fuckbois of Literature, Writer’s Routine, The Final Girls and The Guilty Feminist.

Who’s your dream guest for the podcast?

As our podcast is audio theatre rather than interview-based I’d say if we do another season I’d like to feature some spooky music by Birmingham band Sunshine Frisbee Laserbeam as they do these incredible Halloween albums every few years. And a dream actor to feature would be Susan Wokoma – besides being generally incredible I can’t get enough of her voice.

What are the biggest lessons you’ve learned so far as podcasters?

It’s definitely worth paying the back end fees for proper analytics! And also you can create a soundproof booth out of a tent, a chair, a walking stick and many throws.

What episode would you say is the perfect introduction to your podcast?

As the series is an anthology, each episode a unique story, you can start and listen in any order. My personal favourite happens to be called ‘Perfect – By Alexandra Taylor’ – in every stage of the process from the first draft to record and edit it made me laugh. I wish I’d written it.

Where can Pod Bible readers find out more about you?

You can find us on our Script Sirens website and social media channels. We also have a web series on YouTube.

Listen to Script Sirens Presents: Siren Screams on Acast, Spotify, and your favourite podcast app.

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