Great Northern Audio Theatre

Ours is not to invent the machines of the future,
ours is to make fun of them when they break down

Radio is "at once both public and private. ... Radio is much more direct [than television]; it's one to one, whereas [with] television you're talking not to an ear, you're talking to an eye - a mechanical eye. Also, the eye is a very literal organ, and the ear is a part of the senses. The ear is the organ through which we receive, after all, the music of Beethoven, Brahms, and all the great composers, who don't speak a word to us. It's all said in symbolism, in symbolic harmonies and symbolic melody; even symbolic cacophony does something which enlists our collaboration, to the extent that we are required to collaborate as we are when we read a book. Then we are giving something. We are not just taking. Television, too often, puts the reader in the position of a passive receptor, of a spectator. This is less likely to happen in radio.
--Norman Corwin (The Great American Broadcast, Leonard Maltin, P. 17)

Audio Theater Resources

These pages are not meant to be comprehensive or complete, but do offer a wide range of resources available to people who want to learn more about the production of audio theater. We include websites, books, and other tools to assist in understanding and engaging in the production of audio theater. Topics include writing, sound effects, and production theory and technique.

Writing Audio Theater

There are many websites that discuss writing for the theater, but only a few that focus on writing only for the ear. We have links to those, and some books that cover the subject of scriptwriting.

Sound Effects

Here we include websites that talk about how to Make sound effects devices, where to find them, and what others might have used to make some specific sounds for their productions. We have links to sites that discuss the theory of using sound effects for audio and film, and to sites that have sound effects sample libraries you can download. And we suggest some books that are available to read about the practice and history of sound effects on radio and television. We include our own Outline of Radio Sound Effects page, too.

Producing and Directing