Messenger Theatre Company Releases Pandemic Audio Drama

Messenger Theatre Company presents a podcast about a dragon epidemic recorded in the middle of the pandemic.

Messenger Theatre Company had this audio drama podcast in the works before the pandemic hit. But when everyone had to retreat inside to flatten the curve, making theatre in the digital space was no longer a choice. To make quality theatre now meant quickly blending indie theatre skills with podcasting, from a distance. Actors record from home, while sheltering in place. Sound design, directing, and producing are all happening remotely. The last time any people involved in this project were in the same room together was at the reading in December. The company has released four episodes and are in the process of raising funds for the subsequent ten.

While Messenger Theatre Company is usually a highly visual company, this new form allows for creating those visuals in the imaginations of the audience. There's something about audio drama that is the closest of on-line forms to indie theatre. It shares the intimacy of small spaces and unusual venues. Would this have been easier at another time? Probably. But this time has the advantage of the availability of actors who could really use the work and a creative outlet.

In The Dragoning, a city is shaken by the transformations of women into dragons who consume and immolate men. A tourist from afar tries to understand what, when any woman could literally eat you for lunch, is a guy supposed to do? Who can you trust? The podcast evolved from a viral blog from the days after Brett Kavanagh's hearings by Artistic Director, Emily Rainbow Davis, called "I Am a Dragon Now. The Fear of Men Is My Food."

Featuring sound design by Matt Powell. Cast includes: Ned Massey, Julian Rozzell, Jeff LaGreca, Brooke Turner, Max Arnaud, Sevrin Ann Mason, Emily Hartford and more.