When we think of the great first era of American radio drama in the 1930s and ’40s, the suspense and horror shows always receive a particular place of pride. Inner Sanctum, Lights Out, Quiet Please, Suspense, Escape, The Mysterious Traveler–these featured a stunning collection of guest appearances by great actors of the stage and screen. Some of the best writers … Read More
From Broadcast to Podcast: A Brief Overview of BRASS on the Radio
While BRASS has been in production for three years, we’ve only been available as a podcast since the middle of 2016. Prior to that, our listenership came through a loosely-constructed network of radio stations, both commercial and private. The biggest boon to our show was two and a half years ago, when our first season was included in Seattle’s Imagination … Read More
BRASS: The Company We Keep!
The narrator for the most recent episode of BRASS Stacks is Seattle favorite Nikki Visel. Originally from Michigan, Visel came to Seattle via Chicago to start a theater company focused on original work–and liked the city enough to stay when the company disbanded. She soon found herself with a regular berth at Taproot Theatre, one of the city’s premiere mid-size … Read More
From Page to Podcast: How We Make BRASS Stacks
While we complete edits on our new BRASS serial “The Devil in Whiechapel,” we’re adding a new podcast, BRASS Stacks, where great Victorian and Edwardian short stories are narrated by a rotating company of actors. (Check it out this week for a new short story by the astonishing Virginia Woolf.) Compared to the complexities and people needed to create our … Read More
Music from a Lost Empire: An Interview with Composer Benedict Edwards
From its earliest incarnations, BRASS has been fortunate to include the work of several contemporary composers, including Amanda Laven, Miriam Mayer and Cesar Belita, each of whom have brought a thrilling modern sensibility to the music and sounds of the 19th century. As we ready our new BRASS Serial “The Devil in Whitechapel” for release, we’re excited to announce our … Read More
BRASS Stacks 2: Tobermory by Saki
For our second BRASS Stacks, we are featuring one of the greatest short story writers of the pre-War years, H.H. Munro, who wrote as Saki. This brilliant journalist-turned-short story writer was one of the great wits of the Edwardian age. Orphaned at age 2, Munro was raised by his grandmother and a household of puritanical aunts. (In both his comic … Read More
BRASS Stacks 1: 2 Stories by Lord Dunsany
Our new series of narrated short stories begins with two early stories by Lord Dunsany. Podcast (brass-stacks): Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: RSS
BRASS Episode 20: The End of the Affair
As news of the approaching catastrophe spreads, our friends seek escape, while high above the melee, Lord Whitestone attempts a difficult negotiation. Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: RSS
Back in the Stacks
Even more than Victorian history, the world of BRASS is inspired by the fiction of the 19th and early 20th century. Literary creations like the Phantom of the Opera and Sherlock Holmes rub shoulders with Tesla and Oscar Wilde in our story, creating a mash-up of fiction, history and alternative history which samples from each. This period was the flowering … Read More
Is This The End of Our Heroes?
Season Two of BRASS, like Season One, ends on a cliffhanger, as despite the heroic efforts of the family and their allies Ponder Wright and Lord Whitestone, the Crime Minister’s plans are carried through to their cataclysmic conclusion. How could the Brass family possibly survive such destruction? One of the primary inspirations of BRASS were the classic radio adventure serials … Read More