As I wake to write once again, I find that all my mind can focus upon is the strike. Creatives and the studios built upon dreams — dreams sold or licensed to those who saw in them the possibility of profit — locked, not in a dance, not even a trudge; more of a slouching wobble. A crooked motion, h...
Cold Readings — you either love them or you hate them.
You have very little insight into the script. You don’t know how the scene is going to resolve, let alone the entire story. In a way, it can be scarier than improv because unlike improv there can be a wrong choice that you’ll need to go back a...
What is our bebop?
An odd sounding question that only really makes sense once you have listened to The Day The Music Stopped an episode from the podcast One Year, that I heard in my 99% Invisible feed.
It goes deep into a story of musicians dealing with technological changes that they felt w...
Just a walk through town after finishing up a project.
Love and War in the Jewish Quarter by Dora Levy Mossanen
This was such an amazing audiobook to work on, historical/magical fiction. That doesn’t come up very often. This one really fed my soul.
Typically, when one hears the words Jewish...
Find some silence.
Get away from the mic for a while, get some distance, some clarity.
Are you still in the moment?
I’m not sure (not usually a good sign).
Think back through the story a bit…
When do you feel it?
Okay… there it is. Yeah, you feel that?
So stop now.
Don’t try to figur...
One hundred pages, today.
Not impossible, just not typical. Definitely possible.
Up early, silently, moving through my morning routine.
Bathroom, feed the cat, make the coffee, start up the booth computer, open the windows curtains, drink the coffee, watch the sun rise…
And then, into the bo...
For me, it’s always hardest on the first day back in the booth after any kind of a break. The longer the break, the harder that first day tends to be.
A fear seems to build up within me that has weight and mass. It feels so very solid. Ominous. Impenetrable.
The worst thing about that fear is th...
When most audiobook narrators are setting up a booth, one place they tend to get stuck is understanding how to find the optimum position for their microphone.
The common advice that leads to lots of poorly placed microphones.
The 2-Fist or Hang-10 approach is the most common thing that people w...
“There’s a sucker born every minute.” — David Hannum (not P. T. Barnum)
Make no mistake, the confluence of advancements in recording technology and an increased demand for new media creation in many formats has indeed created a boom in the voiceover industry. Many of the new formats and technolog...
Tell us a little about yourself.
I was born and raised in Brooklyn, and began my professional life on New York’s Theatre Row. In addition to acting, i have also written, produced, designed, and directed both staged plays and internet radio dramas. I’ve studied acting and writing with people includ...
Not quite an audio drama, not quite an audiobook, and not your typical holiday story. Join me, as Detective Jackson, on a murder case this holiday season…
An augmented audio book written and produced by N J Rainford.
Steven Jay Cohen as DI Jack Jackson
Rebecca Thomas as Caroline Didwell
Scot...
Hello Steven, thank you for agreeing to this interview.
Thank you Susan. I’ve been really looking forward to it.
Looking at your website, I can see that you have been in the sound, theatre and acting career all your life. I notice that you also are a writer and director, can you tell our reade...
Accents are often used as a kind of character shorthand. Though accents can help differentiate who is speaking, they should never be the totality of a characterization. They are a simple place to begin, to shape your journey as an actor.
Changing the “shape” of your voice can bring different phy...
Chapter 2 introduces Erica, a recently murdered teenaged cheerleader. In this book, being murdered does not necessarily end your storyline. Depending upon the circumstances of your death, you might come back — either as an agent of the Dark or the Light.
Below, for your enjoyment, I give you a pie...
I’m enjoying this current project so much that I just had to share!
Ted Saves the World is a fun YA/sci-fi adventure where unlikely hero, Ted Finley, gets dumped by his girlfriend and gets super powers all in the same day.
The opening chapter gives us Ted and Natalie just as she’s about to break...
