Based on the book by Regina Doman, The Shadow of the Bear audio drama has won the Sonic Society’s 2009 Uni Award for Best Audio Drama Show.
The Sonic Society is a Broadcast/Podcast out of Halifax, Nova Scotia Canada. It showcases the very best of Modern Audio Drama from around the world. On their show during November 2008 the Sonic Society featured the entire 4-hour audio drama of The Shadow of the Bear, produced by Andrew Schmiedicke and written and directed by Regina Doman of Chesterton Productions.
At the end of May 2009, the Sonic Society invited its 50,000 listeners world wide to nominate their favorite show for its 2nd Annual Uni Awards. The finalists in seven different categories were chosen by popular vote and announced on the Sonic Society’s blog on June 9. The listeners then voted on the finalists. After all the votes were in, Jack Ward of the Sonic Society said, “The Shadow of the Bear won by a clear majority the “Best Audio Drama Show”.
“I couldn’t be more delighted,” said Regina.
“So many people helped to make this happen,” said Andrew. “It was like God brought all these people together so it could happen.”
Joe Miller donated the production studio and sound equipment. Most of the cast came from Christendom College, Front Royal, Virginia; but there were also some from Canada, and Leonardo Defilippis of St. Luke Productions played both the villain and the victim in the show. The band Scythian gave permission for their performance of the “Drums of Belfast” to be used as the opening and closing music for the drama, and Johnny Doman and Francis Fast wrote and performed most of the music used within the drama.
Ken Fast of Northern Rain Studio in Canada handled all the post-production. After receiving the digitized recordings of the actors and actresses, Ken and his team edited and mixed the performance with music and sound effects. “I think it’s a great example of how we can all work together no matter where we are,” Ken said. “Through the power of the internet we can transfer it, and way up here in Alberta, we can do the sound track.”
And the result of this cooperative work is fantastic. Not only did The Shadow of the Bear win the “Best Audio Drama Show”, it was also a finalist in 4 other categories:
Best Sound and Editing by Northern Rain Studio
Best Script by Regina Doman
Best Actress for Theresa Ford Fisher’s performance of Blanche Brier
Best Actor for Alex Fedoryka’s performance of Bear
The Shadow of the Bear is about a mysterious young man, who lands on Blanche and Rose Brier’s doorstep in New York City. The two sisters have conflicting opinions on whether or not he is dangerous. Even as Blanche learns to trust him, her fears that Bear’s friendship threatens their family prove terrifyingly true. A modern retelling of the classic Brothers Grimm fairytale, “Snow White and Rose Red”.