Need a Winter’s Tale? All ten episodes of Season 1 of Jarnsaxa Rising are available for your listening pleasure. Join her on her journey. Follow these links to listen, or look for Jarnsaxa Rising in the podcatcher of your choice.
As you well know by now, Jarnsaxa Rising (your favorite science fiction fantasy revenge tragedy of 2015) is nominated in several categories for The AudioVerse Awards. This annual awards show celebrates and recognizes the best in free, independent audio drama around the world. The AudioVerse Awards presents a podcast showcase of episodes from all the nominated podcasts, and Jarnsaxa Rising is one of them.
There are so many nominated podcasts that voting starts with a semifinalist round. We have some very experienced company with huge audiences, such as The Black Tapes and We’re Alive, which regularly chart in the Top 20 (if not the Top 10) on iTunes. We are a small (but mighty) fish in a very deep and densely populated pond.
You may ask, “Why don’t you just tell me what to click on, and I’ll click it?” I don’t think you want me to do that, Dave. The way the ballot is set, you can’t let a category go by without voting.
Therefore, in the spirit of getting more people to listen to free, independent audio drama, I invite you to listen to the AudioVerse Showcase, and decide for yourself which nominees should make it to the semifinals.
Jarnsaxa Rising is nominated in several categories. You can vote for one to five nominees in each category. Our nominations are:
Best Original Music Composition In A Short Form Production (Vince Friel, for Jarnsaxa Rising, SoloMom, and Rising)
Best Audio Engineering of an Original, Ongoing, Short Form Production (Vince Friel)
Best Writing for an Original, Short Form, Ongoing Production (Lindsay Harris-Friel)
Best Original, Short Form, Small Cast, Ongoing Production
Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role for an Original, Short Form, Ongoing Production (Katherine Kupiecki as Agent Bachman and MaryLynn Mennicke as Jarnsaxa)
Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role for an Original, Short Form, Ongoing Production (Ethan Bjelland as Loki and John Zeiler as Dr. Eric Aspinall)
Other shows which are nominated that I personally would recommend include:
Wooden Overcoats, a comedy about competing funeral directors on the tiny island of Piffling
Hadron Gospel Hour, a comedy about a doomed scientist and a plucky IT guy traveling the multi-verse
A Scottish Podcast, a drama about a radio DJ and a struggling musician trying to make a podcast about the catacombs beneath a city, and the monster that lives there (It’s meta as meta can be)
The Bright Sessions, a drama about psychotherapy sessions held by Dr. Bright with young clients with extraordinary abilities
Small Town Horror, a horror story about a guy coping with a series of child abductions in his home town, and his own past escape from the abductor
Pulp-Pourri Theatre, adaptations of classic pulp fiction tales that shock and delight.
My taste might be very different from yours, but if you pick through the list of nominees, there has to be something you’ll like. The Showcase podcast is a vast sampler platter of probably any kind of entertainment you can imagine, ranging from G rated to R rated, comedy to horror, contemporary through fantasy to surrealist.
Witch trials happened throughout the Western world in the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries (and, some would argue, still happen today). We know a lot about persecution of women as “witches” in England and early America, but we know less about it in other countries. Jarnsaxa has shown up in various guises at different times, and met religious, corporate and personal conflict.
Leslie will be playing Widow Gregersen, an practitioner of a lot of different ideas pervasive in Old Norse and modern-day culture. Though Christianity was not unwelcome in Scandinavia, pagan ideas and processes stayed put when push came to shove. Women were often the first responders in medical situations, and they could use runes and songs along with hot water and herbs for care. Widow Gregersen knows old ways to combat the dragur, or what Christians might perceive as a witch, though she’ll stay on the good side of the Church to keep business going. However, her ability to use old magic may make her more sensitive to it.
Everybody loves a nice picnic.
Leslie is an actor, singer, and goofball originally from Washington. D.C. Representative Theatre: Park Square: The Diary of Anne Frank; Theatre in the Round: Godspell; Chameleon Theatre Circle: Blood Brothers; Black Market Doctor: Women’s History Month: The Historical Comedybration (with fabulous prizes); The National Theatre for Children: The Energized Guyz and the Conservation Caper. In her spare time, she plays the ukulele, drinks too much coffee, and binge-watches LOST.
What made you decide that you wanted to do this project?
Podcasts and science fiction are two of my favorite things!
Who’s your favorite character from Norse Mythology?
Odin. But I’m not as well-versed in Norse Mythology as I should be, and I’m betting there’s someone else out there for me.
What are you reading these days?
I just finished “Bad Feminist” by Roxanne Gay, and I’m thinking about picking up either Cheryl Strayed’s “Wild” or Steven King’s “11/22/63”
What’s your favorite pre-performance ritual?
Dancing around to Beyonce’s “7/11”
What’s under your bed right now?
All of my shoes. And probably a bunch of bobby pins.
Jarnsaxa Rising 
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