About

Exercises in Sound is an experiment in audio storytelling, created by Alexander Danner. One short scene, re-imagined over and again, exploring how narrative is affected by changes big and small to details of design, editing, performance, music, and all the tools of narrative audio.

This project is inspired by Raymond Queneau's Exercises in Style and Matt Madden's 99 Ways to Tell a Story: Exercises in Style, which conducted similar experiments in prose and comics respectively.

Initial funding for Exercises in Sound was generously provided through grants from Hartlife NFP and Emerson College Affiliated Faculty Professional Development.

About the Hosts

Alexander Danner

Creator / Writer / Sound Designer

Alexander Danner (he/him) is a writer working in various media, including prose fiction, comics, and audio drama. He is co-creator of the serial audio drama Greater Boston. He is a script writer on the audio adaptation of the classic indie comic series ElfQuest, by Wendy and Richard Pini.

He is currently a sound designer on The Amelia Project. He was lead sound designer on What's the Frequency? and a frequent designer on Unwell: A Midwestern Gothic Mystery.

He teaches creative writing at Emerson College.

James Oliva

Director

James Oliva is a writer, podcast creator and voice actor, and the writer, director and creator of the experimental psychedelic noir podcast What's The Frequency?. His voice has appeared in many audio fiction podcasts over the past five years, most notably Greater Boston, Tides, The Pilgrimage Saga and Minefire. In addition, James is highly regarded as a maverick artist, director who is known as an "actor whisperer" and a once in a lifetime voice of a generation capable of voicing multiple generations at a time.

Jordan Higgs

Actor

Jordan Stillman

Actor

Jordan Stillman (she/her) is a Boston-based writer, editor, producer, and actor. She’s a producer of The Ordinary Epic and The Wanderer podcasts, production assistant for The Land Whale Murders, and a writer for Greater Boston. Jordan has lent her voice to the podcasts Space Ranger 421 (Raven) and Take the Mass Pike (Rose). She is the former organizer of The Massachusetts Independent Comics Expo (MICE).

Katharine Seaton

Composer

I have been a musician all my life.

After being invited to compose and direct the music for a new play in 2015, I moved into creative sound and music, focusing in particular on audio productions. I work with audio drama production companies such as Rusty Quill, Wireless Theatre Co, Dayton Writers Movement, Observer Pictures, Good Story Guild and more. My BBC Radio 4 debut was on Easter Day 2023, as composer for the radio adaptation of Ian McEwan’s novel Enduring Love produced by Flare Path Productions.

I am a proud member of Inscape Animations, a group of three women who use drawn animation with immersive sound and music to address global issues such as war, migration and climate change. We aim to explore complex ideas and challenge xenophobic narratives.

I have a first degree in music and a masters degree in music and sound for media.

Sam Twardy

Logo Artist

Sam Twardy is an illustrator and designer based in New York. She loves mint-flavored-anything, going on (easy) hikes, and her two cats Cricket & Crumpet. She is currently open for collabs with nice humans.

Represented by Closer&Closer in North America, Europe, Asia, Australia, and New Zealand