Will Audible replace the Wednesday Play?

I’m interested by the news that Audible is going to fund emerging playwrights with a five million dollar grant to develop new voices; it reminds me a bit of the days when BBC radio was trying really hard to get new voices on the radio; this is how John Tydeman broke playwrights like Joe Orton and Tom Stoppard and Churchill and others. Will Amazon–a corporation–take on that role of patron of the arts? What does it mean if it does, rather than a public institution like the BBC or NPR or whatever? I don’t know how to feel about it, but as someone who loves radio drama and audiobooks, I’m cautiously optimistic; Tom Stoppard is on Audible’s panel of judges, so what goes around comes around I guess.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *