The Gray Area

Libromendel

During an unspecified “government transition” in the near future, the young scholar Alejandra Cortez (no relation to AOC) returns home from Rhinebeck on an extremely rainy night and stumbles into a West Village café where she was once a regular during the Second Trump Administration.  But aside from the rowdy RPG players, what happened to all the colorful eccentrics?  Why does nobody remember the history of Café Gluck aside from an overworked barista named Sporschill?  Who is the strange new owner claiming to be a “crypto king”?  And why doesn’t anybody remember the charming and eccentric old bookseller Jaime Abrego Mendel who set up shop in the adjacent card room every day?  This full-cast 332 track standalone epic examines the true human cost of removing vital figures from American life. (Running time: 54 minutes) Written, produced, and directed by Edward Champion Adapted from the short story “Buchmendel” by Stefan Zweig Original music soundtrack by Edward Champion (You can listen to the soundtrack on YouTube.  Subscribe to @finnegansache.) CAST: Alejandra:  Belgys Felix Mendel: Wolf Reigns Florian: Zack Glassman Standhartner: Sally Maitland Sporschill:  Julie Chapin Ramirez:  Melissa Medina Dirks: Luvelle Pierre Tallis: Jack Ward Becky: Emily Carding ICE Officer: Will Billingsley ICE Officer #2:  Frank Romeo Felicia/The Radio: Samantha Jo Clueless Customer: Glenn Kenny The New Yorkers: Heath Martin and Pauly Sinatra Boris: Pete Lutz DM:  Dr. Implausible The Staffers: Ella Gans and Jay Silver Victim:  Zoraya Christian Exuberant Customer: Lokia Rockwell Café Patron: Laura Spear and Edward Champion as The Assassin. This is a co-production of The Sonic Society and The Gray Area. Café songs licensed through Epidemic Audio Editing, sound design, mixing, foley recording, engineering, and mastering courtesy of an eccentric bald man in Brooklyn who buys and reads far too many books Special thanks to Jack Ward, Russ Marshalek, Laura Spear, Spacebar Recording, and Penny House Café for their incredible generosity and support during the making of this production. This production is dedicated to the many innocent and hardworking immigrants in the United States who are presently facing some of the most disturbing authoritarianism in this nation’s history, as well as the late beloved bookseller Michael Siedenberg.  

Introducing Onlychatter.com

We've just launched a bold new experiment in independent podcasting and micropayments. It's called onlychatter.com. Our creator Edward Champion outlines the details of this new venture and unveils the first episode of a new comedic investigation podcast he's producing called HOW THE WORLD MAKES US.  Please go to onlychatter.com and consider becoming a member today! For the price of a pint, you'll have instant access to 40 new episodes of lively podcasts!

An Alarming Message from Universe 224B

We've intercepted an alarming transmission from Universe 224B. Something about attending the 302nd Bureaucosmological Conference on October 16, 2021 at 7:00 PM at the Gene Frankel Theatre.  We pass this information onto you so that you can make sense of this.

13.4. Pattern Language: Mirrors of the Soul

Our intrepid heroes visit the New York Public Library to meet up with visiting literary scholar Merrill Malone, an eccentric and the foremost expert on Virginia Gaskell’s life and work, to get, once and for all, all the answers about the portals. What they don’t realize is that shocking personal revelations and the very ground beneath their feet will alter forever within the library’s seemingly pristine walls. (Running time: 55 minutes, 43 seconds.) Written, produced, and directed by Edward Champion. CAST: Chelsea: Katrina Clairvoyant Emily McCorkle: Belgys Felix Professor Malone: Robert Garson Jenna: Devony DiMattia Miss Gaskell: Chris Smith Maya: Tanja Milojevic Ed Champion: Edward Champion The Executive: Rachel Matusewicz Audrey: Amanda Rios Romero: David Ault Joe: David Sinkus The Guard: Graham Rowat and Zack Glassman as The Receptionist   Incidental music licensed through Neosounds and MusicFox. Additional music composed by Edward Champion   Sound design, editing, engineering, and mastering by a bald man in Brooklyn who clearly has some corporate identity issues to work out.   Thank you for listening!

Inside the Gray Area: "Pattern Language: An Iris for Emily"

Our showrunner Edward Champion discusses Part 3 of "Pattern Language." Subjects discussed include WandaVision, the careful balance between realism and pastiche, the Faulkner short story as a starting point, Love and Rockets, why the memory of an inspiration is often better than closely examining the source text, designing the 1970s announcer voice, using 1970s television effects to create a sound design, being careful with laugh tracks, why Carol Jacobanis is an extraordinary actor, the advantages of recording with Belgys and Carol together in the same room, an abandoned first season script set within a talk show, Eric Bogosian's Talk Radio, avoiding rehashes while writing, inverting the Neil LaBute/David Mamet formula for women, the strange Italian references throughout The Gray Area, Heath Martin, Louis CK's apology, creating walla sounds for the journalists, how Carol struck the perfect balance between realism and stylized voices, the need to know where a story is heading within five minutes, story beats, the candid dialogue, growing up in a prudish household, both-siderism vs. all sides in journalism, statements on the public record, bullies and therapy, young people who talk down at older people, the impossible behavioral ideal in the digital age, Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment, the fajita demon origin story, why Pompano made an appearance here is an NYC restaurant, fish metaphors, The Shawshank Redemption, meeting Frank Darabont as a young man, behavioral patterns and therapy, paying respectful homage to Richard Russo, the great versatility of Monica Ammerman, how a recording accident created an opportunity for greater authenticity, the Chico State backstory, how his California origins influenced the script, fluid sexuality, ghost writing, why alcoholics keep cropping up in The Gray Area, annoying the audience, animal sounds, Catholicism, why the ukulele was used in a music cue, Jeff Russo's Fargo cue, Tarantino and surf music, balancing demons and humans, Evita and fascism, Argentine history, the disadvantages of being a horror movie fan while doing sound design, beta listener feedback, arriving at natural storytelling beats, the importance of the cart sound effect, electromatter sound design, learning the keyboard and composing primitive music, the high price of music clearance, barking dogs and the "black dog" of depression, being careful with storytelling explanations, wordplay as a source of creative inspiration, double-tracking to get vocal effects, creating ethereal sounds from homegrown recording, how using a keyboard altered the sound design, the responsibility of following up on storytelling points, a minor story problem in "An Iris for Emily," Johnny as Ed's dark half, and overly dramatic performance vs. melodrama. (Running time: 30 minutes, 27 seconds.)