Hatrack River - "Lost Boys" Wins Audie Award
"Lost Boys" Wins Audie Award
June 6, 2005
During the Book Expo weekend in Manhattan, Stefan Rudnicki won the Audie award for Best Science Fiction Audio Book for his 2004 production of "Lost Boys" by Orson Scott Card.
Rudnicki both narrated and produced the unabridged recording of Card's semi-autobiographical novel about a family that faces increasingly dire problems when they move to a new city.
A previous abridged production was read by Robbie Benson. "Benson did a wonderful job," Card said after the Audie awards banquet on 3 June 2005, "but my books don't abridge well, and a good reading can't compensate for a story that really doesn't hold together because so much has been cut out."
Published by Blackstone Audio Books, with Haila Williams as executive producer and Gabrielle De Cuir & Cassandra Carr as directors, "Lost Boys" is just one of a whole series of Card's books that Rudnicki is preparing for audio release.
"I trust Stefan to do a brilliant job of every project he touches," said Card. "My fiction is written with an oral style, designed to be read aloud. Now, with Stefan Rudnicki at the helm, soon people will be able to read all my stories as they were meant to be experienced - by hearing a skilled and sensitive narrator or narrators read them aloud."
Rudnicki and Card were both present at the awards ceremony, which was emceed by Neil Gaimon at Tavern on the Green Restaurant in Central Park.
Other Audie awards were given to Jim Dale for his narration of "Peter and the Starcatchers" and to Bill Clinton's reading of his own memoir.
Noted science fiction and YA author Bruce Coville, who has committed himself to fully dramatized readings with his company Full Cast Audio, won for the book "Buddha Boy" by Kathe Koje.
As producer and, often, narrator, Rudnicki has already recorded and released dynamic new unabridged readings of Card's most popular works, including "Ender's Game," "Ender's Shadow," and the recent bestseller "Shadow of the Giant." Rudnicki's production of "Magic Street" will be released simultaneously with the print publication on 28 June 2005.
Rudnicki played a leading role in "Posing As People," a program of three one-act plays directed by Card in Los Angeles in September and October of 2004. The plays were written by Aaron Johnston, Scott Brick, and Emily Card. Johnston is currently writng the novel version of Card's short story "Malpractice" for TOR; Scott Brick and Emily Card are actors as well as playwrights. Brick is one of the nation's leading audiobook actors, and Emily Card is also active in audio narration.
The three plays, along with the short stories by Card that they were based on, were collected in a book of the same name, which also includes CDs of the performances of the plays and readings of the three stories - probably the first time such a complete package of plays, stories, and audio performances has ever been published in one package.
Most of Rudnicki's productions of Card's works include Card's voice, either in an adlibbed foreword or afterword, or as a narrator.
Card has worked in audio since the beginning of his career, having authored hundreds of fully dramatized half-hour audioplays for Living Scriptures in Ogden, Utah.
Rudnicki's award-winning performance of "Lost Boys" is currently available through Amazon.com and Barnes&Noble.com.
http://www.hatrack.com/news-reviews/news/2005-06-06.shtml
