ABOUT JILL

Audio drama and the art of deception

I am an audio dramatist and actor living in the west of Scotland. When I was a very small child, I was thrilled by Christmas pantomimes at the Birmingham Rep; I wanted desperately to be up there onstage playing every single part. I’ve always been fascinated by storytelling through dialogue and I can remember sitting in my sandpit having imaginary conversations with characters I would make up as I went along.

Perhaps everybody does this, but maybe not all the way into adulthood. It took a while for me to take my storytelling seriously. For a decade, I worked with a small pop-up theatre group, Stark Theatre, which gave me a taste fior improvised theatre performed in cafés, community halls and basements. Finally (finally!) in 2017, I went back to university and studied for a Master’s degree in Creative Writing, focusing on audio drama, or radio plays. My work there was awarded a Distinction so all of the imaginary conversations I’d had over the years seemed finally to have paid off.

Since then, I’ve written and directed none full-length audio dramas, acting in two of them myself during lockdown because there was no-one else!  I love to study subjects from history and folklore, and to focus on a lesser known character or tiny detail which has perhaps been overlooked in the main story. Where the facts are missing, there is a gap for the writer’s imagination to fill!

I love that the listener can be transported by the clever use of voice and soundscape to medieval France, a remote Scottish beach or a busy London street. It’s all deception — in this case, a not-so-dark art.

 My sound stories roam through ideas and places that intrigue me - some are dark, sinister tales and some were written purely for fun. All of them have been brought to life by a very talented group of people: actors, musicians and producers. You can find out more about them here. I’m indebted to them all.