The You Trilogy: A Contemporary Audio Epic
Imagined in the style of the once-popular radio dramas of yore, The You Trilogy retrofits a vintage medium with a contemporary setting and outlook. The stories follow a young fiction writer through various victories, meltdowns and delusions on his quest for fame, fortune, and literary relevance.
Each of the three installments is presented as a two-act monologue accompanied by sparse sound effects and music from a Casio keyboard. The episodes were released online on the 15th of June, July and August, 2011, respectively, and are available to stream or download completely free of charge.
Find out more and listen for free at theyoutrilogy.com
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Credits:
Words & music by Paul Rome
Audio direction by Roarke Menzies
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Selected press quotes about The You Trilogy:
“Paul Rome’s The You Trilogy is a trio of what can only be called radio dramas; recorded closed studio performances in the vein of the 40’s programs that piped in through the transistors in living rooms across America, but with a modern (or perhaps post-modern) twist. […] Rome employs the old medium in order to exploit and magnify the insular nature of the contemporary late twenties/early thirties adult, with all the attendant anxieties, addictions, prescriptions and paranoia that go with trying to forge a life in these economically, politically, and culturally uncertain times. […]
The production quality of the pieces is professional and tidy, but it is the writing that dazzles; Rome’s calculated and sometimes dramatically erudite formulations, in Rome’s unassuming and quiet, yet commanding monotone, are delightful.”
- From Return of the Radio Play: The TFT Review of Paul Rome’s ‘The You Trilogy’ by Robert Tumas, The Faster Times [Read more…]
“Writers are doing amazing things on the audio sharing service SoundCloud. You can follow Penguin Books, which has a great new podcast, or fiction writers like Paul Rome, whose stories are set to music and feature a character who is bullied out of Bushwick after he writes a satirical novel about its art scene. (Our protagonist keeps getting tofu cream cheese on his bagels and suspects resentful baristas are to blame.)”
- From Staff Picks: Bookshop Door, Thinking Fast and Slow by Artie Niederhoffer, The Paris Review Daily [Read more…]
“Past live performances of Rome’s work have always been a blast […] Playing on the strengths of studio recording, these pieces are groomed and picked over, more film than theatre, the sound mixed to a sheen by collaborator Roarke Menzies. […] If Rome keeps it up, this could really affect real estate.”
- From Now Playing: The You Trilogy by Paul Cox, BushwickBK [Read more…]
“Paul authored all three parts of the story, the main character of which is You; read it; composed the music to enhance the effect […] I’m convinced that Paul must be a great musician taking into account how sensitively he composed the music to most of his audio achievements. Paul protests, insisting that he only has this huge keyboard…”
- From Paul Rome and his Cassette Player by Katarina Hybenová, Bushwick Daily [Read more…]
