Alice Isn’t Dead star Jasika Nicole
The creators of Welcome to Night Vale have a penchant for the strange and unusual.
Welcome to Night Vale has succeeded in revolutionizing what we think of as a ‘radio drama’ in 2016. No longer just a term connected to 1940’s-style, pre-TV, old-time entertainment, radio dramas are having a renaissance moment. With over 100 million downloads, sold-out live shows, and a bestselling book, Night Vale has a cult-like following. This year, creators Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor announced the launch of their own podcasting platform, Night Vale Presents, with a mission to “encourage new, independent podcasting from writers and artists who haven’t worked in the format before.” Their newest show in this network, Alice Isn’t Dead, debuted last month, and Night Vale co-creator Jeffrey Cranor is working on an original new show for the summer of 2016.
If you haven’t been listening to Alice Isn’t Dead, now is this perfect time to catch up, as the show is nearly at the halfway-point of the 10-episode series. Jasika Nicole is the starring narrator of Alice Isn’t Dead. She’s also an actress, an artist, a DIY sandal-maker, and a social justice advocate. Jasika talks about what’s happened so far on the podcast, and reflects on the differences between acting on-screen and behind a microphone:
Bello: What’s the basic premise of Alice Isn’t Dead? What’s happened so far?
JN: AID is the story of a woman driving a large 18-wheeler across the country in search of something or someone. The general premise is that she is looking for her wife, Alice, who, for some reason or another, was thought to be dead. But there is more that has been lost than the relationship that she had with Alice. The disappearance of safety, trust, comfort, protection, intimacy, purpose, these are all themes that get tackled in the show as the main character narrates her day-to-day experiences and memories over CB radio. There are time cuts and jumps from one anecdote to another and back again so that the listener has to piece the story together bit by bit. And to accompany this woman on her solo cross-country trip are gruesome characters that seem to not have her best interests in mind.
How would you describe the character that you play?
The narrator in AID is pensive and compassionate with a great sense of humor. And because she is lonely, she speaks her deepest thoughts aloud, which helps to keep her company, and to also help keep her sane. She switches between morose and cheerful moods quickly, and she describes the scenery around her with exhaustive detail, which, for the listener, helps to create a complete picture of the world she is living in.
You’re best known for your roles on-screen acting. How is playing a character in an audio drama different from acting in front of the camera?
The obvious difference between playing a character on screen and doing voiceover work is that you don’t have to concentrate on how you are emoting and articulating your intentions visually, but in turn you have to make sure that everything you are communicating gets transferred into your words, your breath, your every syllable. On film you can convey a specific feeling with a facial expression or a shift of your eyes, but on radio without an accompanying visual storyline, everything has to be transmitted through your mouth.
What podcasts are you listening to right now?
I like mostly non-fiction podcasts about the way people live their lives and experience the world. Some favorites are Death, Sex & Money, Criminal, Seamwork, and The Read.
This interview was originally written for The Podcast Broadcast in April 2016.
Originally published at podcastbroadcast.com. Written by Brittany Jezouit.
