An audio drama, available around the world, with a strong Chatham-Kent connection has been selected as one of the best classic audio dramas of all time.
Audible.com in the United States, an online audiobook and podcast service, has chosen a production of The Secret Garden as one of the best 20 classic audio dramas of all time.
The Secret Garden was included amongst big budget productions such as George Orwell's 1984, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Bram Stoker's Dracula, Anne of Green Gables, Little Women, The Hobbit, and others.
Executive Producer David Farquhar of Voices in the Wind Audio Theatre in Chatham told CK News Today that he and his partner Noelle Dupuis, originally from Dover Township, are thrilled with the accolade.
"I was just speechless. In a way it was surreal because when you see something that you produce and it gets this recognition...I had to read it two or three times," said Farquhar.
Farquhar noted he was honoured by the recognition and grateful for the opportunity to work with such a talented cast of actors and an accomplished production team.
"I do work with a number of local people here in Chatham-Kent. They're really good actors. They've been with me at Voices in the Wind Audio Theatre for I think about 10 years," he noted.
Georgia Lee Schultz of St. Catharines played the lead role of Mary Lennox. The other cast members included Laura Van Veen, Keith Burnett, and Bill Craven, all from Chatham, and Jan Holt from Sarnia. Other voice actors came from Toronto, New York, Texas, Chicago, and Alabama.
Farquhar said big audio productions can come from anywhere now because of technology. He noted many voice actors have home studios where they can record their roles and send them for mixing, mastering, and post-production anywhere not just big urban centres.
The Secret Garden is a story about a girl who is left orphaned when her parents are killed in an earthquake in India. She is sent back to England to live on her uncle's isolated estate where she finds a secret garden.