Sure, a picture may be worth a thousand words, but in some cases a sound can convey a thousand unspoken feelings. And that is the whole idea behind the notion of listening to plays and poetry vs. just reading them silently. Spoken word and audio drama continue to play a part in today's culture, but not in the same way as in their heydays. During the past few decades, the overwhelming popularity of film and television has displaced these dramatic forms.
Fans can also hear audio drama streamed, or played live, from some radio stations' Web sites.
Naturally, when technology impacts an art form so resolutely and quickly, the organizations traditionally associated with it have to scramble, and then some. Now with the advent of the Internet, the technology and the content together have become an incredible set of resources. The L.A. Theatre Works recording library, one of the largest of its kind in the world, contains an astonishing 260 full-length plays. Loewenberg is deciding exactly how she wants to take that audio library to the Web, saying only that she is making that decision. But there's a new technology twist.